Whaddon, Buckinghamshire
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Whaddon is a village in Buckinghamshire, England. It is located in the Aylesbury Vale, just west of Milton Keynes.
The village name is Anglo Saxon in origin, and means 'hill where wheat is grown'. The village is referred to several times in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle generally in the form of Hwætædun.
The village is at the centre of the ancient Whaddon Chase, the site for many centuries of royal and ritual hunting lands. The well supported hunt that takes place in Winslow on Boxing Day each year continues despite anti-blood sports legislation passed by the Parliament of the United Kingdom in 2005 (see Fox Hunting). Whaddon Chase is designated an area of 'Special Landscape Interest'.
Whaddon Hall, (the village manor) was once home to the Selby-Lowndes family, whose ancestor William Lowndes built the larger and grander Winslow Hall. Both mansions are still a private houses. During World War II Whaddon Hall housed "Station X" from Bletchley Park.
