The borough was incorporated by acharter of 1606, under the terms of which it had its own seal, the power to buy lands and pass bye-laws, its own courts, weekly market and annual fair.
The Municipal Corporations Act of 1835 terminated the privileges of the charter and enabled the borough to appoint a mayor, four aldermen and twelve councillors.
In 1872 Chipping Norton borough became the Urban Sanitary Authority for the town. This authority was replaced under the Local Government Act of 1894 by the new Chipping Norton Urban District Council, which remained in effect until 1974.
The records of the borough were received mainly in two deposits in November 1979 and June 1981 (accession 1668), but further material came to the office in October 1994 (accession 3897). The two survey maps (BOR1/15/M/2-3) were transferred from Oxfordshire County Council's Planning Department in March 1971 (accession 1621).
The catalogue has been arranged into thirty-nine sections, mainly on a subject basis, but also trying to reflect the corporation's structure and functions.
The sections are as follows:
(1) Incorporation
(2) Corporation Property
(3) Quarter Sessions' & Manorial Courts
(4) Petty Sessions' Court
(5) Council Meetings
(6) Town Clerk
(7) Councillors
(8) Aldermen
(9) Auditors
(10) Assessors
(11) Mayor
(12) Burgesses
(13) Markets, Fairs & Tolls
(14) Bye-Laws
(15) Municipal Re-organisation
(16) Policing
(17) Poor Law
(18) Rates
(19) Finance (General)
(20) Health & Sanitation
(21) Sewage Disposal
(22) Water Supply
(23) Enclosure & Common Land
(24) Allotments
(25) Housing
(26) Municipal Buildings
(27) Electricity & Lighting
(28) Gas
(29) Education
(30) Charities
(31) Licensing & Registration
(32) Quarrying
(33) Railways
(34) Roads
(35) Cemetery
(36) War & Civil Defence
(37) British Restaurant
(38) Royalty
(39) Miscellaneous
Catalogued by Mark Priddey, August 1997, additions in September 2014