Oakley, Buckinghamshire
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Oakley is a village and Civil Parish in Buckinghamshire, England of about 400 households with a population of 1,059 (2001 Census) and area of 2,206 acres (8.93 km²). After Long Crendon (population 2,500) and Brill (1,190), it is the third largest village in the immediate neighbourhood. Nestling beneath Brill Hill, it appears as another sleepy English village. However, Oakley has a rich past and some famous sons. Oakley must hold a very rare (unique?) double, in that a Victoria Cross recipient AND a Medal of Honor recipient were both born in the village. In 1963, Oakley was centre of national and international news, when Leatherslade Farm near Oakley was used as a hideout by the criminal gang involved in The Great Train Robbery.
| Oakley | |
|---|---|
| Statistics | |
| Population: | 1,059 (2001 Census) |
| Ordnance Survey | |
| OS grid reference: | SP639121 |
| Administration | |
| District: | Aylesbury Vale |
| Shire county: | Buckinghamshire |
| Region: | South East England |
| Constituent country: | England |
| Sovereign state: | United Kingdom |
| Other | |
| Ceremonial county: | Buckinghamshire |
| Historic county: | Buckinghamshire |
| Services | |
| Police force: | {{{Police}}} |
| Ambulance service: | South Central |
| Post office and telephone | |
| Post town: | AYLESBURY |
| Postal district: | HP18 9Q |
| Dialling code: | 01844 |
| Politics | |
| UK Parliament: | Buckingham (UK Parliament constituency) |
| European Parliament: | South East England |
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Contents |
[edit] Geographical information
The parish is in the extreme west of central Buckinghamshire, touching the border of Oxfordshire. It is roughly diamond shaped, extending a maximum 4.35 miles (6.75 km) east to west and 2 miles (3.25 km) south to north. Oakley parish is borded to the north-west by Boarstall parish, north-east by Brill, east by Chilton. south by Ickford and Worminghall and in the extreme west by Horton-cum-Studley(Oxfordshire). There were once three hamlets that stood within the vicinity of the parish of Oakley. Brill and Boarstall are now parishes in their own right. The hamlet of Studley was, many years ago, annexed to nearby Horton in Oxfordshire, to become Horton-cum-Studley. The hamlet of Little London, Oakley, Bucks became part of Oakley parish in 1934 and lies to the north of the B4011 road. The final hamlet of Addingrove now no longer exists, as the chapel has long since fallen into disrepair - although Addingrove Farm still exists and is 1.75 miles south-east of Oakley.
The village proper is about 3.5 miles (6 km) north west of Long Crendon and 1 mile south of Brill, sitting mainly to the south of the B4011 road, midway between Thame to Bicester. The land is generally just below 300 feet above sea level, that contour passing through Little London Green. At one time the village was owned by the Duke of Marlborough.
[edit] Etymology
Oakley’s name is Anglo-Saxon and derived from “Oak-lea”, a clearing within the oaks. Originally, the village was probably a collection of small huts around the stream, at the Church end of the village, although the Church as we know it had not been built. The village would have been in Bernwood Forest. The Forest was not oak trees from horizon to horizon, in the Early Middle Ages, a forest was defined as a hunting area, there would some densely wooded areas, shrub land, parks of pastureland and areas of cultivation.
Oakley's name has been variously spelt through the ages (parenthesised dates denote earliest occurrence) : Acleia (Anglo-Saxon); Akleia (Anglo-Saxon); Achelei (1086); Okelee (1206); Accleia; Acley (1342); Okeley; Oakele; Ocley and Ocle.
[edit] History
[edit] 11th to 13th centuries
Before the Norman Conquest two hides of land in Oakley belonged to Alwid (or Aelfgeth) the maid, and another half a hide of land granted her by Godric the sheriff on condition that she taught his daughter gold embroidery. A hide was the amount of land, which could be ploughed in a year using one plough with an eight-ox team. It varied with soil quality from 60 to 180 acres. (Note Alwid is supposed to have been the same lady who held lands in Wiltshire under the name of Leuide, embroiderer to the King and Queen.)
