Watlington is a market town as well as civil parish about 7 miles (11 km) south of Thame in Oxfordshire, near the region's eastern edge and less than 2 miles (3 km) from its boundary with Buckinghamshire. The church includes the districts of Xmas Common, Greenfield and also Howe Hillside, 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 been resolved at a very early date, urged by the closeness of the Icknield Way. The toponym implies "settlement of Waecel's people" as well as shows line of work from around the sixth century. A 9th-century charter by Æthelred of Mercia records 8 'manses' or major residences in Watlington. The Domesday Book of 1086 identified the location as a farming community valued at £ 610. Medieval papers suggest that the modern-day road 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 because the 15th century. In 1722 the community's market was detailed as being hung 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 neighborhood developing family members, the Haywards. The number of accredited premises boosted 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 public houses: the Carriers Arms, The Chequers and also The Fat Fox Inn. Parliamentarian troops were billeted at Watlington throughout the English Civil War. It is believed that John Hampden stayed in the town the night before the Battle of Chalgrove Field. In 1664-- 65 the City center was developed at the cost of Thomas Stonor. Its top area was enhanced by Stonor as a grammar school for children, as well as in 1731 Dame Alice Tipping of Ewelme offered a more endowment to raise the variety of pupils. In 1842 the community Vestry developed a National School, which shared the very same rooms in the Town Hall. In 1843 a National School for ladies was developed beside St Leonard's church. In 1872 the young boys' and also girls' institutions were absorbed into a brand-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 elderly institutions. In 1956 a new senior high school-- the Icknield College-- opened for senior pupils and also the primary school took over the old premises. The Icknield School is currently Icknield Community College. By 1895 the City center, no more made use of as an institution, remained in disrepair. In 1907 it was recovered by public subscription. It is a spots at the meeting point of three roadways in the centre of the town. Because 1990 Watlington has been twinned with the community of Mansle in the Poitou-Charentes area of France. The Watlington Hoard, a collection of silver products going 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 stockpile was ultimately dug deep into, and ultimately acquired by the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford for £ 1.35 m.