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Banburyshire
A brick lock cottage and garden reflected in a still canal, with mist over the lock gates and towpath

Stephen McKay, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Cropredy

A 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.

Nearest station
Banbury, about 4 miles south, then a taxi or a bus; buses to Cropredy are few outside festival week
Parking
No public car park in the council or parish listings, so street parking only. On festival weekend, the festival's own car parks charge £15
Best time
A dry weekday between spring and autumn, for the towpath
When it's busy
Festival weekend in August (12 to 14 August in 2027), when the fields fill and the canal moorings go early. Any other week the village is quiet.
Toilets
None in the council or parish listings. The festival site has its own, including accessible toilets, on festival weekend
Dogs
At the festival, dogs stay on a lead at all times and owners clean up after them.

About Cropredy

Cropredy sits between the River Cherwell and the Oxford Canal, about 4 miles north of Banbury, with 736 residents at the 2021 census. Most people search for it because of Fairport's Cropredy Convention , the folk-rock festival held here each August since the 1970s. The rest come for the canal, or for the bridge where Charles I's army beat Sir William Waller's in 1644.

Fairport's Cropredy Convention: dates and tickets

The next festival runs from Thursday 12 to Saturday 14 August 2027, according to the organisers, who hold it over the second full weekend of August. The line-up is due at 2pm on Friday 4 December 2026, and tickets go on sale at 10am on Monday 7 December 2026.

The festival's own FAQs give the 2027 prices as £250 for the three days and £90 for ages 12 to 17, with a £2 handling charge per order. Under 12s go free with a ticket-buying adult. Tickets can't be exchanged or refunded, and the festival has sold out before, in 2007, 2014 and 2017. Music runs from 4pm to 11pm on Thursday and from midday to midnight on Friday and Saturday.

Cropredy camping and parking

Camping is charged per vehicle, not per person: £65 for the weekend on the festival's current FAQs, with tents included and every camper needing a concert ticket. Bikers and backpackers camp free with their tickets. One sticker covers a vehicle's occupants, usually up to six.

The campsites open at 7am on the Thursday and must be clear by 2pm on Sunday. The FAQs warn of fines for parking on Williamscot Road before the gates open. There is no electric hook-up except on Broad Meadow Glamping Field, which opens first and sells four-night stays through Brookbell Tents. Gas barbecues are allowed and solid-fuel ones are not. Non-campers can use the Williamscot Road car park or Field 7c, £15 for the weekend.

Stagecoach has run an extra Banbury to Cropredy bus at festival time, and the organisers publish the timetable when it is ready. For 2026 they posted one, with fares of £6 for adults and £4 for children each way. Check the 2027 timetable before relying on it, then use Banbury station for Chiltern and CrossCountry trains. Beds in the village are few, so look in Banbury too, at places such as Whately Hall.

A festival crowd in folding chairs and sun hats before a blue stage, with flags flying and a band playing
Fairport's Cropredy Convention in August Photo: Les Hull, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

What to see in Cropredy

Three things are worth your time: the bridge, the canal and the church. They sit close together, so an hour or two covers them. We found no visitor centre or battlefield museum in the village, and the battle's story is told by one panel at the bridge.

Cropredy Bridge has been completely rebuilt, so nothing you can touch dates from the battle, but it is still where a visit starts. The Battlefields Trust has put an interpretation panel there. Read the full story in the Civil War in Banburyshire.

St Mary the Virgin, down a narrow lane in the middle of the village, is listed Grade I and mostly fourteenth century, in squared ironstone. Look for the tall nave arcades, fragments of a painted Last Judgement over the chancel arch, a thirteenth-century chest with decorative ironwork, and the rare pre-Reformation brass eagle lectern. There is a memorial to Richard Crossman, the MP and diarist, who lived at the manor and died in 1974. We could not confirm the opening times, so check the church's page first.

On the canal, Cropredy Lock is just north of the bridge, and Cropredy Marina, whose first basin opened in 2013 and which has 249 berths by the festival's count, lies about half a mile beyond the bridge. For the working history of this canal, go on to Tooley's Historic Boatyard in Banbury.

An ironstone church with a battlemented tower and south porch, old headstones in long grass under a heavy sky
St Mary the Virgin, Cropredy Photo: Andrew Abbott, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

A morning in Cropredy

Start at the church, then walk down to the canal bridge. Read the panel, take the towpath north to the lock and back, and finish with lunch at the Brasenose Arms, by the road junction near the bridge.

Walks from Cropredy

The festival's guide describes two short towpath strolls from the bridge: north to Cropredy Lock, or south on a circle that comes back by a footpath at the next bridge. The towpath carries on south to Banbury, about 4.5 miles away. For the battlefield, the Battlefields Trust says rights of way cross much of the ground, with good overviews from the hills near Bourton and Williamscot, and it offers a leaflet for a trail linking Cropredy with Edgehill and Edgcote. Its map is OS Explorer 206. Stay off the A361 at Hay's Bridge, where the Trust warns of heavy, fast traffic and little verge.