Oakley, like most English settlements, has its first written mention in the Domesday Book in 1086, as a settlement in Ixhill Hundred. Robert Doyley, son of Walter, owned Achelei (as Oakley was called). The exact area is not known, since borders with other local villages were not specified. The village was valued at £6, and its land consisted of 5¾ hides; with Oakley’s clay soil the total cultivated land would have been around 550 acres (2 km²). Seven ploughs, three by the Lord of the Manor and four by nine villagers (consisting of seven smallholdings) tilled the land. There were three slaves in the village and there was enough woodland for 200 pigs. Other local places mentioned in the Domesday Book were Brill, Addingrove and Nashway.
The earliest parts, the nave and some pillars, of the present church date from around 1100. In 1142, the Empress Maud, granted Oakley church, with its chapels of Brill, Boarstall and Addingrove to the monks of St. Frideswide, in Oxford. St Frideswide monastery was to become Christ Church, Oxford. In 1222 Ralphe de Norwich became first Rector of Oakley, appointed by the King Henry III who had recovered the right of advowson by judgement of his Court at Westminster. Ralphe later founded the priory at Chetwode in 1226. A transaction in 1224 mentions selions (cultivated strips of land) in Oakley, suggesting an open field system, e.g. no fences or hedges. The Oakley area would have been a populated landscape of mixed farming and woodland, with roadways, drovers trails, flocks of sheep, herds of cattle and pigs, small areas of meadow, and open fields of barley and oats (and possibly some wheat).
[edit] 14th to 16th centuries
1327 John de Abingdon became the first vicar of Oakley (as opposed to rector). 1349 William de Grauntpont died in office as vicar of Oakley, probably of the Black Death. The first estimate of Oakley's population was, made by Lysons, of 257 in 1377.
In 1522 – Oakley’s population was estimated at 140 by a Military Survey. 1570 – Coppicing enclosures drew complaints from Richard Leigh of Oakley (lord of Oakley). 1586 – Oakley had about 248 inhabitants in 56 households (22 landholders and 58 with small cottages within the Forest), these figures were drawn up by Hugh Cope of Oakley in his Court of the Exchequor return.
[edit] 17th century
In 1603, the Return of Communicants gave Oakley's population as 238. In the period 1622 to 1635 – the Crown decided to remove Royal Forest status from Bernwood Forest, along with the draconian laws protecting its contents (wood, animals and people). This was the most significant event that has ever happened to Oakley (and Brill and Boarstall), it transformed the economic balance of society. It modernised the farming structures of the communities in ways that left problems of poverty and rural under-employment for the smallholders and the landless. The process of disafforestation - analogous in modern terms to privatisation - should not be confused with deforestation, meaning to strip a forest of its trees. Nevertheless, disafforestation of Bernwood Forest led to a gradual deforestation over subsequent centuries.
The Cottrell-Dormer enumeration of cottages recorded Oakley's population as 122 in 1622. In 1626 - Two Oakley men were among the nine summoned to Aylesbury to resolve disafforestation issues, they were Sir Timothy Tyrrell and John Dynham. 1642-1646 – The effect of the English Civil War on Oakley is unrecorded – it was near the front-line between the Parliamentary and Royalist sides. It was at this time the church font was smashed, probably by Roundheads. Foraging by soldiers from both sides would have made caused even more problems to local villagers exacerbating problems due to disafforestation. In 1662, according to Hearth tax returns the population was 238. The Compton Census returned a population of 258 for Oakley in 1676.
[edit] 18th century
From Bishop Wake's visitation returns Oakley was recorded as having 216 people there. In 1713, a lace school is recorded as being in the village. On 8 May 1718, King George I made William Cadogan the 1st Baron Cadogan of Oakley. 1726 – Oakley started late in the Parish records stakes. Most local parishes have registers dating from the 16th century, Worminghall going back to 1538. The first Oakley baptisms being for Elizabeth Smith (daughter of John and Amy) and Laurence Shirley (son of Mickoll and Mary). The 1726 burials began with Thomas Smith, Saraag Kessn and Mary Oburn. The earliest marriage was between Edward Good and Jane Hide.
