Dinton is a village in

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 ...

, England, within the

Buckinghamshire Council Buckinghamshire Council is a Unitary authorities of England, unitary Local Government in England, local authority in England, the area of which constitutes most of the ceremonial county of Buckinghamshire. It was created in April 2020 from the ar ...

unitary authority area. It is in the south of the

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 ( Hertfor ...

on the ancient

turnpike Turnpike often refers to: * A type of gate, another word for a turnstile * In the United States, a toll road Turnpike may also refer to: Roads United Kingdom * A turnpike road, a principal road maintained by a turnpike trust, a body with powers ...

leading from

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 ...

Thame Thame is a market town and civil parish in Oxfordshire, about east of the city of Oxford and southwest of Aylesbury. It derives its name from the River Thame which flows along the north side of the town and forms part of the county border wi ...

(although this road has since been diverted away from the village). It is within the

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 ...

of Dinton with Ford and Upton. The village name is

Anglo Saxon The Anglo-Saxons were a cultural group who inhabited England in the Early Middle Ages. They traced their origins to settlers who came to Britain from mainland Europe in the 5th century. However, the ethnogenesis of the Anglo-Saxons happened wit ...

in origin, and means 'Dunna's estate'. 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 it was listed as ''Danitone''.

History

There was an ancient

mansion A mansion is a large dwelling house. The word itself derives through Old French from the Latin word ''mansio'' "dwelling", an abstract noun derived from the verb ''manere'' "to dwell". The English word '' manse'' originally defined a property l ...

house in this

parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest, often termed a parish priest, who might be assisted by one or m ...

that belonged to the Mayne family for many years (they were

lords of the manor Lord of the Manor is a title that, in Anglo-Saxon England, referred to the landholder of a rural estate. The lord enjoyed manorial rights (the rights to establish and occupy a residence, known as the manor house and demesne) as well as seigno ...

in 1086). This has long since disappeared, but the groundworks of the ancient

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 ...

still remain and are a goldmine of

archaeological Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscap ...

finds. There is also a ruined mock-fortified building,

Dinton Castle Dinton Castle (also known as Dinton Folly) is located just north of the village of Dinton, in Buckinghamshire and was built as an eyecatcher from the Dinton Hall estate, by Sir John Vanhattern in 1769. He used the castle to exhibit his collect ...

also known as Dinton Folly, though this was constructed much later (in 1769) by Sir John Vanhattem. This octagonal

folly In architecture, a folly is a building constructed primarily for decoration, but suggesting through its appearance some other purpose, or of such extravagant appearance that it transcends the range of usual garden buildings. Eighteenth-cent ...

or "sham castle" is a Grade II listed building. A BBC article stated that the building was beside a Saxon burial ground. Another source indicates that over the past centuries, and into the 20th century, various artifacts and skeletons had been found near the structure. That report also states that there are 14 other listed buildings nearby, including Dinton Hall. A full restoration of the "castle" was completed in 2018. The 12th-century parish church of Saints Peter and Paul is a grade I listed building. John Harrison was the vicar here and his only child

Henrietta Tindal Henrietta Euphemia Harrison (bap. 1817 – 6 May 1879), later Mrs. Acton Tindal, was a British poet and novelist who wrote as Diana Butler. Life Tindal was baptised in 1817. Her mother was Elizabeth (born Wollaston) and her father was John Harr ...

(c.1817-1879) was a noted poet and writer. There is a memorial to the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against F ...

navigation expert

Henry Raper Henry Raper (1799 – 6 January 1859) was a British Royal Naval lieutenant who became a nineteenth-century authority on navigation. Amongst his achievements was his quantification of the unreliability of a key longitudinal measurement, luna ...

in the church. Next to the church is Dinton Hall; this fine many-

gable A gable is the generally triangular portion of a wall between the edges of intersecting roof pitches. The shape of the gable and how it is detailed depends on the structural system used, which reflects climate, material availability, and aesth ...