Food and drink in Cropredy

The Brasenose Arms on Station Road opens from 11.30am to 10.30pm, Monday to Saturday, and to 10pm on Sunday, and has four B&B (bed and breakfast) rooms. That is plenty for a visit and not much on festival weekend. For more choice, see the best pubs near Banbury. The Red Lion on Red Lion Street is the village's other pub. CAMRA lists it as open, so ring first on 01295 758680.

When to come to Cropredy

Come on festival weekend if you have a ticket, and on any other weekend if you want the village quiet. Without a ticket you may still hear music from the village, though the Brasenose's Fringe was a ticketed event in 2026. The battle's anniversary is 29 June. On the Sunday after the festival, the organisers' guide lists a church service and a match between Fairport and the village cricket team.

Last verified 11 November 2026 by our editors

  • A brick canal bridge reflected in green water, with the white-painted village stores above it
  • A long thatched ironstone cottage behind a picket fence and a stone wall, with flowers along the path
  • Narrowboats on the Oxford Canal in summer, canoeists by the towpath and a brick boatyard on the far bank
  • Ironstone houses beside a small green under a big spring sky, with a magnolia in flower in a front garden
  • Moored narrowboats and a canalside shelter reflected in still water, under bare trees in mist

Things to do in Cropredy

See all
A symmetrical honey-brown Palladian house across a round lawn and a wide gravel sweep under a clear sky

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.

  • Labelled beds of sage and mint in front of an ironstone barn and greenhouses

    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

  • The red shopfront entrance to Banbury Museum & Gallery inside Castle Quay, a shopper walking past

    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

  • A traditional narrowboat moored at the historic brick workshops of Tooley's Boatyard along the Oxford Canal in Banbury

    Tooley's Historic Boatyard

    Historic houses and heritage · Banbury

    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.

    Car-free

    Verified Nov 2026

Where to stay in Cropredy

See all
  • A brick and ironstone pub under a slate roof on a wet road at dusk, a pink and white horsebox parked to the left

    The Brasenose Arms, Cropredy

    Pubs · Cropredy

    A 17th-century inn on Station Road in Cropredy, with four refurbished bed and breakfast rooms, a bar and garden, and its own music fringe alongside Fairport's Cropredy Convention each August. The pub says it is the only one in the country with the name.

    Verified Nov 2026

  • The Three Pigeons sign on a thatched ironstone wall hung with baskets of flowers

    The Three Pigeons, Banbury

    Pubs · Banbury

    A Grade II listed 17th-century inn, partly thatched, on Southam Road, Banbury, with real ales and ciders, a courtyard, Smash Cow street food from Thursday to Saturday and three en-suite rooms.

    Dog-friendly · Car-free

    Verified Nov 2026

  • The gabled golden stone front of Whately Hall with flags over the door, steps and a clipped hedge

    Whately Hall Hotel, Banbury

    Hotel · Banbury

    A Grade II listed 17th-century inn, now a 71-room hotel on Horse Fair in the middle of Banbury, with gardens, an oak-panelled restaurant and six EV chargers.

    Dog-friendly · Family-friendly · Wedding venues

    Verified Nov 2026

Where to eat and drink in Cropredy

See all
  • A long pub with a cream end, a blue upper storey and ironstone below, a lawn in front under a deep blue sky

    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

  • A large dark barn with a sign above a wide forecourt, greenhouses and parked cars beyond

    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

  • An ironstone pub front with a wisteria trained around an arched doorway

    The George and Dragon, Chacombe

    Pubs

    A family-run village pub at Chacombe, north-east of Banbury and close to Middleton Cheney, with a private lounge for up to 40 and live music. It serves lunch and supper from Wednesday, closes on Mondays, and on Tuesdays is drinks only.

    Verified Nov 2026

Walks in and around Cropredy

All walks starting here
  • A narrow surfaced path running between a hedge and a field edge, a large bare tree ahead in low winter sun

    Banbury Fringe Circular Walk

    Walk · Starts in Banbury · 5 hrs · Circular

    A 10.6-mile (17.1km) waymarked circular walk round the edge of Banbury, moderate and about five hours: the Oxford Canal south to Bodicote, the Salt Way past Crouch Hill, field and wood paths by Giant's Cave, and an old ironstone railway back to the canal.

  • An ironstone gable with a Banbury Road sign, the road dipping past a stone wall into the village

    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.

Sights in and around Cropredy

All sights
  • A white rail and a grass verge along the old parapet of Cropredy Bridge, the Cherwell below and the lane running on into mist

    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.

  • A flat green meadow behind a hedge, with a line of trees and distant farm buildings on the far side

    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.

  • 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.

