Brian Robert Marshall, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Bodicote
A large village 2 miles south of Banbury Cross, now joined to the town's southern edge, with a long High Street, a Grade II* ironstone church and the Plough. Somewhere to stay near Banbury or stop for a pint, not a sight in itself.
- Nearest station
- Banbury, about 2 miles, then the B3 bus, which calls at the station forecourt and Bodicote
- Parking
- We found no public car park in the village. Park with care off the High Street
About Bodicote
Bodicote lies just west of the Oxford road, 2 miles south of Banbury Cross, and its new housing now meets the town's. The old village is a long High Street with small lanes running off it, once of stone and thatch, now mixed with brick and modern building. It has a church, a pub and good buses, and that is the honest list.
What to see in Bodicote
St John the Baptist's in Church Street is listed Grade II* and built of coursed ironstone. Its chancel arch is thirteenth century and the nave arcades fourteenth, but much of what you see is the remodelling of 1844 by John Plowman and H. J. Underwood, who added the battlemented west tower. Look in the north chancel window for fragments of medieval glass, and at the east window, by W. Holland of Warwick and dated 1847. In the churchyard, several headstones of the late seventeenth century are listed in their own right. We found no published opening hours.
Along the High Street, Broughton House and Paddock Farm are seventeenth-century buildings modernised in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and Bodicote House is mentioned in a deed of 1722. They are private, seen from the street.
An hour in Bodicote
Walk the High Street to the church and back, and finish at the Plough. For a better village and a far grander church, go on 2 miles south to Adderbury and St Mary's, on the same S4 bus.
Walks from Bodicote
We found no council or parish leaflet for a walk from Bodicote itself. The nearest walk we publish starts in Adderbury: Adderbury and Bloxham Grove.
Food and drink
The Plough on the High Street is a Wadworth pub with real ales, a garden, a pub menu and Sunday roasts, near where the village's medieval cross once stood. The Horse and Jockey on Malthouse Lane, once the White Hart, is a drinkers' pub and home to the village's Aunt Sally and darts teams, CAMRA reports; ring first. The old Baker's Arms in Church Street, beside the church, reopened in August 2026 as an Indian restaurant and bar, CAMRA reports. Banbury's restaurants are a short bus ride away.
The Banburyshire newsletter
Events, new places and the best of the season, about once a month. Unsubscribe at any time.
When to come
Bodicote has no season of its own. It is most useful as a base for Banbury's events, such as the Michaelmas Fair in October or the Banbury Show in mid-June, when rooms in the town fill and the B3 and S4 run into the centre.
Last verified 11 November 2026 by our editors
Things to do in Bodicote
Historic houses and heritage · Banbury
Tooley's Historic Boatyard
A working dry dock and forge on the Oxford Canal in Banbury, in use since 1778 and now hemmed in by Castle Quay. Small museum in the chandlery, Saturday boat trips in summer, and blacksmith courses. A scheduled monument and the start of Tom Rolt's Narrow Boat.
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Banbury Museum and Gallery
Museums and galleries · Banbury
Banbury's free town museum, on the Oxford Canal with an entrance in Castle Quay: Bronze Age finds, a cannon from Banbury Castle, plush cloth and a canal gallery, with paid touring exhibitions and a canalside café.
Family-friendly · Rainy days · Car-free
Verified Nov 2026
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Broughton Castle
Historic houses and heritage · Broughton
A moated medieval manor house near Banbury, turned into an Elizabethan mansion by the Fiennes family, tied to the opposition to Charles I and seen in Shakespeare in Love and Wolf Hall. Open on Wednesday and Sunday afternoons, April to September.
Dog-friendly · Walker-friendly
Verified Nov 2026
Where to eat and drink in Bodicote
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The Plough, Bodicote
Pubs
A Wadworth village pub on Bodicote High Street, about two miles south of Banbury centre, with real ales, a garden, a pub menu with small plates and sourdough sandwiches, and Sunday roasts.
