Meadle is a

hamlet ''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play, with 29,551 words. Set in Denmark, the play depicts ...

in 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 Longwick-cum-Ilmer, 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 located to the north of the village of

Monks Risborough Monks Risborough is a village and ecclesiastical parish in Buckinghamshire, England, lying between Princes Risborough and Great Kimble. The village lies at the foot of the northern scarp of the Chiltern Hills. It is south of the county to ...

and near

Little Kimble Great and Little Kimble cum Marsh is a civil parish in central Buckinghamshire, England. It is located to the south of Aylesbury. The civil parish altogether holds the ancient ecclesiastical villages of Great Kimble, Little Kimble, Kimblewick a ...

. The current population of Meadle is about 75. Most of the buildings are very old: farmhouses and labourers' cottages built in traditional red clay brick with thatched roofs. A small stream rises in the village and ultimately joins the

Thames The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the second-longest in the United Kingdom, after the R ...

. The earliest recorded mentions of Meadle are in the

English Civil War The English Civil War (1642–1651) was a series of civil wars and political machinations between Parliamentarians (" Roundheads") and Royalists led by Charles I ("Cavaliers"), mainly over the manner of England's governance and issues of re ...

when it was caught up in the battle lines between the Royalists in Oxford and the Parliamentarians in London. A local farm, Armour Farm, is believed to have acquired its name as a store of armaments during the war. Meadle later became a

Quaker Quakers are people who belong to a historically Protestant Christian set of Christian denomination, denominations known formally as the Religious Society of Friends. Members of these movements ("theFriends") are generally united by a belie ...

settlement; the largest farm in the hamlet is still known as Quaker Farm, where Quakers met and were buried in the orchard behind the house. A local field bears the name of Fox's Midsummer where

George Fox George Fox (July 1624 – 13 January 1691) was an English Dissenter, who was a founder of the Religious Society of Friends, commonly known as the Quakers or Friends. The son of a Leicestershire weaver, he lived in times of social upheaval and ...

, the founder of the Quaker movement, held secret night time meetings. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, Meadle was a centre of production for the

Aylesbury Duck The Aylesbury duck is a breed of domesticated duck, bred mainly for its meat and appearance. It is a large duck with pure white plumage, a pink bill, orange legs and feet, an unusually large keel, and a horizontal stance with its body parallel ...

industry, and had a grist mill to provide feed. Meadle was the home of John Nash, one of England's foremost painters and war artists of the inter-war years. He moved there in 1922 and started his great period of landscape water colours, wood engraving and botanical paintings, drawing on the natural scenes and rural activities of the surrounding countryside: the Vale of Aylesbury and the

Chiltern Hills The Chiltern Hills is a chalk escarpment in England. The area, northwest of London, covers stretching from Goring-on-Thames in the southwest to Hitchin in the northeast - across Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire, and Bedfordshire. ...

. He moved on during the Second World War to settle in East Anglia. The house in which he lived, Lane End, still exists. Meadle is mostly known to visitors for the Kimble Point-to-Point, a traditional horse-racing event held on nearby fields each Easter Saturday.

External links

* Hamlets in Buckinghamshire {{Buckinghamshire-geo-stub