Woodstock is 8 miles north-west of Oxford and to the east of Blenheim Park, and was incorporated as a borough in 1453. A municipal borough was created in 1886, which comprised the old borough, part of Hensington township in Bladon parish, the Union workhouse at Hensington House, about 51 acres of Wootton, and Old Woodstock. Under the terms of the Local Government Act of 1894, Wootton and Hensington separated into individual civil parishes called Old Woodstock and Hensington Within.
Under local government re-organisation in 1974, Woodstock became part of West Oxfordshire District.
For further information on administrative and boundary changes see The Victoria County History of Oxfordshire, vol XII, (Oxford University Press, 1990), which contains a wealth of information on Woodstock and its history.
The borough's records were deposited by Woodstock Town Council as accession 4873 in 2001and accession 5531 in 2006.
The catalogue has been divided into sections that include incorporation, property, lieutenancy, courts, council meetings, town clerk, rectory & church, freemen, coroner, mayor & councillors, burgesses, markets & tolls, bye-laws, poor law, rates, finance, health & sanitation, water supply, enclosure, housing, buildings, electricity & lighting, gas, education, charities, licensing & registration, roads, cemetery, war & civil defence, recreation, town planning, personnel, fire service, and non-borough records (this last category is further sub-divided)
Sections BOR4/10 or BOR4/15, which appeared in draft versions of the catalogue, have been removed and their contents appear eleswhere in the catalogue.
The main abbreviations used are BNW = Borough of New Woodstock, M&C = Mayor & Commonalty
There is a concordance of old and new document references at the end of the hard-copy version of the catalogue.
Catalogued by Ruth Imeson and Mark Priddey, 2004-2008.