Stories about Cropredy

All stories
  • A festival crowd in folding chairs and sun hats before a blue stage, with flags flying and a band playing

    Cropredy camping guide: the fields, the village and the canal

    Story · Guides · 11 minute read

    An independent guide to camping at Fairport's Cropredy Convention: stickers and prices, arrival, which field takes what, glamping, sites nearby, tickets, the village, the canal and getting there, from the organisers' own pages.

  • A small brick forge with a green door beside the modern Castle Quay buildings

    How the Oxford Canal came to Banbury, and stopped there for 12 years

    Story · History · 7 minute read

    The Oxford Canal was planned in a Banbury inn in 1768, and the first coal boats reached the town on 30 March 1778. Then the money ran out, and Banbury was the end of the line for almost 12 years. How it happened, who paid, and what is left to see.

  • Broughton Castle across its moat and parkland, cattle grazing in the foreground

    The Civil War in Banburyshire: Edgehill, Cropredy and Banbury's sieges

    Story · History · 7 minute read

    Banburyshire saw the Civil War's first great battle at Edgehill in 1642, a Royalist win at Cropredy Bridge in 1644 and two sieges of Banbury Castle. By 1648 the castle had been pulled down. Banbury lost hundreds of its people, and this is how it happened.

History of Cropredy

Cropredy's place in the record comes from one day. On 29 June 1644 Sir William Waller's Parliamentarians made an opportunistic strike at Charles I's army while it was strung out on the march. The key points were the bridge here, Hay's Bridge to the north and Slat Mill Ford to the south. The Royalists drove them back, and the Battlefields Trust puts Parliament's losses at about 700 men, deserters included, against few for the Royalists. Waller's army fell apart in the days that followed. The battlefield is on Historic England's register of battlefields.

The story goes that the church's brass lectern was hidden in the Cherwell before the battle, to keep it from Parliament's troops, and stayed there some 50 years. That is village tradition: the Victoria County History says only that the lectern had certainly reappeared by 1695. The Oxford Canal was completed to Cropredy and Banbury in 1778. The festival, a Fairport Convention gathering, has been held here every year since the 1970s.

Questions about Cropredy

When is the Cropredy festival in 2027?

Fairport's Cropredy Convention runs from Thursday 12 to Saturday 14 August 2027, according to the organisers. The line-up is due at 2pm on Friday 4 December 2026, with tickets on sale at 10am on Monday 7 December 2026 from the festival's own website.

How much are Cropredy festival tickets and camping?

A three-day ticket for 2027 costs £250, or £90 for ages 12 to 17, and under 12s go free with a ticket-buying adult. Camping on the festival's current FAQs is £65 per vehicle for the weekend, and every camper needs a concert ticket as well.

Can you get to Cropredy without a car?

Yes, on festival weekend, and less easily at other times. Trains run to Banbury, and the organisers say buses run from there to Cropredy during the festival. Other weeks, taxis are the practical choice, because the three regular buses we found in November 2026 ran only once a week each.

Is there anything to see of the Battle of Cropredy Bridge?

Yes, though it is mostly open farmland. The bridge has been completely rebuilt, but it carries a Battlefields Trust panel, and rights of way cross much of the ground. The hills near Bourton and Williamscot give the best overviews, according to the Trust.

Can you moor at Cropredy for the festival?

Yes, but you can't book. The organisers say boat owners should arrive early, since moorings go on a first come basis. There is no camping charge if you arrive by narrowboat and the boat stays in the canal, and you still need a concert ticket to go in.

Is Cropredy worth visiting outside the festival?

Yes, for a morning or a canal walk, though not for a whole day. The bridge, the lock and St Mary's church take an hour or two, and the Brasenose Arms covers food. Combine it with Banbury, which is about 4 miles south.

Getting to Cropredy

By train
Banbury is the nearest station, with Chiltern trains from London Marylebone and Birmingham Moor Street, and CrossCountry. Cropredy is then about 4 miles by taxi or bus.
By bus
Few buses: in November 2026 the 498 ran one return on Tuesdays, the 497 on Thursdays and the 501 on Saturdays, timed for a late morning in Banbury. Extra buses run at festival time.
By car
From Banbury, about 4 miles north by way of the Bourtons. On festival weekend, follow the festival's signs and do not wait on Williamscot Road before 7am on the Thursday.
Parking
No public car park in the listings we checked. On festival weekend use the Williamscot Road car park or Field 7c, £15 for the weekend.
By boat
The Oxford Canal runs through, with Lock No 25 by Wharf Bridge No 153. Festival moorings can't be booked. The lock was shut for winter works in November 2026, so check the Trust's notices.
Access
The festival has a viewing platform for up to 18 wheelchair users with carers, accessible toilets in the arena and on Field 6, which is kept for disabled campers, and scooter hire through Event Mobility. Village paths and the towpath are not yet checked.
Map of Cropredy
© OpenStreetMap contributors

Places near Cropredy

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