BOTLEY

Botley is mainly a residential suburb of Oxford just within the Vale of White Horse, with a shopping precinct and various office buildings. It is beside the A34 at the junction with the A420.

The various large office buildings along the main road, West Way, include Seacourt Tower, known locally as "Botley Cathedral" owing to its small metal spire.

Botley was first settled in the Saxon era. Its name comes from Old English, meaning a woodland clearing of a man called Bota. Botley is actually within the parish of North Hinksey. Because the main road west out of Oxford has passed through Botley since the 16th century, development since then was centred here rather than in the nearby village of North Hinksey itself.

To the north of Botley was the lost village of Seacourt. The site of the former village is in neighbouring Wytham parish, but it is commemorated in Botley in the names of Seacourt Tower and the Seacourt Bridge public house, and the nearby Park and Ride.

The CoE church in Botley is the Church of St Peter and St Paul which was built in 1958. Other churches in Botley include a Roman Catholic Church and Botley Baptist Church.

Botley is  just west of the Oxford city boundary at the junction of the A420 with the A34.