The beautiful town of Burford on the river Windrush was the site of a fortified ford in Anglo-Saxon times. The town grew to be an important crossroads and very wealthy wool town and is today very popular with visitors.
The broad main street slopes gently down to the river and is lined with dignified old houses and ancient cottages and many shops all of which appear little changed since Tudor times as witnessed by the precarious angles the buildings have come to rest at.
There are wonderful little side streets to explore, old pubs, tea and antique shops aplenty. The 15th century parish church of St. John Baptist is magnificent and is another sign of byegone riches based on wool.
ATTRACTIONS
Exploring the streets, shopping, and dining in the many pubs, restaurants, and tea shops.
Since 2001 - the Cotswold Town of Burford is Twinned with the
Italian Town Potenza Picena in the Marche region of Italy.
THE ANCIENT SLOPING COTTAGES AND HOUSES OF BURFORD
A pivotal point in the English Civil War. The king was dead,
and the future....???????
Were the soldiers who'd given up livelihood and home, lost friends
and loved ones in the 7 year war going to let the gentry grab England
for themselves? These champions of democracy sprang up with a positive
vision for life after the civil war, they were The Levellers
Hidden English History: It was May 1649, the end of the English
Civil War. A mass of troops were being disbanded in Salisbury without
pay and with little prospect of getting what they had been fighting
for. Eight hundred troops sacked their officers, elected new ones
and marched north, over several days, to Burford, with Cromwell
on their heels. Despite his promise of peaceful negotiations the
following day, Cromwell charged into the town at midnight with
2,000 horsemen.
340 of the Levellers were rounded up and imprisoned in Burford
church, where carvings from the incarcerated soldiers can still
be seen to this day.
Next morning three of the leading Leveller soldiers were summarily
executed against the church wall, where you can still see the bullet
holes.
The folloing night Cromwell was treated to a slap-up banquet
and awarded an honorary degree at Magdalen [scumbag] College Oxford.
The last thing Cromwell wanted was democracy.
If the Levellers had held Cromwell to the pledge of a democratic
army which he gave in the Solemn Engagement of New Market and Triplo
Heath in 1647.... a very different world would have been inherited
by the present generation.
May
Open-air event at Warwick Hall Garden, Burford, Oxfordshire 33rd
annual Levellers Day. Speeches, debate, procession, music www.levellers.org.uk
