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Chipping Warden
A village 6 miles north-east of Banbury that once had a market to rival the town's, with a Grade I church, thatched cottages, a wartime airfield and the battlefield of Edgcote on its doorstep. The Griffin Inn is the pub, and HS2 runs by in a tunnel.
- Nearest station
- None. Banbury, about 7 miles by road, then the 200 bus
- Parking
- The Griffin Inn has a car park for its customers. Otherwise park with care on the village streets
- Best time
- A dry day for the Edgcote battlefield walk, starting and ending at the Griffin
- When it's busy
- The A361 here is the Banbury to Daventry road, and the council and HS2 post closures: it was shut from 5 to 8 November 2026. Check the parish council's notices before you drive.
- Toilets
- None that we could find. The church is usually locked
About Chipping Warden
Chipping Warden is a village of about 540 people, by the parish council's 2011 figure, about 6 miles north-east of Banbury on the A361, with the River Cherwell along its edge. The 'Chipping' is a market, and in the thirteenth century this one worried Banbury. Today it is a quiet place with a big church, thatched cottages facing it, a pub, and a great deal of history in the fields round about.
What to see in Chipping Warden
The church of St Peter and St Paul is listed Grade I, and its size goes back to the market's wealth. It has late thirteenth-century beginnings but is mostly of the fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries, in coursed ironstone, with a four-stage pinnacled tower and an eight-light east window. Inside are a brass to William Smarte, rector, who died in 1468, another to William Makepiece, who died in 1584, and his wife, a wall monument to Edward Bathurst of 1668, seventeenth-century screens in the aisles and an aumbry inscribed 1627.
The east window's glass is by Christopher Whall, of 1903, and the church's entry on the National Churches Trust credits G. Christopher Carter and Owen Little with an Arts and Crafts refit that kept the raised west-end pews and the painted Hanoverian Royal Arms. The same entry says the church is normally locked, so contact it to arrange a visit. Near the church is the base of the old market cross.
Arbury Banks, near the village, is an Iron Age hillfort and a scheduled monument. The county's older record says ploughing has made its earthworks hard to trace, and we found no public access, so it is a name on the map rather than a sight.
Edgcote, the battle of 1469
In late July 1469 (the parish council gives 26 July, the Northamptonshire Battlefields Society 24 July) a rebel army under the shadowy 'Robin of Redesdale', on its way to join the Earl of Warwick, met the Earl of Pembroke's mostly Welsh force near Edgcote, just north-east of the village. The parish council's account says Pembroke held Edgcote Hill but was forced down onto Danesmoor, and that when more rebels came up from Culworth his men took them for Warwick's vanguard and broke. Pembroke was executed and Edward IV was soon a prisoner. Where the rebels first stood is uncertain, the council says. The Battlefields Trust suggests a loop of 5 to 6 miles from Chipping Warden on rights of way, which takes at least three to four hours. For the battles here in the 1640s, see the Civil War in Banburyshire.
The airfield and the railway
RAF Chipping Warden opened in 1941 as a Bomber Command operational training unit. The parish council records that on 1 December 1942 a Wellington crashed on take-off into the control tower and hangars, killing two people, and a memorial on the drive to Edgcote House remembers the crew of another Wellington that came down on 18 April 1945.
The newest landmark is out of sight. HS2 runs past the village in a green tunnel about 2.5km long, built in a cutting and then buried so that the line disappears under fields. HS2 opened a relief road to take traffic out of the village in 2022, and in October 2025 the A361 was realigned over the first section of the tunnel. HS2 says the last of its 5,020 concrete segments went in on 3 July 2026, joining the two halves, and the tunnel is now being covered with backfill and landscaped.
A day from Chipping Warden
Pick up the battlefield leaflet at the Griffin Inn, walk the Edgcote loop in the morning and come back for lunch. In the afternoon, drive the 3 miles to Culworth for its castle earthwork and the story of the highwaymen, or south to Cropredy and its bridge, where the next war was fought. The parish council also describes a 20-mile Battlefields Trail from Chipping Warden to Kineton, linking Edgcote, Cropredy Bridge and Edgehill.
Food and drink in Chipping Warden
The Griffin Inn on Culworth Road is a Marston's local, open every day, with a beer garden, a car park with electric charging, and live sport. Its site lists no kitchen hours, so ring before you come to eat.
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When to come to Chipping Warden
Any dry spell suits the battlefield walk, which crosses fields on rights of way. Check the parish council's site for road closures before you set out, because the A361 and the lanes are closed from time to time for HS2 and council works.
