Fritwell is a village and civil parish about 5+1⁄2 miles (9 km) northwest of Bicester in Oxfordshire.

[1] The parish's southern boundary is a stream that flows eastwards through Fewcott and past the villages of Fringford and Godington before entering Buckinghamshire where it becomes part of Padbury Brook, a tributary of the Great Ouse.

The Portway, a road that predates the Roman conquest of Britain, runs north–south parallel with the River Cherwell and passes through the western part of the parish.

[2] After the Norman conquest of England in 1066 William FitzOsbern, 1st Earl of Hereford held a manor of 10 hides of land at Fritwell.

Sir John Simon (1873–1954) bought the house in 1911, had a west wing added in 1921 and lived there until 1933.

It was still standing when Fritwell was assessed for the hearth tax in 1655 but seems to have been demolished by 1677, when a map of the village was made that showed no trace of it.

[2] In 1865 the church was restored and the bell tower was rebuilt under the direction of the Oxford Diocesan architect and Gothic Revivalist G.E.

Fritwell's Roman Catholic population increased and was served by a priest visiting the village from the Fermor chapel at Tusmore.

[2][8] By 1853 a stone-built chapel for a different branch of Methodism, the Methodist Reform Church, was being completed in Fritwell.

Early in the 19th century the parish had a windmill north of the village near the road linking Fritwell with Souldern.

[2] An open field system of farming predominated in the parish until the common lands were enclosed in 1808.

[10] Harris repaired the turret clocks at the churches of St Peter ad Vincula, South Newington in 1669 and St. Bartholomew, Yarnton in 1682.

Cherwell District Council has granted planning permission for the George and Dragon to be demolished and replaced with three houses.

Attempts at education in the parish were intermittent until about 1833, by which time a village school was being held for 30 children.

In 1954 the number of pupils had fallen to 77 but it remains open as Fritwell Church of England Primary School.

[2][16] The main road between Bicester and Banbury was made into a turnpike by an Act of Parliament passed in 1791.

[17] When Britain's principal roads were classified early in the 1920s, the stretch of the former turnpike between Bicester and Twyford, Oxfordshire was made part of the A41.

In 1990 the section of the M40 motorway between Wheatley, Oxfordshire and Hockley Heath was built and the Bicester — Twyford stretch of the A41 was reclassified as part of the B4100.

The line passes through the southwestern part of Fritwell parish and descends into the Cherwell valley via the 1,155 yards (1,056 m) long[18] Ardley Tunnel.