AREA CHARACTERISATION

It was not until the 1960s that the issue of managing the future development of Bampton was considered seriously and systematically.

In 1966 the Oxfordshire County Surveyor was commissioned to report on the character of Bampton with a view to recommending the nature and scale of development that may be appropriate.

The author described very much the same as the correspondent for Country Life had almost two decades earlier:

“an attractive limestone-built town with a market square and town hall. The three facades to the main roads are predominantly Georgian…”.

The planner then went on to dilute his praise by noting what he considered the encumbrances of the present age viz:

“…spoilt in a few places by untidy advertisements and disproportionate shop fronts.”.

An attempt at historic area characterisation was made in 1966. In less lucky settlements of Oxfordshire this thinking led to many settlements having their historic cores conserved only to find them subsequently chocked by a ring of insensitive mid-C20 development.

Perhaps Bampton owes a lucky escape from this fate to its relative isolation and the low demand for housing in the 1960s?

Bampton’s first comprehensive planning exercise was conducted at a time that the concept of Conservation areas had first been seriously mooted. Hargreaves (1968) argued that area designations were the response to protecting and managing historic landscapes.

The first Conservation areas were designated in 1967 and Bampton was itself designated a conservation area in 1976.