Last verified 11 November 2026 by our editors
Things to do in Chipping Warden
Historic houses and heritage
Farnborough Hall
A Palladian house north of Banbury, still lived in by the Holbech family and run with the National Trust, with a raised terrace walk to an obelisk. A few rooms and the grounds open from April to September. Closed until 7 April 2027.
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Sulgrave Manor
Historic houses and heritage · Sulgrave
The Tudor manor house built by George Washington's English ancestors, in Sulgrave north east of Banbury, and a museum of the Anglo-American link since 1921. Open Sundays to Tuesdays in season, walk-ins welcome. Closed for the winter until March 2027.
Family-friendly
Verified Nov 2026
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Canons Ashby
Historic houses and heritage
The Dryden family's Elizabethan manor house in south Northamptonshire, with painted rooms, Jacobean plasterwork and terraced gardens, beside the surviving church of a medieval priory. National Trust, north east of Banbury.
Dog-friendly
Verified Nov 2026
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The National Herb Centre, Warmington
Parks and gardens
A plant centre at Warmington, near Banbury, growing culinary and medicinal herbs, fruit and native wildflowers, most of them on site in peat-free compost, with a café bistro, a play area and nature trails.
Verified Nov 2026
Where to eat and drink in Chipping Warden
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The Griffin Inn, Chipping Warden
Pubs
A Marston's village local at Chipping Warden, north-east of Banbury, with cask ales, a beer garden, a car park with accessible spaces, electric car charging and live sport.
Dog-friendly · EV charging
Verified Nov 2026
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The Hare and Hounds, Wardington
Pubs
A Hook Norton pub on Edgcote Lane in Wardington, near Cropredy, with a large beer garden suited to small children and courtyard tables. Booking is advised for the Sunday roast. Camper vans stay free in the car park if you book in for a meal.
Family-friendly
Verified Nov 2026
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Greenhouse Cafe, Wardington
Cafes and tearooms
The café at Barn Farm Plants garden centre, Upper Wardington, near Banbury, serving homebaked cakes and freshly made food with indoor and outdoor seating, on the Jurassic Way and beside an antiques centre.
Family-friendly · Walker-friendly
Verified Nov 2026
Sights in and around Chipping Warden
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Arbury Banks, Chipping Warden
Sight · Hill fort or barrow · Chipping Warden
The low bank of a probable Iron Age enclosure, and the ridge and furrow around it, on a hill south-west of Chipping Warden. A scheduled monument on private farmland, mostly ploughed, seen from public footpaths nearby.
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Cropredy Bridge battlefield
Sight · Monument · Cropredy
The registered battlefield of 29 June 1644, where Charles I's army beat Sir William Waller's across the Cherwell meadows at Cropredy. Farmland now, seen from the bridge, public footpaths and the Battlefields Trust's trail.
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Cropredy Bridge
Sight · Bridge · Cropredy
The bridge over the River Cherwell at Cropredy, north of Banbury, where a royalist army beat Sir William Waller on 29 June 1644. This is a 1937 rebuild faced in old Hornton stone, with an inscription on its south side. Free to see at any time.
Getting to Chipping Warden
- By bus
- Stagecoach's 200, Banbury to Daventry, calls here roughly hourly Monday to Saturday, through Grimsbury, Williamscot and Wardington. We found no Sunday journeys.
- By car
- About 7 miles from Banbury by road, about 13 minutes, up the A361. Check for HS2 closures first.
- By train
- No station. Banbury, then the 200 bus.
- Parking
- The Griffin Inn's car park is for customers. Otherwise park with care in the village.
- Access
- We have not checked access. The Battlefields Trust says its walk round Edgcote has some steep sections, on rights of way.
Places near Chipping Warden
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CropredyA canal village on the Cherwell, about 4 miles north of Banbury, known for Fairport's Cropredy Convention each August and the 1644 battle at its bridge. Outside festival weekend it is quiet, with a fine church and the Brasenose Arms.
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ByfieldA village of about 1,300 on the A361 between Banbury and Daventry, with a Grade I church, a 65-acre reservoir half a mile off and the hall where Sandy Denny played her last gig. A good stop on the way to Badby Woods, and the way to the Edgcote battlefield.
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CulworthA village on the old Welsh Way, 7 miles north-east of Banbury, with a Norman castle ringwork beside its church and the story of the Culworth Gang, highwaymen hanged in 1787. A pub, a café and a butcher's, and Sulgrave a mile and a half away.
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EydonA planned medieval village of two long ironstone streets on high ground north-east of Banbury, with a Norman font in its church, a Grade I Georgian hall next door, a pub, a farm shop and a mummers' play at Christmas.