Kingsey is a small 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 ...

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 ...

district 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. It is near the 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 ...

, about two miles east of

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 ...

and a mile south of Haddenham. 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 of 12th-century origin and means 'king's island', referring to a piece of dry land that belonged to the king in the

marsh A marsh is a wetland that is dominated by herbaceous rather than woody plant species.Keddy, P.A. 2010. Wetland Ecology: Principles and Conservation (2nd edition). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK. 497 p Marshes can often be found at ...

es that were once common in this part of the country. In 1174 the village was called ''Eya'', meaning 'island', though by 1192 it had gained its more modern name of ''Kingesie''. This leads historians to believe that the village is named after King

Richard I of England Richard I (8 September 1157 – 6 April 1199) was King of England from 1189 until his death in 1199. He also ruled as Duke of Normandy, Aquitaine and Gascony, Lord of Cyprus, and Count of Poitiers, Anjou, Maine, and Nantes, and was ...

. Kingsey was transferred to Buckinghamshire from Oxfordshire in 1933, effectively being swapped for Towersey. Historically people from this village and those surrounding it were known by the derogatory term 'wetfeet', because of the high

water table The water table is the upper surface of the zone of saturation. The zone of saturation is where the pores and fractures of the ground are saturated with water. It can also be simply explained as the depth below which the ground is saturated. T ...

of the area leading to the ground being so waterlogged.

Grade 1 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 ...

Tythrop Park Tythrop Park, also known as Tythrop House, is a Grade I–listed 17th-century manor house, set in of parkland, in Kingsey, Buckinghamshire, England. According to Pevsner the exterior is plain and unpromising, but inside the house he describes th ...

in Kingsey is listed as having an early duck decoy similar to that in

Boarstall Duck Decoy The Boarstall Duck Decoy is a 17th-century duck decoy located in Boarstall, Buckinghamshire, England, and now a National Trust property. The system took advantage of a two-acre lake with pipe-cage tunnels running out of it. At one time a com ...

in Buckinghamshire
(Location map)

References

External links

Detailed history of Kingsey, British History Online

by

Sir Ralph Payne-Gallwey Sir Ralph William Frankland Payne-Gallwey, 3rd Baronet (1848–1916) was an English engineer, historian, ballistics expert, and artist. Life The son of Sir William Payne-Gallwey, 2nd Baronet, and his wife Emily Anne, a daughter of Sir Robert Fr ...

, 1886. {{authority control Villages in Buckinghamshire Civil parishes in Buckinghamshire