Unusually, its official name - Mid-Oxon - incorporated an abbreviation (Oxon, for Oxonia) but the full form of the county name was and is normally used in referring to the constituency.
Throughout its existence, the seat was represented for the Conservatives by Douglas Hurd with comfortable majorities.
The constituency was formed largely from the constituency of Banbury, incorporating the Urban and Rural Districts of Witney and the parts of the Rural District of Ploughley in Banbury, including Kidlington.
It also included further parts of the Rural District of Ploughley (to the south of Bicester) and northernmost parts of the Rural District of Bullingdon (to the east of Oxford), transferred from Henley.
Eastern rural areas were transferred to Banbury and Henley, with the wards of Marston and Risinghurst being included in the new constituency of Oxford East.