Draft Bicester Conservation Area Appraisal November 2009

5. Historical Images & Development5.1 Origins5.1.1 This section provides a brief historyof the development of Bicester. A moredetailed account is given in The VictoriaCounty History: A History of Oxfordshire,Vol VI (Lobel,1959). Other key sourcescan be found in the Bibliography.5.1.2 There has been a settlement at ornear Bicester since Roman times. In themiddle of the first century AD the Romansestablished and fortified the town ofAlchester at the intersection of AkemanStreet (Cirencester to St Albans) and aroad from Towcester to Dorchester, alocation approximately 1 1/2 kilometressouth of the present town. The 26 acresite was very low lying, necessitatingextensive raising of levels and drainageworks. When the Romans left in the 5thcentury their drainage system collapsedand the site reverted to marsh land. Therehave been several finds of Romano Britishpottery around the site.5.1.3 There is debate about the origin ofthe name of the town. The DomesdayBook 1086 records the town asBernecestre which means ‘the fort of thewarriors’ or ‘of Beorna’ who was believedto be an Anglo-Saxon Warlord. It ispossible that the settlement was a frontiergarrison town for the west Saxons againstthe Mercians. There is no evidence of adefended site, although it was believedlocally that earthworks may have beenfound adjacent to the River Bure atCrockwell. Others cite the Saxon forgranary (bern) and the Latin for town(ceaster) to reflect the market place. Othervariations of the name include Burincester,Burencester, Birini-Castrum, Birincestre,Burincastre. As late as 1757 it was knownas ‘Burchester otherwise BurcesterOtherwise Bissiter’ and in 1793 ‘Burcesterotherwise Bicester’, the present spellingonly becoming standard in the nineteenthcentury.John Speeds map of 16058