Cheddington 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 authority ...

in the

Buckinghamshire Buckinghamshire (), abbreviated Bucks, is a ceremonial county in South East England that borders Greater London to the south-east, Berkshire to the south, Oxfordshire to the west, Northamptonshire to the north, Bedfordshire to the north-ea ...

district of the ceremonial county of

, England. The parish has an area of . The village is about 6 miles north-east of

Aylesbury Aylesbury ( ) is the county town of Buckinghamshire, South East England. It is home to the Roald Dahl Children's Gallery, David Tugwell`s house on Watermead and the Waterside Theatre. It is in central Buckinghamshire, midway between High Wy ...

and three miles north of

Tring Tring is a market town and civil parish in the Borough of Dacorum, Hertfordshire, England. It is situated in a gap passing through the Chiltern Hills, classed as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, from Central London. Tring is linked to ...

Hertfordshire Hertfordshire ( or ; often abbreviated Herts) is one of the home counties in southern England. It borders Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire to the north, Essex to the east, Greater London to the south, and Buckinghamshire to the west. For govern ...

. The hamlet of

Cooks Wharf Cooks Wharf is a hamlet in the parish of Cheddington, in Buckinghamshire, England. It is located where the main road into Cheddington from Pitstone crosses the Grand Union Canal. At the 2011 census the population of the area was included in the ...

has grown up where the main road into the village from

Pitstone Pitstone (formerly Pightelsthorn, with possible variation Pychelesthorn in 1399) is a village and civil parish in east Buckinghamshire, England. It is at the foot of the central range of the Chiltern Hills, centred east of Aylesbury and south ...

crosses the

Grand Union Canal The Grand Union Canal in England is part of the British canal system. It is the principal navigable waterway between London and the Midlands. Starting in London, one arm runs to Leicester and another ends in Birmingham, with the latter st ...

Archaeology

At Southend Hill near the village are the remains of an

Iron Age The Iron Age is the final epoch of the three-age division of the prehistory and protohistory of humanity. It was preceded by the Stone Age (Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic) and the Bronze Age (Chalcolithic). The concept has been mostly appl ...

hill fort A hillfort is a type of earthwork used as a fortified refuge or defended settlement, located to exploit a rise in elevation for defensive advantage. They are typically European and of the Bronze Age or Iron Age. Some were used in the post-Roma ...

which has been largely obliterated through arable cultivation.

History

The earliest known record of the village is 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 manusc ...

of 1086, in which it is called ''Cetendone'', which is

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 settlement of Britain, Anglo ...

for "Cetta's Hill". The

Church of England parish church A parish church in the Church of England is the church which acts as the religious centre for the people within each Church of England parish (the smallest and most basic Church of England administrative unit; since the 19th century sometimes ca ...

Saint Giles Saint Giles (, la, Aegidius, french: Gilles), also known as Giles the Hermit, was a hermit or monk active in the lower Rhône most likely in the 6th century. Revered as a saint, his cult became widely diffused but his hagiography is mostly lege ...

was originally

Norman Norman or Normans may refer to: Ethnic and cultural identity * The Normans, a people partly descended from Norse Vikings who settled in the territory of Normandy in France in the 10th and 11th centuries ** People or things connected with the Norm ...

. There is also a

Methodist church Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a group of historically related Christian denomination, denominations of Protestantism, Protestant Christianity whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John W ...

with a large congregation. Cheddington

manor house A manor house was historically the main residence of the lord of the manor. The house formed the administrative centre of a manor in the European feudal system; within its great hall were held the lord's manorial courts, communal meals w ...

is a much gabled and half-timbered red-brick building under a tiled roof, dating from the 16th century. In 1963 Cheddington featured in the national

press Press may refer to: Media * Print media or news media, commonly called "the press" * Printing press, commonly called "the press" * Press (newspaper), a list of newspapers * Press TV, an Iranian television network People * Press (surname), a fam ...

as it was near the location of the Great Train Robbery of 1963 at Bridego Railway Bridge in the hamlet of

Ledburn Ledburn is a hamlet in the parish of Mentmore, in Buckinghamshire, England. History The name Ledburn is Anglo Saxon in origin, and means "stream with a conduit". In manorial records of 1212 it was recorded as "Leteburn". The hamlet consists ...

. In 1984, again Cheddington achieved national notoriety as the location of the first assault by

Malcolm Fairley Malcolm Fairley (born 1952) is a British criminal and sex offender, who in 1984 committed a series of burglaries and violent sexual crimes in the Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire and Hertfordshire areas of England, and more specifically, in an area ...

, a violent armed rapist, nicknamed "The Fox" because of his cunning nocturnal attacks. In the last thirty years Cheddington, due to its

railway station Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a pre ...

and easy access to four towns, has more than quadrupled in size. In information released from the 2001 Census, Cheddington has the highest density of people under the age of 35 in the whole of Buckinghamshire. In 2005 Cheddington won the Buckinghamshire Best Kept Village Competition DeFraine CupBuckinghamshire Best Kept Village Competition DeFraine Cup
and also the Buckinghamshire Village of the Year Competition. It went on to win the East of England Young People award in the national competition. Cheddington also won the smaller villages category in the 2006 and 2007 Buckinghamshire Village of the Year Competition and received a special community building award.

Amenities

The village has two

public house A pub (short for public house) is a kind of drinking establishment which is licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption on the premises. The term ''public house'' first appeared in the United Kingdom in late 17th century, and was ...

s: The Swan, a thatched inn, and The Three Horseshoes. A third inn, known as the Rosebery Arms, designed by the Victorian architect

George Devey George Devey (1820, London – 1886, Hastings, Sussex) was an English architect notable for his work on country houses and their estates, especially those belonging to the Rothschild family. The second son of Frederick and Ann Devey, he was bor ...

has been converted into houses. Cheddington Combined School is a mixed,

community A community is a social unit (a group of living things) with commonality such as place, norms, religion, values, customs, or identity. Communities may share a sense of place situated in a given geographical area (e.g. a country, village, tow ...

primary school A primary school (in Ireland, the United Kingdom, Australia, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, and South Africa), junior school (in Australia), elementary school or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary e ...

, that takes children between the ages of four and 11. The school has about 200 pupils, and its catchment area includes the neighbouring parishes of

Horton Horton may refer to: Places Antarctica * Horton Glacier, Adelaide Island, Antarctica * Horton Ledge, Queen Elizabeth Land, Antarctica Australia * Horton, Queensland, a town and locality in the Bundaberg Region * Horton River (Australia), ...

and Slapton. Cheddington has various clubs including a tennis club, a bell ringers' association, a badminton club, a history society, a bowls club, a petanque club and a football team.

References

External links

Cheddington Combined School

Cheddington Tennis Club
{{authority control Villages in Buckinghamshire Civil parishes in Buckinghamshire

Archaeology

History

Amenities

References

Further reading

External links