Dog-friendly · Family-friendly
Verified Nov 2026
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The Red Lion, Adderbury
Pubs · Adderbury
A Grade II listed Greene King pub and inn on The Green at Adderbury, serving food from breakfast to 9pm every day, with a car park, a beer garden and rooms.
Dog-friendly · Family-friendly
Verified Nov 2026
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The Bell Inn, Adderbury
Pubs · Adderbury
Adderbury's traditional Hook Norton inn on the High Street, near St Mary's Church, with a suntrap garden, curry on Tuesdays, sourdough pizza on Fridays and stuffed Yorkshires on Sundays.
Dog-friendly
Verified Nov 2026
Walks in and around Bodicote
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Adderbury and Bloxham Grove
Walk · Starts in Adderbury · 1 hr, 30 mins · Circular
A 3.1-mile (5.1km) circular walk from the Methodist church in East Adderbury, about an hour and a half of easy walking with stiles. Field paths lead to Bloxham Grove and its small windmill, down to Lower Grove Mill on the Sor Brook, and back to The Green.
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Banbury Ironstone Heritage Walk
Walk · Starts in Banbury · 4 hrs · Circular
The Banbury Ironstone Heritage Walk is a 9.6-mile (15.5km) moderate circular walk from Banbury station, about four hours with 180m of climbing. It follows the canal, skirts the northern estates, reaches Wroxton and North Newington, and ends at Banbury Cross.
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Broughton Road to Wroxton Obelisk Circular
Walk · Starts in Broughton · 2 hrs · Circular
A 4.5-mile (7.3km) circular walk from the car park on Broughton Road, about two hours of moderate walking on field paths. It crosses the Sor Brook, climbs to the Wroxton Obelisk and returns by the other bank. It does not go through Broughton or past the castle.
Sights in and around Bodicote
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Warriner Windmill, Bloxham Grove
Sight · Historic building · Bloxham
A small timber post mill on the high ground at Bloxham Grove, between Bloxham and Adderbury, built in 1865 by the engineer Henry Warriner as a memorial to all windmills. Grade II, with its machinery intact. On farmland, not open, and seen from a footpath nearby.
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St Mary's Church, Adderbury
Sight · Church · Adderbury
Adderbury's Grade I church, with a stone spire, a frieze of medieval musicians and grotesques round its aisles, and a chancel built by Richard Winchcombe for New College, Oxford. Open daily and free to look round.
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Adderbury House
Sight · Historic building · Adderbury
A private house in Adderbury and what is left of a mansion of the Earls of Rochester and the Dukes of Argyll and Buccleuch. Most of it was pulled down in 1808, and it was enlarged again after 1891. Grade II and not open. Its old water is now the public Adderbury Lakes.
Getting to Bodicote
- By bus
- Stagecoach S4, Banbury to Oxford, runs through Bodicote about hourly, every 90 minutes on Sundays. The B3 runs every 30 minutes on weekdays and Saturdays and hourly on Sundays (November 2026).
- By train
- Banbury station is about 2 miles away. The B3 calls at the station forecourt and Bodicote.
- By car
- About 2 miles from Banbury Cross, off the A4260 Oxford road.
- Parking
- No public car park that we found. Park with care off the High Street.
- Access
- We have not checked access along the High Street or at the church's entrance.
Places near Bodicote
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BanburyNorth Oxfordshire's working market town, on the River Cherwell and the Oxford Canal, about an hour from Marylebone. Come for the Cross, the Thursday and Saturday market, the old inns of Parsons Street, the free museum and Tooley's Boatyard.
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AdderburyA large ironstone village 3 miles south of Banbury, split in two by the Sor Brook. It has a fifteenth-century chancel the county history singles out, morris dances now performed by sides all over the world, a small nature reserve and several pubs.
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BloxhamA big ironstone village on the Chipping Norton road, 3 miles from Banbury, with a 60m church spire you can see for miles, William Morris glass, a free village museum at weekends and a medieval tangle of lanes behind the High Street.
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BroughtonA small village 2.5 miles from Banbury that exists in the shadow of its moated castle. Come on a castle open afternoon, walk the park on most other days, and add the Broughton Grange gardens on a Wednesday. The village pub has shut.