d mansion altered at various periods during its long history, was until the last quarter of the 20th century the seat of the Currie family and is now owned by the Vanbergen family. Following the Curries' departure it was bought by a Mr. Smith. He carried out a programme of restoration, and placed his own

coat of arms A coat of arms is a heraldry, heraldic communication design, visual design on an escutcheon (heraldry), escutcheon (i.e., shield), surcoat, or tabard (the latter two being outer garments). The coat of arms on an escutcheon forms the central ele ...

above the mansion's portals. Since 2004 the mansion is owned by the Vanbergen family, and they have restored the mansion and brought in new facilities. A notable resident of Dinton in the seventeenth century was John Biggs, the Dinton Hermit, who lived in a cave in the village. He was involved in the

execution Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the State (polity), state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to ...

of King Charles I on 30 January 1649 and was reputed to have been the actual executioner. As one of the regicides,

Simon Mayne Simon MayneAlso known as in contemporary sources as Symon Mayne) and Symon MeyneProclamation for apprehending the late King's Judges(4 June 1660)) (1612 – 13 April 1661) was a Member of Parliament and one of the regicides of King Charles I of En ...

, lived at Dinton, and was after his death in imprisonment buried at Dinton in 1661, it is possible that the executioner would have been given sanctuary and anonymity on one of the regicide's estates. Within the parish border lay the

hamlets A hamlet is a human settlement that is smaller than a town or village. Its size relative to a parish can depend on the administration and region. A hamlet may be considered to be a smaller settlement or subdivision or satellite entity to a lar ...

Westlington Westlington is a hamlet near the village of Dinton in the civil parish of Dinton-with-Ford and Upton, Buckinghamshire Buckinghamshire (), abbreviated Bucks, is a ceremonial county in South East England that borders Greater London to the ...

Ford Ford commonly refers to: * Ford Motor Company, an automobile manufacturer founded by Henry Ford * Ford (crossing), a shallow crossing on a river Ford may also refer to: Ford Motor Company * Henry Ford, founder of the Ford Motor Company * Ford F ...

, Upton, Waldridge,

Gibraltar ) , anthem = " God Save the King" , song = " Gibraltar Anthem" , image_map = Gibraltar location in Europe.svg , map_alt = Location of Gibraltar in Europe , map_caption = United Kingdom shown in pale green , mapsize = , image_map2 = Gib ...

and Aston Mullins. There was also anciently a hamlet called Moreton in this parish, though today only the groundworks and ponds remain. This hamlet was wiped out sometime in the sixteenth century. The name mort / ton (death (fr) / town) could suggest that this settlement might have been wiped out and then subsequently abandoned after the inhabitants succumbed to the

Black Death The Black Death (also known as the Pestilence, the Great Mortality or the Plague) was a bubonic plague pandemic occurring in Western Eurasia and North Africa from 1346 to 1353. It is the most fatal pandemic recorded in human history, causi ...

, but the usual derivation of the common name 'Moreton' is "town or settlement by a fen".

Education

Cuddington and Dinton Church of England School is a mixed

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britain ...

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 ...

. It is a

voluntary aided A voluntary aided school (VA school) is a state-funded school in England and Wales in which a foundation (charity), foundation or Charitable trust, trust (usually a religious organisation), contributes to building costs and has a substantial influ ...

school that has been formed from the merger of Cuddington and Dinton schools. It takes children from the age of four through to the age of eleven. The school now has just over one hundred pupils.

Sport

Dinton is home to Dinton

Cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...

club, who have three senior teams playing in the

Home Counties Premier Cricket League The Home Counties Premier Cricket League is the top level of competition for recreational club cricket in the Home Counties of England, and has been a designated ECB Premier League since its founding in 2000. It originally served Bedfordshire, ...

and Cherwell League, as well as junior age group teams from under 9s to under 17s. Dinton CC also compete in the National Village Cup, reaching the semi-final stage in 2013 and 2014.

References

External links

Dinton Info - News, Information and Historic articles about Dinton

Dinton with Ford and Upton Parish Council Website

Cuddington and Dinton Church of England School

Stone, Dinton and Hartwell Church Parish Website

News, results and information about Dinton CC
{{authority control Villages in Buckinghamshire