Long Crendon

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Long Crendon is a village in Buckinghamshire, England, about 3 miles west of Haddenham and 2 miles northwest of Thame.

The village has only been known as Long Crendon since the English Civil War.^[1] The "Long" prefix refers simply to the length of the village at that time, and was added to differentiate it from nearby Grendon Underwood. Previously it was simply known as Crendon. This name is Anglo-Saxon and means Creoda's Hill (in 1086 it was listed in the Domesday Book as Crededone).^[2]

The village has a long and illustrious history. The Manor in Long Crendon was once a great building that housed the Earls of Buckingham and over the years the various manorial estates in the village have passed through the hands of the Crown, Oxford University, the Earls of March and the Marquis of Buckingham.^[3] The latter is presently the Lord of the Manor of Long Crendon.

In 1162 an order of Augustine^[4] monks was founded in the village at nearby Notley Abbey. The park in which the abbey stood was donated to the abbey itself by the incumbent of the manor, the Earl of Buckingham. At the time of the Dissolution of the Monasteries the annual income was calculated as over £437: an immense amount of money for the time. The abbey still stands, though is now a manor house in its own right.^[3]

In 1218 Long Crendon was granted a royal charter to hold a weekly market;^[3] the monies from which were to be collected by William Earl Marshall who owned the manor at that time. The town (as it was then) was certainly important in this period as it shared the distinction with Aylesbury as being the only places in the whole of England where needles were manufactured.^[1] The royal charter was later rescinded and the market moved and joined with the existing one in nearby Thame.

There was a Long Crendon Rural District from 1894 to 1934.

The village now has 3 pubs (one of which has recently become a Chinese restaurant), 2 inns (one of which is a well-known fish restaurant) a small square with about six little shops, an Indian restaurant, a traditional English restaurant 'The Mole and Chicken' (which is actually just outside the village in the hamlet of Easington), a hairdressers, a primary school, playing fields and two parks.

The parish church is dedicated to St Mary.^[5] There are also Baptist and Roman Catholic churches in the village.

Long Crendon Courthouse is a 15th Century timber frame building. Manorial courts were held here from the reign of King Henry V to Victorian times. The courthouse was bought by the National Trust in 1900. The lower floor is residential, the upper floor can be visited.

Midsomer Murders, the ITV crime series is often filmed in Long Crendon with locals posing as extras.

Houses in Long Crendon range from about £100,000-£1,500,000.

The local football team Long Crendon F.C. play in the playing fields off the Chearsley Road. Long Crendon Youth FC provide competitive football for U14 boys (2006/7) and play in Division 2 of the Wycombe & South Bucks Minor League.

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Coordinates: 51°46′18.15″N, 0°59′45.87″W