Watlington is a market community as well as civil parish about 7 miles (11 kilometres) south of Thame in Oxfordshire, near the region's eastern side and also less than 2 miles (3 km) from its border with Buckinghamshire. The parish consists of the hamlets of Christmas Common, Greenfield and also Howe Hillside, all of which are in the Chiltern Hills. The 2011 Census recorded the parish's population as 2,727. The Watlington area is likely to have actually been settled at a very early date, encouraged by the closeness of the Icknield Way. The toponym implies "negotiation of Waecel's individuals" and suggests profession from around the sixth century. A 9th-century charter by Æthelred of Mercia records eight 'manses' or major homes in Watlington. The Domesday Book of 1086 determined the area as an agricultural community valued at £ 610. Medieval records indicate that the modern-day street plan was in existence in the 14th century, as Cochynes-lane (Couching Street), and Brook Street are recorded. There are records of inns in Watlington since the 15th century. In 1722 the town's market was provided as being held on a Saturday. By the end of the 18th century the town had 6 inns, every one of which were bought up in the next couple of years by a neighborhood developing household, the Haywards. The number of accredited properties boosted till late in the 19th century when George Wilkinson, a Methodist got six of them and shut them down. Today Watlington has three public houses: the Carriers Arms, The Chequers and also The Fat Fox Inn. Parliamentarian troops were billeted at Watlington throughout the English Civil Battle. It is thought that John Hampden stayed in the town the evening before the Battle of Chalgrove Field. In 1664-- 65 the Town Hall was built at the expenditure of Thomas Stonor. Its top space was endowed by Stonor as a grammar school for children, and also in 1731 Dame Alice Tipping of Ewelme offered an additional endowment to increase the number of pupils. In 1842 the town Vestry established a National School, which shared the same areas in the City center. In 1843 a National Institution for girls was constructed next to St Leonard's church. In 1872 the young boys' as well as girls' schools were taken in into a new Board school, which like its precursors was connected to the National Society for Promoting Religious Education. In 1927 the school was split into separate junior and also elderly institutions. In 1956 a brand-new secondary school-- the Icknield Institution-- opened up for elderly students as well as the primary school took over the old premises. The Icknield School is now Icknield Community College. By 1895 the City center, no more used as a school, remained in disrepair. In 1907 it was brought back by public membership. It is a landmark at the meeting point of 3 roads in the centre of the town. Since 1990 Watlington has been twinned with the community of Mansle in the Poitou-Charentes region of France. The Watlington Hoard, a collection of silver things dating back to the moment of Alfred the Great in the 9th century, was found in Watlington by James Mather, an amateur metal-detectorist, in 2015. The hoard was consequently excavated, and ultimately acquired by the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford for £ 1.35 m.