FRINGFORD

The pretty little village of Fringford lies in a loop of a tributary of the little River Great Ouse. Fringford is lucky to have no through traffic as the road into and through the village is a cul de sac.

On entering the village along Main Street first you pass the village cricket ground, next to the pub, and then you come to a very pleasant green. Main Street, with attractive grass verges, leads on through the village towards the church, and beyond that on the edge of the village is the manor house.

There are several pretty thatched cottages in the village, and the village pump in Main Street has a pretty thatched roof.

The parish church is the Grade II listed Church of St. Michael and All Angels which stands on the site of an early Saxon wooden building. The earliest part of the present stone church dates from the early 12th century. In the North Aisle there is a large wall painting which dates from 1902 and which was restored in 2003. The church was largely rebuilt in the 19th century. Full details about the Church of St. Michael and All Angels can be found here.

The novelist Flora Thompson spent her childhood and early life in Fringford and the nearby hamlets of Juniper Hill and Cottisford which are a little to the north of Fringford. In her trilogy Lark Rise to Candleford she recalls her childhood in Juniper Hill (Lark Rise) and at school in Cottisford (Fordlow) before moving to Fringford (Candleford Green) where she worked in the village post office from 1891 to 1897. Her fictitious town of Candleford is thought to be a combination of the nearby towns Banbury, Bicester and Buckingham.

Fringford is about 4 miles north-east of Bicester.