Ambrosden

"AMBROSDEN, a parish in the hundred of Bullingdon, in the county of Oxford, 3 miles to the S.E. of Bicester, and 12 N.E. of Oxford. It includes the chapelries of Arncott and Blackthorn. It is watered by the river Ray, and the ancient Roman way from Dorchester, in the same county, passes through the parish. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Oxford, value £228, in the patronage of the trustees of the late Sir G. Page Turner, Bart. The church, dedicated to St. Mary the Virgin, is in the early English style. It stands on the site of a more ancient one, and was erected in the reign of Edward I. The rectory of this village was once held by the learned antiquary, Bishop Kennet, author of the "Parochial Antiquities" of Ambrosden, Bicester, and other places. He derives the name from the famous, but legendary, British chief Ambrosius Aurelius, who had (he says) a camp here, while the Saxons besieged Alchester. There are charities, including. the church lands, amounting to £40 per annum."

"BLACKTHORN, a chapelry in the parish of Ambrosden, hundred of Bullington, in the county of Oxford, 3 miles to the S.E. of Bicester. It is seated on the confines of Buckinghamshire, where the ancient way called Akeman Street enters the county and crosses Blackthorn Hill. The church is decayed. There are some charities of trifling value." 

[The National Gazetteer of Great Britain and Ireland (1868) Transcribed by Colin Hinson ©2003]