CHERWELL, a river of Northampton and Oxford. It rises at Charwelton, in Northampton; and runs about 50 miles southward, past Edgcott, Banbury, Deddington, Steeple-Aston, Kirthington, Islip, and Marston, to the Thames in the southern vicinity of Oxford. It is joined by the Snere on the right, a little above Deddington; and by the Ray, on the left at Islip. Most of its course is closely followed by the Oxford canal, and by the Oxford and Rugby railway.

(John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72))