Wendlebury is a village and civil parish about southwest of Bicester and about from Junction 9 of the M40. A stream flows through the centre of the village, parallel with the main street. The 2011 Census recorded the parish's population as 421. The toponym is derived from Old English, meaning the burh of a Saxon named Wændel.
The earliest known record of the Church of England parish church of Saint Giles is from early in the 13th century. It was cruciform until 1639, when the south transept was found to be so unsafe that it was demolished. In 1757 the remainder of the building was found unsafe and in March 1761 everything but the belltower was demolished. By September that year a new nave, chancel and two transepts had been completed, incorporating from the old church general building materials, early Decorated Gothic windows from about 1300 and a Perpendicular Gothic doorway. The foundations continued to give trouble and in 1901–02 the medieval tower and 18th-century south transept were demolished. At the same time the architect John Oldrid Scott restored the remainder of the building, renewing the roof and installing new seating. The tower had three bells: two cast in the 16th century and the third in 1695. Since the demolition of the tower these have stood in the west end of the nave. The west gable of the nave now has a bell-cot with one bell. St Giles' is now part of the Benefice of Akeman, along with the parishes of Bletchingdon, Chesterton, Hampton Gay, Kirtlington, Middleton Stoney and Weston-on-the-Green. The Old Rectory was built in 1840, replacing an earlier house that had existed by 1634.
Social and economic history
Wendlebury has one public house, the Red Lion. It was built in the 17th century and seems to have been trading as an inn by 1732. In 1790 a farmer from Merton started a brewery in the village but the business failed and in 1809 was put up for sale. A Bicester brewer bought it in 1820. An open field system of farming continued in the parish until 1801, when its common lands were enclosed by Act of Parliament. of land were enclosed, of which were awarded to the lord of the manor, Thomas Coker. Rev. George Dupuis, who was rector from 1789–1839, farmed Wendlebury's of glebe himself. When Wendlebury was enclosed the tithes were commuted for of land. This gave Dupuis more space in which to exercise improved farming techniques, including a seven-year crop rotation. A National School was opened in 1850 and new school buildings for it were completed in 1863. In 1927 it was reorganised as a junior school, with pupils of secondary school age thereafter going to Bicester. It became a controlled school in 1952. The Oxford to Bletchley railway, completed in 1851 as part of the Buckinghamshire Railway, passes through the parish. The London and North Western Railway took over the Buckinghamshire Railway in 1879 and opened southeast of the village in 1905. The Railways Act 1921 made the LNWR part of the new London, Midland and Scottish Railway, which closed Wendlebury Halt in 1926. A new line between Oxford, Bicester Village and London Marylebone has been opened and offers an excellent service. The line's nearest station to Wendlebury is now Bicester Village, away.