Crouch Hill, Banbury
At the foot of Crouch Hill used to run Banbury Lane, a road that followed the route of an old trackway passing Rollrich and Tadmarton through Banbury to Northampton. Crossing it used to be a road named Saltway, which actually was a salt way, proceeding to the south-west in the direction of Oxford and London. It was around the junction of these two roads that Banbury town actually grew in the first place.
Crouch Hill was used as an encampment by William Waller in 1644 during the siege of Banbury Castle. Crouch Hill (Rusher 1789), a poem by Philip Rusher who was a resident of the Town in the 18th and 19th centuries, recounts the view from Crouch Hill of the churches in the town:
But see where o'er the rest wilth nobler blaze
Its eight crown'd turrets Banbury displays
Upon its hallow'd walls and wide around,
Thick rising structures occupy the ground.
Behold how Phoebus with his early lights
Shines on the battlements and builded heights.