Chearsley 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 authorit ...

within the

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-e ...

district in the ceremonial county of

, England. It is situated about seven miles south west of

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 ...

, and about four miles north of Thame, in

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, primaril ...

History

The village was mentioned 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 as ''Cerdeslai''. It was originally 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 nearby

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 ...

of Crendon. It was established as a parish in its own right by the

Bishop of Lincoln The Bishop of Lincoln is the ordinary (diocesan bishop) of the Church of England Diocese of Lincoln in the Province of Canterbury. The present diocese covers the county of Lincolnshire and the unitary authority areas of North Lincolnshire and ...

in 1458.

Etymology

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 wi ...

in origin, and means 'Cerdic's clearing' or 'Cerdic's lea'.

Elite personal names

The incidence of Brittonic personal names in the royal genealogies of a number of "Anglo-Saxon" dynasties is significant. The

Wessex la, Regnum Occidentalium Saxonum , conventional_long_name = Kingdom of the West Saxons , common_name = Wessex , image_map = Southern British Isles 9th century.svg , map_caption = S ...

royal line was traditionally founded by a man named

Cerdic Cerdic (; la, Cerdicus) is described in the ''Anglo-Saxon Chronicle'' as a leader of the Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain, being the founder and first king of Saxon Wessex, reigning from 519 to 534 AD. Subsequent kings of Wessex were each cla ...

, an undoubtedly Brittonic name ultimately derived from

Caratacus Caratacus (Brythonic ''*Caratācos'', Middle Welsh ''Caratawc''; Welsh ''Caradog''; Breton ''Karadeg''; Greek ''Καράτακος''; variants Latin ''Caractacus'', Greek ''Καρτάκης'') was a 1st-century AD British chieftain of the ...

. This may indicate that Cerdic was a native Briton, and that his dynasty became anglicised over time.Koch, J.T., (2006) Celtic Culture: A Historical Encyclopedia, ABC-CLIO, , pp. 392–393.Myres, J.N.L. (1989) The English Settlements. Oxford University Press, pp. 146–147

Notability

The village was used as a location in the television series Midsomer Murders – ep. Country Matters, ITV.

References

Gallery

File:Chearsley, River Thame - geograph.org.uk - 585908.jpg, River Thame at Chearsley, view from footbridge at the Cuddington parish boundary. File:Parish Church of St Nicholas, Chearsley - geograph.org.uk - 65467.jpg, Parish Church of St Nicholas, Chearsley. File:The Bell Inn, Chearsley - geograph.org.uk - 65466.jpg, The Bell Inn, Chearsley. File:River Thame floods facing Notley from Railway embankment - geograph.org.uk - 352097.jpg, River Thame floods facing Notley from Railway embankment

External links

The Chearsley Times – village information

Images at Geograph.com
{{authority control Villages in Buckinghamshire Civil parishes in Buckinghamshire