Biddlesden is a village and

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authorit ...

Aylesbury Vale The Aylesbury Vale (or Vale of Aylesbury) is a geographical region in Buckinghamshire, England, which is bounded by the Borough of Milton Keynes and South Northamptonshire to the north, Central Bedfordshire and the Borough of Dacorum (Hertford ...

district in north-west Buckinghamshire, England on the boundary with

Northamptonshire Northamptonshire (; abbreviated Northants.) is a county in the East Midlands of England. In 2015, it had a population of 723,000. The county is administered by two unitary authorities: North Northamptonshire and West Northamptonshire. It is ...

. It is about east-north-east of

Brackley Brackley is a market town and civil parish in West Northamptonshire, England, bordering Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire, from Oxford and from Northampton. Historically a market town based on the wool and lace trade, it was built on the inter ...

, Northamptonshire and north-west of Buckingham. The River Great Ouse forms part of the western boundary of the parish, separating the village from Northamptonshire. The ancient royal forest of Whittlewood extended to the northern edge of the village.

History

The village

toponym Toponymy, toponymics, or toponomastics is the study of '' toponyms'' (proper names of places, also known as place names and geographic names), including their origins, meanings, usage and types. Toponym is the general term for a proper name of ...

is derived from the

Old English Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlers in the mid-5th c ...

for either "house in a valley" or "Byttel's valley". In the

Domesday Book Domesday Book () – the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book" – is a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manus ...

of 1086 the village is recorded as ''Betesdene''. In 1147 Ernald de Bosco founded the Cistercian Biddlesden Abbey. In 1315, the village was granted a temporary charter to hold a weekly

market Market is a term used to describe concepts such as: *Market (economics), system in which parties engage in transactions according to supply and demand *Market economy *Marketplace, a physical marketplace or public market Geography *Märket, an ...

. When the abbey was seized on behalf of Henry VIII during the Dissolution of the Monasteries it was assessed to be earning in excess of £175 annually in rents and

tithe A tithe (; from Old English: ''teogoþa'' "tenth") is a one-tenth part of something, paid as a contribution to a religious organization or compulsory tax to government. Today, tithes are normally voluntary and paid in cash or cheques or more ...

s. Although the abbey continued after this time as living accommodation for those in favour with the

monarch A monarch is a head of stateWebster's II New College DictionarMonarch Houghton Mifflin. Boston. 2001. p. 707. for life or until abdication, and therefore the head of state of a monarchy. A monarch may exercise the highest authority and power i ...

, the building was not maintained thoroughly and fell into disrepair. By the 18th century the abbey was in ruins and was finally demolished in 1727. The country house of

Biddlesden Park Biddlesden Park is a country house at Biddlesden in north-west Buckinghamshire. It is a Grade II* listed building. History The house, which lies on the site of an old Cistercian abbey, was built by John Sayer, in the Georgian style in 1727. The ...

was built on the same site. Within the parish of Biddlesden there was the

hamlet ''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play, with 29,551 words. Set in Denmark, the play depicts ...

of Evershaw. In the '' Anglo-Saxon Chronicle'' at the time of King Edward the Confessor this settlement was listed as being in the possession of a "certain bandy-legged man". Evershaw's toponym is derived from the Old English for "boar wood". The family names "Evershaw" and "Eversaw" are derived from this place. No trace of the hamlet remains today.

References

External links

{{authority control Villages in Buckinghamshire Civil parishes in Buckinghamshire