Aynho has a recorded history dating back to the time of Edward the Confessor. Nearly all the buildings in the old part of the village are of local limestone, and most were originally thatched. The oldest cottages in the village, formerly known as Pintle Row, are on Blacksmith's Hill. One has a 60ft well in the front garden, and is dated c.1500.
The Cartwright family completed the purchase of Aynho in 1616 when Richard Cartwright finalised the purchase of the manor from Sir Paul Tracy for £3000. Five years later he gained a grant from the King to revive the Tuesday Market. The market house was built close to the location of the current Cartwright
Hotel.
In 1642 with outbreak of civil war, after the Battle of Edgehill, King Charles made Aynho the Royalist court for a night. The Royalist troops occupied the house on the retreat from the battle of Edgehill and retained it most of the time until the end of the war, when they left they the burnt the house down. Charles II paid the Cartwright family compensation after his restoration to the throne, and Park House was restored in 1680.
Several cottages in the village, some with exterior staircases, predate the Tudor period. A Tudor yeoman’s house was turned into a free grammar schoolfounded in 1654 by John Cartwright, and later became the dower house of the Manor of Aynhoe Park.The church of St Michael and All Angels is built of limestone and the tower is 14th century. Severe damage was caused to the church during the Civil War and the main body was demolished in 1723, then rebuilt in the Grecian style. Outside is the old preaching cross.
By 1790 William Cartwright owned 1780 of the 2240 acres of land within the parish of Aynho. In 1792 William Cartwright announces his intentions for the enclosure of the manor, amalgamating the anglosaxon 'strips' and common grazing land into enclosed fields. Around this time the roads and lane ways were re-aligned to their present layout.
Before enclosure the Deddington road ran due west from its junction with the Banbury road at the village green. From the churchyard can be seen the old icehouse in the grounds of Aynho Park, which was used to store ice in the days before refrigeration. Lumps of ice cut from the canal would keep for up to two years when packed with straw in its depths.
The village hall was built in 1920 from stones taken from the ruined plague house in Pesthouse Wood. Plague victims were once isolated there, and villagers would leave them food every day at the boundary fence.
Sources:
1.Aynho: Apricot Village “History of Aynho” http://www.aynho.org.uk
2. Wikipedia: http://www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aynho
3. Extract from “The Northamptonshire Village Book”, compiled by the Northamptonshire Federation
of Women's Institutes
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