BICESTER  , a

market town in the Woodstock parliamentary division of Oxfordshire, England, 12 M . N.N.E. of Oxford by a branch of the London & North-Western railway . Pop. of urban district (190,) 3023 . It lies near the northern edge of the flat open plain of Ot Moor, in a pastoral country . The church of St Eadburg, the virgin of Aylesbury, is cruciform, with a western tower, and contains examples of Norman and each succeeding style . There is, moreover, in the nave a single rude angular arch considered to be Saxon . Incorporated with a farm-house, scanty Perpendicular remains are seen of an Augustinian priory founded at the close of the 12th century . Bicester has considerable agricultural trade and a brewing industry . It is a favourite hunting centre . The termination tester, commonly indicating Roman origin, does not do so here, and is perhaps copied from Alchester and Chesterton, 2 M. west of Bicester, where there is a small Roman site, probably a wayside village, at the meeting of roads from the south (Dorchester), west, north-east and east . Bicester (Berncestre, Burencestre, Bissiter), according to the Domesday survey, was held by Robert d'Oily . In 1182 Gilbert Basset founded here an Augustinian priory, which from that date until its dissolution in 1538 became the centre of the industrial life and development of the town .

In 1253

William Longspey obtained a grant of a fair at the feast of St Edburg, and a Friday market is mentioned in the 14th century . Richard II. granted a Monday market and a fair at the feast of St James the Apostle, and in 1440 an additional market was granted to be held in that part of the town called Bury-End, from this date known as Market-End . Bicester never possessed any manufactures of importance, but the fairs and markets were much frequented, and in the 16th century the cattle market was especially famous . See J . C . Blomfield, History of the Deanery of Bicester (London, 1882–1894) ; John Dunkin, History of Bicester (London, 1816) .