Bed and breakfast availability
Banbury b&b, guesthouse and hotel accommodation

Visit Banbury and the surrounding villages and stay in bed & breakfast accommodation:

Banbury, Oxfordshire, is populated by about 45,000 people.

Settlents can be traced back to the Iron Age in 200 AD. The Romans inhabited the area and following this there were settlements in the Ango-Saxon age. The town's name probably came from an important Saxon man called 'Banna' who lived in the 6th century. It was recorded in the Domesday Book as "Banesberie". Banbury is at the crossing point of two ancient thoroughfares: Salt Way and Banbury Lane.

Oliver Cromwell operated out of Banbury in the English Civil War. He planned the Battle of Edge Hill in a local inn, The Reindeer, a well-frequented pub to this day.

For hundreds of years the town's prosperity was based on trade in wool (from 1268), cheese, cakes and ale. Banbury was a stagecoach stop: the Red Lion and White Lion were coaching inns.

The town's growth was assisted by the building of the Oxford Canal in 1790 and then the railways in the 1850s. Banbury rail station still runs as a commuter and tourist station: trains run between London Paddington and Birmingham via Reading, Oxford and Leamington Spa, and from London Marylebone via High Wycombe and Bicester.

Its role as a commuter town contributed to its expansion during the 1960s as did the construction of the M40 motorway between London and Birmingham. Banbury has a good bus service to the outlying villages and towns including Oxford and Rugby.

The English nursery rhyme "Ride a cock horse to Banbury Cross" refers to a cross destroyed in 1602 by Puritans. It was reckoned she might have been Lady Godiva. This event has recently been commemorated with a large bronze statue close to the present Banbury Cross.

Today, Banbury's main industries include car components, electrical goods, plastics, food processing (inc Kraft Foods and Banbury Cakes), and printing.

Colleges: Oxford and Cherwell Valley

Secondary schools: Banbury School; Blessed George Napier RC School; Drayton School
Primary schools: Dashwood, The Grange, Hardwick, Harriers Ground, Hill View, Hanwell Fields, Orchard Fields, St John's RC, St John's Priory, St Joseph's RC, St Leonard's, St Mary's, Queensway, William Morris

Parks: Bankside, Browning Road, The Easington Rec, Horton View Sports Ground, Ironstones, King's Field, The People's, Rugrats, Spiceball, St Louis Meadow, Princess Diana and Yellow Park

Wards, neighbourhoods, and suburbs: Bretch Hill, Calthorpe, Cherwell Heights, College Fields, Easington, Grimsbury, Hardwick, Hanwell Fields, Neithrop, Poet's Corner, Ruscote, Timms Estate, Queensway, Town Centre

Other areas: Oxford and Cherwell Valley College, People's Park, Beaumont Industrial Estate, Southam Road Industrial Estate, Grimsbury Reservoir, Spiceball Park, Wildmere Industrial Estate, Overthorpe Industrial Estate, Tramway Industrial Estate

Famous residents, past and present

• Anthony Burgess (novelist)
• Gordon Ramsay (chef)
• Larry Grayson (entertainer)
• Lord North (Prime Minister)
• Benjamin Geen (murderer)
• Gary Glitter, born Paul Francis Gadd (rock star and convicted paedophile)

Banbury is twinned with: Hennef, Germany; Ermont, France

Nearby towns: Bicester, Brackley, Chipping Norton, Daventry, Leamington Spa, Oxford, Shipston on Stour, Stratford-upon-Avon

Nearby villages: Middleton Cheney, Wardington, Thorpe Mandeville, Alkerton, Bloxham, Kings Sutton, Chipping Warden, Steeple Aston

Have you decided to visit Banbury or the surrounding villages? Please look above for somewhere to stay in:

• a Banbury bed and breakfast (a Banbury B&B or Banbury b and b)
• a Banbury guesthouse
• a Banbury hotel (or motel)
• a Banbury self-catering establishment, or
• other Banbury accommodation

Accommodation in Banbury:

Find availability in a Banbury bed and breakfast, also known as B&B or b and b, guesthouse, small hotel, self-catering or other accommodation.