Nethercote Overlooked For Conservation Area Designation?

It is thought that Nethercote, near Banbury has inadvertently been overlooked for designation as a Conservation Area. Despite the hamlet being equally noteworthy as other areas carrying the designation and despite being one of the last rural areas of Banbury history, no designation of any conservation protection has been given. Conservation areas exist to protect the special architectural and historic interest of a place – in other words the features that make it unique and distinctive. 

Nethercote is a hamlet on the edge of North Oxfordshire, a semi-rural area bordering with West Northamptonshire. The hamlet sits South East of J11 of M40, lying South of the A422 and East of the M40.  An area of approximately one to two square miles, predominantly agricultural land used for grazing, a single-track road runs right through the hamlet, known as Banbury Lane, which has around a dozen residential properties along the lane. 

Banbury Lane is still often referred to as Blacklocks Hill and this refers to the history of the area and a time when this area saw a main route into Banbury, before the M40 and A422.

Originally Nethercote fell within Northamptonshire, forming part of the Warkworth Parish, along with the then hamlet of Grimsbury.  In 1889 both hamlets became part of Banbury and have since fallen within Oxfordshire. 

Warkworth is thought to have been a farming community, with Banbury’s largest flocks of sheep in the 17^th Century recorded at Grimsbury and Nethercote. None of the ridge and furrow survives in Warkworth, only on the lower areas (Nethercote). The fields in the area are medieval ridge and furrow landform. Ridge and furrow is a term used to describe the earthen ridges and troughs that are created by the action of prolonged ploughing, which caused soil to build up in regularly spaced ridges along the length of a field.  Typically, this was a method of cultivation characteristic dating back as early as the medieval period. It is commonly identified by the broad reverse s-shaped undulations that were created by an ox drawn plough, as it cut and turned the soil over. The ox team needed plenty of space to turn at the end of each furrow because, by ploughing in a slight curve, the plough could start to turn before the furrow had been completed. This enabled it to be turned and brought back around into the curve of the preceding ridge.

Although today Grimsbury and Nethercote are intertwined throughout Banbury history records; whilst the original hamlet of Grimsbury has been designated a conservation area, to date, Nethercote has not. This means that there is no protection for the countryside or the Banbury history that lies within

Home Farmhouse in Nethercote is a Grade II listed building, by this definition it is considered a building that is “of special interest, warranting every effort to preserve it. The protection however relates only to the building itself, not for its surrounding area

There are also some individual tree preservation orders on some of the Ash and Oak trees in Nethercote, seven in total. A Tree preservation order (TPO) protects trees that either make a significant visual impact on their local surroundings or have particular considered values, again the protection only applies to the trees carrying the orders, not their surrounding area