Osney Abbey

The house was founded by Robert D'Oyly the younger, Norman governor of Oxford, prompted by his wife, Edith Forne, who, to expiate the sins of her former life as the mistress of Henry I, solicited her husband to this pious work with a story of the chattering of magpies, interpreted by a chaplain as souls in purgatory who needed the foundation of a monastery to expiate their sins. Edith was buried in Osney Abbey, in a religious habit, as John Leland describes upon seeing her tomb as it was on the eve of the dissolution: ‘Ther lyeth an image of Edith, of stone, in th' abbite of a vowess, holding a hart in her right hand, on the north side of the high altaire’. The legendary dream of magpies…

All the buildings have now been destroyed except a rubble and timber-framed structure which may date from the 15th century. The remnants were Grade II listed in 1954. On the same site is the long disused Osney Mill, now converted to housing, close to Osney Lock. To the east is Osney Cemetery and to the south is Osney Mill Marina, on a 500m long island originally formed for the mill. To the north are the busy arterial road leading west out of Oxford, Botley Road, and Oxford railway station.