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Witney has had a long history and one that has been largely free from turbulent times and that has been directly linked with the prosperity brought to it by its woollen cloth and blanket industry. There is evidence of both Iron Age and Roman settlements in the area and it became a place of importance to the Saxons. It was first recorded in AD 969 and, before the Norman Conquest it was the meeting place of the Saxon King’s Council. This Council was known as the Witan and it was from this that the present name of Witney was probably derived.

The town started to grow as the result of development by the Bishops of Winchester who, some time between 1047 and 1070, built a Palace (on a site known as the Mount) at the far end of Church Green which was then used as a market place. The foundations of the Palace remain and, after excavations, are now open to the public on summer weekends.

In the Domesday Survey Witney is recorded as having two mills, both for grinding corn, but by 1277 at least one cloth or fulling mill was established in the area. By the end of the Middle Ages Witney was a lively market town with a developing industry of blanket and glove making. Both Witney and Cogges (now a village within Witney’s boundaries) grew apace and it was at Witney that King John is said to have called together his quasi-parliament to discuss the articles that were to form the basis of Magna Carta.

The town, in the Middle Ages, became a borough and gained prosperity through the making of woollen cloth and blankets. By 1677 Witney blankets were “esteemed so far beyond all others that this place has engrossed the whole trade of the nation in this commodity.” At that time there were 60 ‘blanketeers’ in Witney and their 150 looms employed nearly 3,000 people. Blanket makers were incorporated as a guild and strict rules to ensure the quality of their blankets were drawn up. The guild was granted a charter by Queen Anne and a Blanket Hall was built in the High Street. Here all blankets had to be taken for measuring and weighing so as to maintain the very high standard that made the name of Witney famous throughout the world.

At the time of the Civil War the population of Witney was 1,800. The war did not affect the town too much though the Royalists marched through on three occasions and prisoners were kept in the church. The town favoured the Parliamentarians and after the restoration it became a centre for non-conformism. John Wesley was a regular visitor and he preached his first sermon at the church in Southleigh, a village just outside the town. There were also strong Quaker, Baptist and Independent congregations.

By 1800 there were five mills working in and`around Witney which, at that time, was also a thriving agricultural market town. In 1858 a company was formed to construct a railway from Cheltenham to Oxford by way of Witney. As was so often the case in those ‘railway mania’ days, financial problems soon arose and the line never reached Cheltenham. The section from Oxford through Witney as far as Fairford was opened as the Witney Railway on November 14th 1861 with four trains a day in each direction and a fare from Oxford to Witney of two shillings and sixpence! Thus cheap coal was brought to the local mills and the prosperity of the area increased. Complete train loads of blankets were transported to the Great Western goods station at Paddington for onward transport to such famous London shops as Maples. After a century of faithful service the railway finally closed to passengers in 1962 and to freight in 1970.

The blanket industry survived the depression of the 1930s well but started to decline after the Second World War. Just one mill - Early’s Witney Mill - was left in recent years, ironically one of the oldest names in the industry. It, too, closed in 2002, production being transferred elsewhere.