Watlington
Watlington is a market community and civil parish about 7 miles (11 km) south of Thame in Oxfordshire, near the area's eastern side and also less than 2 miles (3 km) from its border with Buckinghamshire. The parish includes the hamlets of Christmas Common, Greenfield and also Howe Hill, all of which remain in the Chiltern Hills. The 2011 Census recorded the parish's population as 2,727. The Watlington area is most likely to have actually been resolved at an early date, motivated by the proximity of the Icknield Way. The toponym indicates "negotiation of Waecel's people" and suggests line of work from around the sixth century. A 9th-century charter by Æthelred of Mercia records 8 'manses' or significant homes in Watlington. The Domesday Book of 1086 determined the area as an agricultural neighborhood valued at £ 610. Medieval records indicate that the modern-day street plan remained in existence in the 14th century, as Cochynes-lane (Couching Street), and Brook Street are recorded. There are documents of inns in Watlington since the 15th century. In 1722 the town's market was listed as being held on a Saturday. By the end of the 18th century the community had 6 inns, every one of which were bought up in the next few years by a local brewing family, the Haywards. The number of licensed properties increased till late in the 19th century when George Wilkinson, a Methodist bought 6 of them as well as shut them down. Today Watlington has 3 pubs: the Carriers Arms, The Chequers and The Fat Fox Inn. Parliamentarian troops were billeted at Watlington throughout the English Civil War. It is assumed that John Hampden remained in the community the evening before the Battle of Chalgrove Field. In 1664-- 65 the City center was constructed at the expenditure of Thomas Stonor. Its upper room was enhanced by Stonor as a grammar school for children, and also in 1731 Dame Alice Tipping of Ewelme gave a more endowment to increase the variety of students. In 1842 the town Vestry developed a National School, which shared the same spaces in the Town Hall. In 1843 a National Institution for women was built next to St Leonard's church. In 1872 the boys' as well as girls' schools were taken in into a new Board college, which like its predecessors was affiliated to the National Society for Promoting Religious Education. In 1927 the college was divided right into different junior as well as senior schools. In 1956 a brand-new senior high school-- the Icknield Institution-- opened for senior students and also the primary school took control of the old properties. The Icknield School is now Icknield Community College. By 1895 the City center, no more made use of as a school, was in disrepair. In 1907 it was restored by public subscription. It is a site at the meeting point of 3 roadways in the centre of the town. Because 1990 Watlington has been twinned with the town of Mansle in the Poitou-Charentes area of France. The Watlington Hoard, a collection of silver products dating back to the moment of Alfred the Great in the 9th century, was uncovered in Watlington by James Mather, an amateur metal-detectorist, in 2015. The hoard was consequently dug deep into, as well as eventually purchased by the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford for £ 1.35 m.
