| Official Name: | Bainton |
| Static Image Name: | Monument at Bainton - geograph.org.uk - 391705.jpg |
| Static Image Caption: | Monument at Bainton Erected in 1812 by Sir Thomas Mostyn Bart MP, master of the Bicester Foxhounds 1800 to 1830, in memory of his favourite hound "Lady". |
| Coordinates: | 51.939°N -1.157°W |
| Os Grid Reference: | SP580270 |
| Label Position: | bottom |
| Shire District: | Cherwell |
| Shire County: | Oxfordshire |
| Region: | South East England |
| Country: | England |
| Post Town: | Bicester |
| Postcode District: | OX27 |
| Postcode Area: | OX |
| Dial Code: | 01869 |
| Constituency Westminster: | Banbury |
Bainton is a hamlet comprising a cluster of farms in the civil parish of Stoke Lyne, about 3miles north of the centre of Bicester.
The toponym comes from the Old English for "Bada's farm".[1]
The Domesday Book records that in 1086 Ghilo de Picquigny held the manor of Bainton.[1]
In 1279 Bainton had 17 households.[1] In 1316 18 villagers were assessed to pay taxes but by 1520 the figure had fallen to five.[1] By the 1950s Bainton comprised only four farmhouses and a cottage.[1]
In 1530 the manor was sold to Edward Peckham, cofferer to Henry VIII and John Williams, later 1st Baron Williams de Thame.[1] In 1613 Edward Ewer of Bucknell sold the manor to Sir William Cope, 2nd Baronet of Hanwell for £5,300.[1] A legal dispute between them ensued, which ended with Ewer recovering the manor in 1628.[1] The Ewer family could not afford to keep Bainton, and sold the manor again in 1637.[1]
By the middle of the 17th century Bainton had been converted from arable farming to pasture.[1] This required less labour so the hamlet became depopulated.[1]
Bainton Manor Farm is a coursed rubblestone house.[1] It was constructed in either the latter part of the 16th or earlier part of the 17th century,[1] during the Great Rebuilding of England, originally as the manor house.[1] In 1783 John Warde, founder and first Master of the Bicester Hunt,[2] was using it as a hunting-box, Joseph Bullock of Caversfield had bought the manor and the two men together built stables and kennels there.[1] 330yd northwest of the hamlet an obelisk marks the grave of a favourite foxhound.