Botley, Oxfordshire
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Botley is a village in the civil parish of North Hinksey, just west of the Oxford city boundary in the English county of Oxfordshire (formerly Berkshire).
Botley surrounds the junction between the A34 Oxford ring road and the A420 to Swindon, and is a largely residential area with property prices ranging from relatively cheap in some places, to very expensive, in the direction of Cumnor. It includes a small local shopping centre at Elms Parade, a small retail complex containing amongst other stores Oxford's Habitat branch, the modern Church of England parish church of St Peter and St Paul, and the buildings of the Westminster Institute of Education (now part of Oxford Brookes University). The various large office buildings along the main road include Seacourt Tower, known locally as "Botley Cathedral" owing to the small metal spire atop this tall building.
Botley was first settled in Saxon times, and the name comes from Old English, meaning a woodland clearing of a man called Bota. It falls within the parish of North Hinksey, and so was historically in the county of Berkshire. Because the main road west out of Oxford passes through Botley, the major development which began in the 1930s was centred here rather than in the tiny village of North Hinksey itself, slightly further south. As well as outgrowing its original parent village, Botley has also absorbed the vanished hamlet of Seacourt, also commemorated in the name of the park and ride site.
