• Around 655-656, a monastery at Medeshamstede (later Peterborough) was founded in the Saxon period Peada.
• Around 966, after being sacked by the Danes, it was re-founded along with the nearby monastery of Thorney.
• Around 966, the estate of Oxney or Oxanige was purchased for Thorney.
• In 972 to 973 it was acquired by Abbot Aethelwold for the Abbey of Peterborough after the foundation of the 2nd monastery and remained a possession of Peterborough until the dissolution.
• In 1125 it was part of the abbey's diary farm of nearby Eye, its only occupants being a cow herder and the 23 cattle in his care.
• Between 1133 and 1155, there was the first reference to a chapel at Oxney, in the second bull of Pope Eugenius to Abbot Martin and the convent.
• During 1214 to 1222, the chapel was enlarged or rebuilt by Abbot Robert of Lindsey who at the same time set up a painting of the Blessed Virgin over the altar, which was dedicated to the Virgin Mary.
• In 1231, Oxney was 1 of 2 buildings owned by the Abbey described as granges, indicating well-established outlying farms.
• Between 1246 and 1249, William of Hotoft obtained a grant of an 8-day fair at Oxney.
• During 1299 to 1321, Bishop Dalderby of Lincoln gave Abbot Godfrey of Crowland a licence for the dedication of a fixed altar. During his abbacy the chancel of the chapel was enlarged and he glazed 3 windows in the chapel. During this time a new house was built just to the south of Eye and enclosed the land that became the abbot's park of Eyebury (north of Oxney grange).
• On 29th November 1539 Henry VII dissolved Peterborough Abbey.
• In 1568, Margaret Horton, widow of Roger Horton sold it to Sir William Cecil.
• In 1612, Sir William Cecil granted a Rent Charge to Clare College, Cambridge.
• Between 1612 and 1686, Sir John Austen took ownership of the estate.
• In 1686 to 1705, it was sold to the Bevill family.
• In the late 18th Century, the Hotchkins family of Uppingham owned the estate but the male heir was declared a 'lunatic' and his grandnephew Charles Bowyer Adderley II took guardianship of the estate in 1806.
• In April 1826, he died, leaving it all to his grand nephew who later became the Baron Norton of Hams Hall, Warwicks.
• In July 1866, a fire was caused by a strike of lightening which destroyed a straw stack.
• In September 1871, Charles sold the estate to its sitting tenant, John Pank.
• On 6th February 1878, John Pank died leaving Oxney in trust for his daughter, Mary Ann, her husband William Staplee and their 6 children.
• From 1878 to 1930's, the Trustees were effectively the owners. Mary Ann died in 1921, William in 1923 and their only son in 1936.
• On 12th June 1937, Oxney was up for sale by auction, purchased by Mr Frank Tucker and Mrs May Tucker.
• During 1937 to 1940, the Tuckers owned Oxney Grange, running the diary farm with his brother.
• On 20th May 1948, it was sold to Reginald Charles Murrells.
• In 1951, it was sold to William David Obee whose widow and son remained owners until 2000.
• In 2003, the building was torched by arsonists who dragged in rubbish dumped by fly tippers and set it alight.
• On 12th to 22nd December 2005 Cambridgeshire County Council Archaeological Field Unit (AFU) conducted an archaeological evaluation at Oxney Grange. The work was carried out at the request of Anthony Rickets Architects Ltd.
• In 2005 the building was put onto the At Risk Register as it was at danger of collapsing. The Construction Skills Council was working with the English Heritage to save the building.
• Oxney Grange was to be converted into luxury apartments by a Bedfordshire based property developer after it sold at auction for £625,000.

Architecture:

Originally on the site it had a chapel, grange, house and moat. The location of the site is a gravel promontory that lays around 7m (23ft) on the northern edge of Flag Fen (a low-lying area bisected by the partly canalised River Nene).

The geology on site is Second River Terrace gravels. The site is surrounded on all sides except in the southeast by Oxford clay, followed in the south by Nordelph peat.

The moat surrounds Oxney House on a local hill of gravel. The moat has been filled in, the surviving portion being a short length of the west arm adjacent to the road. Only the west side lies within the designated area. It consists of a roughly rectangular island covering 8 acres, formerly bounded by a ditch. The ditch on the south, east, and north sides has been destroyed by ploughing and gravel working; it survives only on the west side where it is 3 to 4.6m (10 to 15ft) wide and 1.2m (4ft) deep.

Oxney Farmhouse originally of 14th century origin has been much altered and renovated in 19th century. The 2-storey build of stone has ashlar quoins, stone slate roof and 2 stone buttresses, 1 with and 1 set off. The windows are encased in stone mullions.

3 rooms contained quadro partite vaults. It had 8 bedrooms, marble fireplaces and stone floors. The hall and dining room had arched stone roofs with ribs crossing each other at the top, and supported by low pillars. In the diary remained the old floor of Barnack stone. The wall between the hall and diary was at least 1.2m (4ft) thick. The walls and other marks of antiquity were below stairs. No vestiges of the chapel remained in the 18th century. 4r similarly arched rooms were pulled down by a member of the Bevill family.

The kitchen was a stone vaulted room with curved beams. There was no electricity and candles lit every room.

There was a semi basement with cubicles, which may have been used by monks. It was believed that a tunnel existed which led to the Cathedral.

Outside the house there was a yard and mosaic floor that ran alongside a wall, which ran parallel with the house to one side. On the same land is a 17th century brick barn with thatched roof. It functioned as a cattle and dairy farm.

The evaluation also discovered significant remains relating to the medieval monastic site of Oxney Grange. These included graves, pits and some very substantial ditches. The graves were on an east to west alignment. They were interpreted as Christian burials, presumably the graves of the monks living on the grange. The ditches were thought to be internal boundary ditches and were dated to the 13th to the 14th century.

Despite the Oxney Grange building burning to the ground in 2003, substantial remains of the post-medieval farmhouse are still preserved on site.

Oxney Farmhouse and Barn form a group. The building was listed as a Grade II building on 7th February 1952.

Social History :

• The Saxon Charter in the Peterborough Black Book states that the measurement of Oxney in woods, fields and meadows was 25 acres.
• The increasing prosperity of Oxney was presumably related to the drainage and development of the surrounding fen. The great monastic houses in the area, including that of Peterborough, undertook much of the drainage of the Fens in the medieval period. The Abbey was particularly busy in such work, both in the Fens and in the asserting of forests to the west, in the later 12th and early 13th century.
• During the WWII there were 2 Italian prisoners of war, 1 from Naples and 1 from Sicily. Later on there were 2 German prisoners of war, 1 from a town and 1 from the country who lived on the farm. One of the Germans was awarded the iron cross.