Watlington
Watlington is a market community and civil parish concerning 7 miles (11 kilometres) south of Thame in Oxfordshire, near the area's eastern edge and also less than 2 miles (3 kilometres) from its border with Buckinghamshire. The parish consists of the hamlets of Christmas Common, Greenfield and Howe Hill, all of which remain in the Chiltern Hills. The 2011 Census recorded the parish's population as 2,727. The Watlington location is likely to have been settled at a very early day, encouraged by the closeness of the Icknield Way. The toponym indicates "negotiation of Waecel's people" and indicates profession from around the 6th century. A 9th-century charter by Æthelred of Mercia records eight 'manses' or major dwellings in Watlington. The Domesday Book of 1086 identified the area as an agricultural neighborhood valued at £ 610. Medieval records indicate that the modern-day road plan was in presence in the 14th century, as Cochynes-lane (Couching Street), and Brook Street are recorded. There are documents of inns in Watlington considering that 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 community had six inns, every one of which were bought up in the following few years by a local brewing household, the Haywards. The number of licensed properties increased up until late in the 19th century when George Wilkinson, a Methodist purchased 6 of them and also shut them down. Today Watlington has 3 public houses: the Carriers Arms, The Chequers and also The Fat Fox Inn. Parliamentarian soldiers were billeted at Watlington throughout the English Civil War. It is thought that John Hampden remained in the community the evening prior to the Battle of Chalgrove Field. In 1664-- 65 the City center was developed at the expense of Thomas Stonor. Its top space was granted by Stonor as a grammar school for boys, and in 1731 Dame Alice Tipping of Ewelme provided a more endowment to enhance the number of pupils. In 1842 the community Vestry established a National School, which shared the very same rooms in the City center. In 1843 a National College for women was developed alongside St Leonard's church. In 1872 the young boys' and also girls' colleges were soaked up right into a brand-new Board institution, which like its precursors was affiliated to the National Society for Promoting Religious Education. In 1927 the institution was split into separate junior as well as elderly schools. In 1956 a brand-new secondary school-- the Icknield School-- opened up for senior pupils and also the primary school took over the old properties. The Icknield School is now Icknield Community College. By 1895 the Town Hall, no more made use of as a school, was in disrepair. In 1907 it was recovered by public registration. It is a site at the meeting point of three roadways in the centre of the town. Given that 1990 Watlington has actually been twinned with the community of Mansle in the Poitou-Charentes region of France. The Watlington Hoard, a collection of silver things going back to the time of Alfred the Great in the 9th century, was rediscovered in Watlington by James Mather, an amateur metal-detectorist, in 2015. The hoard was consequently excavated, and also ultimately bought by the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford for £ 1.35 m.