Chetwode 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 ...
about southwest of
Buckingham
Buckingham ( ) is a market town in north Buckinghamshire, England, close to the borders of Northamptonshire and Oxfordshire, which had a population of 12,890 at the 2011 Census. The town lies approximately west of Central Milton Keynes, sou ...
in the
Aylesbury Vale district of
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 ...
. The parish is bounded to the southwest and southeast by a brook called The Birne, which here also forms part of the county boundary with
Oxfordshire
Oxfordshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the north west of South East England. It is a mainly rural county, with its largest settlement being the city of Oxford. The county is a centre of research and development, primarily ...
.
Manor
There is a
manor
Manor may refer to:
Land ownership
*Manorialism or "manor system", the method of land ownership (or "tenure") in parts of medieval Europe, notably England
*Lord of the manor, the owner of an agreed area of land (or "manor") under manorialism
*Man ...
at Chetwode that stayed in the same family from the time of 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 ...
in 1086 through to the 1960s. The Domesday Book records that in 1086 Robert de Thain held the manor from
Odo
Odo or ODO may refer to:
People
* Odo, a given name; includes a list of people and fictional characters with the name
* Franklin Odo (born 1939), Japanese-American historian
* Seikichi Odo (1927–2002), Japanese karateka
* Yuya Odo (born 1990), J ...
,
Bishop of Bayeux
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Bayeux and Lisieux (Latin: ''Dioecesis Baiocensis et Lexoviensis''; French: ''Diocèse de Bayeux et Lisieux'') is a diocese of the Catholic Church in France. It is coextensive with the Department of Calvados and is ...
.
Priory and parish church
In 1244 Sir Ralphe de Norwich founded an
Augustinian Augustinian may refer to:
*Augustinians, members of religious orders following the Rule of St Augustine
*Augustinianism, the teachings of Augustine of Hippo and his intellectual heirs
*Someone who follows Augustine of Hippo
* Canons Regular of Sain ...
priory
A priory is a monastery of men or women under religious vows that is headed by a prior or prioress. Priories may be houses of mendicant friars or nuns (such as the Dominicans, Augustinians, Franciscans, and Carmelites), or monasteries of mon ...
at Chetwode. In 1460, owing to its poverty, the priory was dissolved and annexed to the nearby Nutley
Abbey
An abbey is a type of monastery used by members of a religious order under the governance of an abbot or abbess. Abbeys provide a complex of buildings and land for religious activities, work, and housing of Christian monks and nuns.
The conce ...
in
Long Crendon
Long Crendon is a village and civil parish in west Buckinghamshire, England, about west of Haddenham and north-west of Thame in neighbouring Oxfordshire.
The village has been called Long Crendon only since the English Civil War.Birch, 197 ...
. This led to the first recognition of Chetwode as a village rather than just a priory.
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 ...
of
Saint Mary
Mary; arc, ܡܪܝܡ, translit=Mariam; ar, مريم, translit=Maryam; grc, Μαρία, translit=María; la, Maria; cop, Ⲙⲁⲣⲓⲁ, translit=Maria was a first-century Jewish woman of Nazareth, the wife of Joseph and the mother of ...
and
Saint Nicholas
Saint Nicholas of Myra, ; la, Sanctus Nicolaus (traditionally 15 March 270 – 6 December 343), also known as Nicholas of Bari, was an early Christian bishop of Greeks, Greek descent from the maritime city of Myra in Asia Minor (; modern-da ...
was once part of the Augustinian priory church. However the parish church had become ruinous in the 15th century and this building replaced it as the parish church in 1480. The stonework is a fine example of the work of the 13th century, particularly the
sedilia
In church architecture, sedilia (plural of Latin ''sedīle'', "seat") are seats, usually made of stone, found on the liturgical south side of an altar, often in the chancel, for use during Mass for the officiating priest and his assistants, the ...
, the east window of five
lancets and the triple-lancet window on the south side, with stained glass of the 13th and 14th centuries. The 14th century north chapel later became the manor pew.
A plan of the arrangements of the church and priory cloister in the 16th-century shows the development of Priory House.
[Maurice Howard, ''The Building of Elizabethan and Jacobean England'', (Yale, 2007), pp. 38-9.]
Economic history
The parish's
common land
Common land is land owned by a person or collectively by a number of persons, over which other persons have certain common rights, such as to allow their livestock to graze upon it, to collect Wood fuel, wood, or to cut turf for fuel.
A person ...
s were
enclosed by an
Act of Parliament
Acts of Parliament, sometimes referred to as primary legislation, are texts of law passed by the Legislature, legislative body of a jurisdiction (often a parliament or council). In most countries with a parliamentary system of government, acts of ...
passed in 1812.
In 1899 the
Great Central Railway
The Great Central Railway in England was formed when the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway changed its name in 1897, anticipating the opening in 1899 of its London Extension. On 1 January 1923, the company was grouped into the ...
opened its
main line to London through the southwestern part of the parish. The nearest station was
Finmere for Buckingham, which was just over the Oxfordshire county boundary on the main road between
Buckingham
Buckingham ( ) is a market town in north Buckinghamshire, England, close to the borders of Northamptonshire and Oxfordshire, which had a population of 12,890 at the 2011 Census. The town lies approximately west of Central Milton Keynes, sou ...
and
Bicester and just over from Chetwode. The station was from Buckingham, more than from
Finmere
Finmere is a village and civil parish in Oxfordshire, south of the River Great Ouse. It is on the county boundary with Buckinghamshire, almost west of Buckingham and just over east of Brackley in Northamptonshire. The 2011 Census recorded ...
and was actually in
Shelswell
Shelswell is a hamlet in Oxfordshire about south of Brackley in neighbouring Northamptonshire.
Manor
Shelswell's toponym comes from Old English and suggests that the settlement may originally have been the well belonging to ''Scield'', a Saxon ...
parish next to the village of
Newton Purcell
Newton Purcell is a village in the civil parish of Newton Purcell with Shelswell in Oxfordshire, southeast of Brackley in neighbouring Northamptonshire. The 2001 Census recorded a parish population of 103. The parish population from the 201 ...
. In about 1922 the Great Central renamed the station Finmere.
British Rail
British Railways (BR), which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was a state-owned company that operated most of the overground rail transport in Great Britain from 1948 to 1997. It was formed from the nationalisation of the Big Four British rai ...
ways closed the station in 1963 and the line in 1966.
The route of
High Speed 2
High Speed 2 (HS2) is a planned high-speed railway line in England, the first phase of which is under construction in stages and due for completion between 2029 and 2033, depending on approval for later stages. The new line will run from its m ...
follows the old Great Central line route through the parish.
See also
*
References
Sources and further reading
*
*
*
*
{{authority control
Civil parishes in Buckinghamshire
Villages in Buckinghamshire