Burford Hotels – a history of the town

Part 1

Burford High Street

Burford, often referred to as the “Gateway to the Cotswolds” is situated in the valley of the river Windrush. It is one of Oxfordshire’s finest ancient market towns.
Although the markets are no longer held in its streets, Burford is still a busy trading town and very popular tourist destination. It provides shops for local villages and is a delight to the many visitors who come from all parts of the globe to visit Burford. The streets are visually appealing, with their fine and varied examples of domestic architecture.

The town was in existence by Saxon times for the name “Burford” is derived from Old English (Saxon) words. It either means “ford by the hill” from “beorg feorda” or “protected place by the ford” (referring to the early settlement enclosure) from the O1d English “burh”. The town began to grow steadily, encouraged by its position as a fording point on the river. By the time of the Domesday Book (1086), Burford consisted of at least forty households, some mills, and a church. Towards the end of the eleventh century the manor of Burford had passed into the hands of Robert Fitzhamon. Like other magnates of medieval England. Fitzhamon saw potential and that there were profits to be made from rural settlements, if their trading potential was developed correctly. A largely prosperous market town meant a share in the profits, rents and tolls for the manorial overlord. Hence Fitzhamon granted Burford its earliest known charter which established a Gild Merchant and the right to hold a market.
Thus encouraged Burford embarked on its career as a trading centre. Subsequent charters confirmed the right to the market and to fairs. As M. Sturge-Gretton points out in Burford Past and Present, Burford very quickly developed a sense of corporate identity, for by the middle of the thirteenth century a Common Seal for the town was in use and a Borough Court existed.

The Cotswold area was one of the great wool producing areas of medieval England, and Burford was inevitably connected with the wool trade, which contributed to the wealth of the town. It was not a major wool market such as Cirencester or Northleach, but nevertheless there were in the town wool merchants, clothiers and other associated wool traders such as weavers, drapers, tailored dyers, fullers and shearmen. The general aura of prosperity was reflected in the additions and alterations to the fine church in the thirteenth, fourteenth and fifteenth centuries and also in the extension of the town up the hill. Documentary evidence tells how there was some kind of house building above Sheep Street as early as the thirteenth century.

For more information and articles about Burford and its history, current events, and a deeper insight into to places to stay visit the Burford Hotels website.

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If you are interested in more about the Cotswolds visit the Cotswold Accommodation website