The index of the Poll for Knights of the Shire for the County of Bucks in April, 1784, listed 11 knights in Oakley: Edward Batt, Thomas Dorrington, Isaac Fennimore, Thomas Hawes, Francis Kirby, Leonard Paulin, Robert Piers, Thomas Needham Rees, John Stevens, Reverend Robert Twicross and Thomas Wyatt. 1790 – Mark Ing is recorded as being a member of the Oakley Morris Men. 1798 - Buckinghamshire is the only county to have kept a complete record of an early census called Posse Commitatus. Oakley at this time had 21 farmers, a cordwainer, a carpenter, a pedlar and a schoolmaster (although Oakley’s school was not established until the 1850’s). There were 24 labourers and 12 other men listed.
[edit] 19th century
In the earliest government census of 1801, there were 257 inhabitants in 65 families living in 34 houses recorded in Oakley. The census of 1811 recorded that there were 325 people in Oakley. The first attempt to enclose Oakley in 1818 failed. 382 people were recorded in the census of 1821. In the same year, the eventual enclosure of common land was opposed by a mob, which tried to prevent the attorney attaching notice of it to the church door. Why were the villagers so outraged? Large areas of land were granted to local landowners and 155 acres were sold to cover the cost of the enclosure. Only 25 acres were awarded to smallholders and a measly 4 acres were set aside for the poor. The poor in Oakley would have to survive on what was left of Poor Folk’s Pasture in Boarstall parish, itself subject to very stringent eligibility rules. The Enclosure gave a list of every landowner in the village. The Census of 1831 gave Oakley's population as 413. In 1833 a Turnpike was approved between Bicester and Thame, this became the B4011 at that time passing through the centre of Oakley (now bypassing it).
1841 There had been four previous censuses in Oakley, however they were merely a head count. The 1841 census of Oakley (and Little London) listed ALL residents of which there were Hawes was the most common name (64 residents).
1851 – the Census for this year noted that houses had been demolished in Oakley as villagers left (for the cities and Americas) - the population was 425. 1853 Oakley School was first recorded in use, in what is now School Lane. The first headmaster was Henry Fenemore. Between the years of 1880-1887 Oakley church was re-dedicated from St Matthew to St Mary. 1889 – A new local magazine was first printed, Waddesdon Deanery News. There was no mention of any Oakley people in the page of Oakley news in issue 1. However, in issue Number 2 in February 1889 carried the story about a pantomime and concert at the school – a complete success that befittingly crowned the exertions and careful organisations of its promoter, Miss Boys. A full-dress rehearsal of the piece was given on the previous evening to the Sunday School. Children were not invited in vain, a tea feast (generously given by Mrs. Kirby) winding up an extra-special treat, which coming as a surprise was all the more thoroughly enjoyed. 1894 – The first Parish Council was formed on 19th December 1894 and consisted of Thomas Brooks; James Eborn; William Greenwood (Rev.); James Kirby and Thomas Kirby.
[edit] 20th century
In 1911 Oakley Public Library (in the Lady Verney Reading Room) was opened on 17th February (it closed in 1936). During World War I village boys went to war and 23 gave their lives for their country, included in this number were four brothers named Measey. The alehouse known as The Foresters on the Bicester Road closed around 1919. In 1934, by Bucks Review Order, Little London, then part of Brill, was added to Oakley. On 27th May 1942 Oakley Airfield (R.A.F. Oakley) becoming operational, initially a satellite airfield for RAF Bicester and then in August 1942 as RAF Westcott’s satellite. The 11th OTU (Operational Training Unit) moved to Westcott in September 1942, Oakley became home to many Wellingtons. After the end of hostilities in Europe in 1945, orders were received to clear the hangar and fit it for the provision of refreshment and succour to thousands of repatriated POWs brought here as part of “Operation Exodus”. R.A.F. Oakley was closed to military flying in August of that year. Two of Oakley’s sons died in the war and are commemorated on the Oakley Roll of Honour. Halls Brewery gave the playing fields to Oakley Village in 1948.
