Deddington is a town and civil parish in Oxfordshire, England, 6 miles (10 km) south of Banbury. The parish includes two hamlets, Clifton and Hempton. The 2011 Census recorded the parish's population as 2,146.[1] It has been a market town since the 12th century.[2] One of the Hundred Rolls of King Edward I from 1275–76 records Deddington as a borough.[3]

Geography

The parish is about 3 miles (5 km) wide east–west, about 2 miles (3 km) wide north–south and has an area of about 4,246 acres (1,718 ha).[2] Watercourses bound it on three sides: The River Cherwell to the east, its tributary the River Swere to the north and the Sowbrook (i.e. "South Brook") to the south.[2] Here the Cherwell also forms the county boundary with Northamptonshire. To the west the parish is bounded by field boundaries. In the southwest of the parish, about 1 mile (1.6 km) south of Hempton, is Ilbury Iron Age hill fort, atop a hill 433 feet (132 m) high. Near the fort is the site of a deserted medieval village, also called Ilbury. In 1980 the village site was rediscovered and Medieval pottery from the 12th, 13th and 14th centuries was found.[2]

An Ordnance Survey map of 1814 of the course of the River Swere from Swerford (left) to its confluence with the Cherwell (right). Hempton, Deddington and Clifton are on the road along the southern edge of the map.

Clifton, Deddington and Hempton stand on a ridge of Jurassic ferruginous marlstone hills between the three watercourses. Clifton is about 1+12 miles (2.4 km) east of Deddington, at the eastern end of the ridge where it slopes down to the Cherwell. The ridges rises westward. Deddington is about 430 feet (130 m) above sea level. Hempton is about 1+12 miles (2.4 km) west of Deddington and about 489 feet (149 m) above sea level. The highest point of the ridge is on the western boundary of the parish, more than 490 feet (150 m) above sea level. The parish's topography is alluded to in a local rhyme:

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