On all but its eastern side too the town was hemmed in by jurisdictions independent of its own.

The precincts of the Abbey of Osney, the wide "bailey" of the Castle, bounded it narrowly on the west.

To the north, stretching away beyond the little church of St.Giles, lay the fields of the royal manor of Beaumont.

The Abbot of Abingdon, whose woods of Cumnor and Bagley closed the southern horizon, held his leet-court in the hamlet of Grampound beyond the bridge.

Nor was the whole space within the walls subject to the self-government of the citizens.