Naphill is a village in the

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 ...

Hughenden Valley Hughenden Valley (formerly called Hughenden or Hitchendon) is an extensive village and civil parish in Buckinghamshire, England, just to the north of High Wycombe. It is almost 8,000 acres (32 km2) in size, divided mainly between arable land ...

, 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-e ...

, England. It is north-west of Hughenden, on the ridge of one of 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 Bedfordshi ...

, and is adjacent to the village of

Walter's Ash Walters Ash (also sometimes called Walter's Ash) is a village in the parish of Bradenham, in Buckinghamshire, England. It is located in the Chiltern Hills, to the west of the main village, adjacent to Naphill. Between 1983 and 1985 there was a ...

. The origin of its name is obscure. It is sometimes thought that people napped

flint Flint, occasionally flintstone, is a sedimentary cryptocrystalline form of the mineral quartz, categorized as the variety of chert that occurs in chalk or marly limestone. Flint was widely used historically to make stone tools and start ...

s here, but this is disputed. Naphill is a mainly linear settlement, with nearly all the houses built on side-roads branching off Main Road, which is just over long. Naphill borders the ancient parishes of Bradenham, North Dean, and

West Wycombe West Wycombe is a small village famed for its manor houses and its hills. It is three miles west of High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, England. The historic village is largely a National Trust property and receives a large annual influx of tour ...

. Whilst a village in its own right, it is part of the Parish of Hughenden, and is located around the former border between two ancient British tribes, the

Catuvellauni The Catuvellauni (Common Brittonic: *''Catu-wellaunī'', "war-chiefs") were a Celtic tribe or state of southeastern Britain before the Roman conquest, attested by inscriptions into the 4th century. The fortunes of the Catuvellauni and their ...

and the

Atrebates The Atrebates (Gaulish: *''Atrebatis'', 'dwellers, land-owners, possessors of the soil') were a Belgic tribe of the Iron Age and the Roman period, originally dwelling in the Artois region. After the tribes of Gallia Belgica were defeated by ...

. It is close to the ancient feature Grimm's Ditch. Walter's Ash in Naphill is the location of

RAF Strike Command The Royal Air Force's Strike Command was the military formation which controlled the majority of the United Kingdom's bomber and fighter aircraft from 1968 until 2007 when it merged with Personnel and Training Command to form the single Air C ...

, which contains a nuclear bunker built on

National Trust The National Trust, formally the National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty, is a charity and membership organisation for heritage conservation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. In Scotland, there is a separate and ...

land in 1983–1985. This lies near the wartime Bomber Command bunker built in the 1930s. There was a

peace camp Peace camps are a form of physical protest camp that is focused on anti-war and anti-nuclear activity. They are set up outside military bases by members of the peace movement who oppose either the existence of the military bases themselves, the ...

during the time of the construction of the nuclear bunker, and during that time two copies of the magazine The Angry Pacifist were produced.

Naphill Common

Naphill Common Naphhill Common is a Site of Special Scientific Interest in Naphill in Buckinghamshire. It is in of the Chilterns Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, and it is listed in ''A Nature Conservation Review''. It is common land, with commoners' rights ...

takes up a large part of Naphill, running the whole length of the village's west side. It is larger and more wooded than its neighbour,

Downley Downley is a village and civil parish in Buckinghamshire, England, which was included in Wycombe district before its abolition. It is high in the Chiltern Hills, overlooking the town of High Wycombe, although today it is almost indistinguishable ...

Common. The Common contains evidence of an industrial background, including

medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...

iron

smelting Smelting is a process of applying heat to ore, to extract a base metal. It is a form of extractive metallurgy. It is used to extract many metals from their ores, including silver, iron, copper, and other base metals. Smelting uses heat and a c ...

. Pieces of iron

slag Slag is a by-product of smelting ( pyrometallurgical) ores and used metals. Broadly, it can be classified as ferrous (by-products of processing iron and steel), ferroalloy (by-product of ferroalloy production) or non-ferrous/base metals (by-p ...

have been found in the area, which was once semi-enclosed. Also pieces of pottery dated to the 12th to 15th centuries have been found turned up by rabbits. Naphill Common is home to several very large

beech Beech (''Fagus'') is a genus of deciduous trees in the family Fagaceae, native to temperate Europe, Asia, and North America. Recent classifications recognize 10 to 13 species in two distinct subgenera, ''Engleriana'' and ''Fagus''. The ''Engl ...

and oak trees. One beech tree has grown on a medieval enclosure, the purposes of which enclosure is unknown because only three of its sides are visible. Most of the iron

kiln A kiln is a thermally insulated chamber, a type of oven, that produces temperatures sufficient to complete some process, such as hardening, drying, or chemical changes. Kilns have been used for millennia to turn objects made from clay int ...

s and pottery are to be found in this part of Naphill. Originally, Naphill Common was more open, with large trees separated by grass-covered open ground, rather than the dense wood that has grown up around it. Naphill Common is a

Site of Special Scientific Interest A Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) in Great Britain or an Area of Special Scientific Interest (ASSI) in the Isle of Man and Northern Ireland is a conservation designation denoting a protected area in the United Kingdom and Isle ...

.Natural England: SSSI citation
/ref>

References

External links

Naphill Village Website
Villages in Buckinghamshire {{Buckinghamshire-geo-stub