Watlington is a market town and civil parish concerning 7 miles (11 kilometres) south of Thame in Oxfordshire, near the county's eastern side and less than 2 miles (3 km) from its boundary with Buckinghamshire. The parish consists of the hamlets of Xmas Common, Greenfield and Howe Hill, all of which are in the Chiltern Hills. The 2011 Census recorded the parish's population as 2,727. The Watlington area is most likely to have been settled at a very early date, encouraged by the closeness of the Icknield Way. The toponym implies "negotiation of Waecel's people" as well as suggests line of work from around the sixth century. A 9th-century charter by Æthelred of Mercia documents eight 'manses' or major homes in Watlington. The Domesday Book of 1086 identified the location as a farming area valued at £ 610. Medieval records suggest that the contemporary road plan was in presence in the 14th century, as Cochynes-lane (Couching Street), and also Brook Street are recorded. There are records of inns in Watlington given that the 15th century. In 1722 the community's market was provided as being hung 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 couple of years by a local developing family members, the Haywards. The variety of licensed properties boosted until late in the 19th century when George Wilkinson, a Methodist got six of them as well as closed them down. Today Watlington has three pubs: the Carriers Arms, The Chequers as well as The Fat Fox Inn. Parliamentarian troops were billeted at Watlington throughout the English Civil Battle. It is believed that John Hampden remained in the town the night prior to the Battle of Chalgrove Field. In 1664-- 65 the City center was developed at the expenditure of Thomas Stonor. Its top area was granted by Stonor as a grammar school for young boys, and in 1731 Dame Alice Tipping of Ewelme offered an additional endowment to boost the number of pupils. In 1842 the town Vestry established a National School, which shared the very same areas in the Town Hall. In 1843 a National Institution for ladies was developed beside St Leonard's church. In 1872 the young boys' and girls' schools were absorbed right into a brand-new Board college, which like its predecessors was associated to the National Society for Promoting Religious Education. In 1927 the institution was divided into separate junior and also elderly institutions. In 1956 a brand-new secondary school-- the Icknield Institution-- opened for senior students and also the primary school took control of the old properties. The Icknield School is currently Icknield Community College. By 1895 the Town Hall, no longer made use of as a college, remained in disrepair. In 1907 it was recovered by public subscription. It is a site at the meeting point of three roadways 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 products going back to the moment of Alfred the Great in the 9th century, was rediscovered in Watlington by James Mather, an amateur metal-detectorist, in 2015. The hoard was ultimately excavated, as well as ultimately acquired by the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford for £ 1.35 m.