Shortly after in 1957, Oakley Village Hall was completed having been built and financed by the village. In 1959, the original Oakley School in Bicester Road was closed and Oakley Combined School in Worminghall Road was opened, the first new post-war school to be build in Aylesbury Vale. The Sun Inn closed around 1961. In 1963, Oakley was centre of national and international news, when Leatherslade Farm near Oakley was used as a hideout by the criminal gang involved in The Great Train Robbery. John Maris, a local farm worker, tipped off the police of the hideout at Leatherslade Farm. John Wooley, local policeman from Brill was the first policeman to go to the hideout. In 1991, the final link in the M40 Motorway (the 11.4 mile stretch from Waterstock to Wendlebury), passing through Oakley Parish, was opened on the 16th January by Malcolm Rifkin. In 1997, the Oakley Village Appraisal / ACORN report reviewed what villagers thought about the village and what changes they would like to see - it was the most successful village appraisal in Buckinghamshire for a village of Oakley's size with over 70% response.
[edit] 21st century
In 2003, Oakley hit national and international headlines again through an exhibition marking the 40th anniversary of the Great Train Robbery. The guest speakers included the mastermind behind the robbery and ex-gang-leader Bruce Reynolds, John Wooley and John Maris (see above) - all meeting for the first time. On show was memorabilia from the robbery, Bruce Reynold's Lotus Cortina, the lorry and one of the Land Rovers used in the raid. Today, (2006) like many other English villages, Oakley has in recent years lost its Post Office, shop, surgery and petrol pumps - two pubs and the garage remains.
[edit] Sport
[edit] Other Local Information
- Addingrove was a small hamlet with a chapel of ease, no longer in existence, to south east of Oakley.
- Honeyburge is a small hamlet to the west of Oakley, actually in Boarstall parish
- Little London is a small hamlet attached to Oakley to the North of the B4011, until 1934 it was part of the Parish of Brill.
[edit] Notable residents/births
- Sir Timothy Tyrrell, (1617-1701), Master of the Buckhounds to Charles I, later Governor of Cardiff Castle, Colonel of Foot (regiment) and Captain of Horse (cavalry regiment), he was also general of Ordnance to South Wales.
- Elizabeth Tyrrell (nee Ussher), (1619-1683), wife of Sir Timothy Tyrrell, she was daughter to Dr. James Ussher, Archbishop of Armagh, Primate of All Ireland and chronologicalist of the Bible.
- James Tyrrell, (1643-1718), Commissioner of the Privy Seal from 1697.
- Captain John Tyrrell, (1646-1692), Second Admiral of the East Indies
- James Pym, (c.1844-1893), recipient of Medal of Honor was born in Oakley. He emigrated to the United States and entered military service at Boston, Massachusetts and was a private in Company B, 7th U.S. Cavalry. On June 25 1876 at the Battle of the Little Big Horn, Montana, where he voluntarily went for water and secured the same under heavy fire, this was depite being wounded. Date of issue: 8 October 1878. He was discharged on 10 December 1879. He died in Miles City, Montana on 28 November 1893, shot by his wife's lover. He was buried in the Custer County Cemetery, MT, Section B, Lot 55, with an undated military marker.
- Edward Brooks, (1883-1944), recipient of the Victoria Cross was born in Oakley on 11 April 1883. Under withering fire, he captured an enemy machine post on 28 April 1917 at Fayet, near St. Quentin, France, for which he won his V.C.
- James Henry Govier, (1910-1974), British artist, was born in the village.
- David Icke, English footballer, TV presenter and "full-time investigator into who and what is really controlling the world" lived in the village in the early 1980s.
- Jonny and Colin Greenwood, of the pop group Radiohead lived in the village when young.
