Dorton (or Dourton) is a village and civil parish 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 ...

. It is in the western part of the county, about north of the

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 ...

market town of Thame.

Manor

The village toponym 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 settlement of Britain, Anglo ...

for "farm at a narrow pass". The Domesday Book of 1086 records it as ''Dortone'', and in the 13th century it was ''Durtone''. Before the

Norman conquest of England The Norman Conquest (or the Conquest) was the 11th-century invasion and occupation of England by an army made up of thousands of Normans, Norman, Duchy of Brittany, Breton, County of Flanders, Flemish, and Kingdom of France, French troops, ...

Alric, son of Goding, a thegn of

Edward the Confessor Edward the Confessor ; la, Eduardus Confessor , ; ( 1003 – 5 January 1066) was one of the last Anglo-Saxon English kings. Usually considered the last king of the House of Wessex, he ruled from 1042 to 1066. Edward was the son of Æth ...

, held the

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 ...

of Dorton. However, the Domesday Book records that by 1086 the Norman baron Walter Giffard held it. Dorton House is a

Grade I listed In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

Jacobean mansion to the south of the village. It is now a preparatory school,

Ashfold School Lower Beeding is a village and civil parish in the Horsham District of West Sussex, England. The village lies on the B2110, B2115 and A281 roads southeast from Horsham, and is centred on Holy Trinity Church and The Plough public house, where the ...

Parish church

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 John the Evangelist was originally a

chapel of ease A chapel of ease (or chapel-of-ease) is a church architecture, church building other than the parish church, built within the bounds of a parish for the attendance of those who cannot reach the parish church conveniently. Often a chapel of ea ...

to nearby Chilton. St. John's has been a parish in its own right since at least 1590. The nave and chancel of the church building may be 12th century, as is the bowl of the

font In metal typesetting, a font is a particular size, weight and style of a typeface. Each font is a matched set of type, with a piece (a "sort") for each glyph. A typeface consists of a range of such fonts that shared an overall design. In mod ...

. There is a 13th-century

lancet window A lancet window is a tall, narrow window with a pointed arch at its top. It acquired the "lancet" name from its resemblance to a lance. Instances of this architectural element are typical of Gothic church edifices of the earliest period. Lancet wi ...

in the nave. The south porch was added in the 13th century, es evidenced by a blocked window of that date in its east wall. In the 14th century the Decorated Gothic south aisle was added, the chancel arch was at least partly rebuilt and the present east window and piscina were added. The present

stained glass Stained glass is coloured glass as a material or works created from it. Throughout its thousand-year history, the term has been applied almost exclusively to the windows of churches and other significant religious buildings. Although tradition ...

in the east window is 15th century. The present entrance arch to the porch was added in the 15th century, the base of the font is from the same century and the

Perpendicular Gothic Perpendicular Gothic (also Perpendicular, Rectilinear, or Third Pointed) architecture was the third and final style of English Gothic architecture developed in the Kingdom of England during the Late Middle Ages, typified by large windows, four-c ...

window in the south wall of the south aisle was added in about 1480. St. John's has three bells hung in a timber-framed bell-cot, plus a small Sanctus bell. Bartholomew Atton 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 ...

cast the tenor bell in 1604 and Robert Atton cast the second bell in 1626.

John Taylor and Sons John is a common English name and surname: * John (given name) * John (surname) John may also refer to: New Testament Works * Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John * First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John * Second E ...

cast the treble bell in 1828, presumably at the bell-foundry they then had at Oxford.

Economic and social history

Dorton Spa Dorton Spa is a chalybeate spring located between the villages of Dorton and Brill in Buckinghamshire, England, in a grove of trees called "Spa Wood". Chalybeate is defined as "a water or other liquor containing iron", the word's origin is Gre ...

, a

chalybeate Chalybeate () waters, also known as ferruginous waters, are mineral spring waters containing salts of iron. Name The word ''chalybeate'' is derived from the Latin word for steel, , which follows from the Greek word . is the singular form of ...

spring, is north of the village in Spa Wood. A large pump room and health spa were opened in about 1840 but due to lack of Royal patronage (unlike

Royal Leamington Spa Royal Leamington Spa, commonly known as Leamington Spa or simply Leamington (), is a spa town and civil parish in Warwickshire, England. Originally a small village called Leamington Priors, it grew into a spa town in the 18th century following ...

and Royal Tunbridge Wells) Dorton Spa declined. Little exists of it now. The

Great Western Railway The Great Western Railway (GWR) was a British railway company that linked London with the southwest, west and West Midlands of England and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, received its enabling Act of Parliament on 31 August 1835 and ran ...

had the "

Bicester cut-off The Chiltern Main Line is a railway line which links London () and Birmingham ( Moor Street and Snow Hill), the United Kingdom's two largest cities, by a route via High Wycombe, Bicester, Banbury, Leamington Spa and Solihull. It is on ...

" railway built through the parish in 1910. The line passes within a few yards of the village, and in 1937 the GWR opened to serve it.

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 halt in 1963. The railway is now part of the Chiltern Main Line. Dorton was noted in the 1960s and 1970s for the tug-of-war team the

Dorton Dons Dorton Dons was a tug-of-war team in the 1960s and 1970s. Managed and coached by Don Claridge of Dorton in Buckinghamshire, they won regional and national championships. Whilst the team was based and trained in Dorton, it drew many of the team fr ...

References

Sources

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External links

{{authority control Villages in Buckinghamshire Civil parishes in Buckinghamshire