Burford Tourist Information
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Burford Tourist Information Guide

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The Tolsey

Among the half-timbered buidings you will find the town's museum, The Tolsey, an early Tudor building on stone pillars. In times gone bye Wool Merchants would meet in the open space underneath and conduct their trading transactions. Above there are two small rooms of exhibits which tell of the trades that once flourished, from bell-founding and brewing , to leatherworking and clarinet making. The museum is open every year from April to October, afternoons Tuesday to Sunday.

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1649: The testimony of the Burford Levellers

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 following night Cromwell was treated to a slap-up banquet and awarded an honorary degree at Magdalen 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 (every year)

Open-air event at Warwick Hall Garden, Burford, Oxfordshire - Annual Levellers Day.
Speeches, debate, procession, music. See our Cotswolds Calendar for details of the current year event.

The Parish Church of St John the Baptist

The interesting church dates largely from the 15th century. The church has a Norman tower capped by a slender 15th century spire. Lengthy restoration of the church took place in the 1870's bringing criticism from William Morris. The vicar at the time responded -

" the church Sir is mine, and if I choose to I shall stand on my head in it'.

This inspired William Morris to establish ths Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings.

The church was chosen as one of the top 20 by Simon Jenkins in his England's Thousand Best Churches.

Burford Parish Church of St. John the Baptist

Burford Tourist Information Guide
Cotswolds England UK