Albury is a village in the civil parish of Tiddington-with-Albury

Tiddington-with-Albury

Tiddington with Albury is a civil parish in South Oxfordshire. It includes the village of Albury and the larger village of Tiddington . It was formed by a merger of the civil parishes of Albury and Tiddington in 1932....

, 5 miles (8 km) west of Thame

Thame

Thame is a town and civil parish in Oxfordshire, about southwest of the Buckinghamshire town of Aylesbury. It derives its toponym from the River Thame which flows past the north side of the town....

 in Oxfordshire

Oxfordshire

Oxfordshire is a county in the South East region of England, bordering on Warwickshire and Northamptonshire , Buckinghamshire , Berkshire , Wiltshire and Gloucestershire ....

.

Manor

Its toponym

Toponymy

Toponymy is the scientific study of place names , their origins, meanings, use and typology. The word "toponymy" is derived from the Greek words tópos and ónoma . Toponymy is itself a branch of onomastics, the study of names of all kinds...

 is derived from the Old English Aldeberie, meaning "old fortified place", suggesting that the village's origins are Saxon

History of Anglo-Saxon England

Anglo-Saxon England refers to the period of the history of that part of Britain, that became known as England, lasting from the end of Roman occupation and establishment of Anglo-Saxon kingdoms in the 5th century until the Norman conquest of England in 1066 by William the Conqueror...

.

After the Norman Conquest of England

Norman conquest of England

The Norman conquest of England began on 28 September 1066 with the invasion of England by William, Duke of Normandy. William became known as William the Conqueror after his victory at the Battle of Hastings on 14 October 1066, defeating King Harold II of England...

 William the Conqueror

William I of England

William I , also known as William the Conqueror , was the first Norman King of England from Christmas 1066 until his death. He was also Duke of Normandy from 3 July 1035 until his death, under the name William II...

 granted the manor

Manorialism

Manorialism, an essential element of feudal society, was the organizing principle of rural economy that originated in the villa system of the Late Roman Empire, was widely practiced in medieval western and parts of central Europe, and was slowly replaced by the advent of a money-based market...

 of Albury to William FitzOsbern, 1st Earl of Hereford

William Fitzosbern, 1st Earl of Hereford

William FitzOsbern , Lord of Breteuil, in Normandy, was a relative and close counsellor of William the Conqueror and one of the great magnates of early Norman England...

. When the 1st Earl was killed in battle in Flanders

Flanders

Flanders is the community of the Flemings but also one of the institutions in Belgium, and a geographical region located in parts of present-day Belgium, France and the Netherlands. "Flanders" can also refer to the northern part of Belgium that contains Brussels, Bruges, Ghent and Antwerp...

 in 1071 his estates in England and Wales passed to his son Roger de Breteuil, 2nd Earl of Hereford

Roger de Breteuil, 2nd Earl of Hereford

Roger de Breteuil, 2nd Earl of Hereford , succeeded to the earldom of Hereford and the English estate of William Fitz-Osbern in 1071.- Disobeying King William :...

. In 1075 the 2nd Earl rebelled against William I, who suppressed the rebellion and confiscated the Earl's estates. It is not clear to whom the king granted Albury, or who held it until early in the 13th century when it belonged to William de Redvers, 5th Earl of Devon

William de Redvers, 5th Earl of Devon

William de Reviers, 5th Earl of Devon was the son of Baldwin de Redvers, 1st Earl of Devon and Adelise Baluun. William de Redvers is also William de Vernon, because he was brought up at Vernon Castle, in Normandy, the seat of his grandfather.He took part in Richard the Lion-Hearted's second...

. It remained in his family until 1293, when his granddaughter Isabella de Fortibus, Countess of Devon died. Her estates were divided, and Albury passed to Warin de Lisle. It remained with de Lisle's heirs until 1368, when Robert de Lisle, 3rd Baron Lisle surrendered many manors including Albury to Richard II

Richard II of England

Richard II was King of England, a member of the House of Plantagenet and the last of its main-line kings. He ruled from 1377 until he was deposed in 1399. Richard was a son of Edward, the Black Prince, and was born during the reign of his grandfather, Edward III...

. Thereafter Albury had no feudal

Feudalism

Feudalism was a set of legal and military customs in medieval Europe that flourished between the 9th and 15th centuries, which, broadly defined, was a system for ordering society around relationships derived from the holding of land in exchange for service or labour.Although derived from the...

 overlord.

Parish church

Albury had a parish church

Parish church

A parish church , in Christianity, is the church which acts as the religious centre of a parish, the basic administrative unit of episcopal churches....

 by the beginning of the 13th century. It had a small nave

Nave

In Romanesque and Gothic Christian abbey, cathedral basilica and church architecture, the nave is the central approach to the high altar, the main body of the church. "Nave" was probably suggested by the keel shape of its vaulting...

 and chancel

Chancel

In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar in the sanctuary at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building...

, two Norman

Norman architecture

About|Romanesque architecture, primarily English|other buildings in Normandy|Architecture of Normandy.File:Durham Cathedral. Nave by James Valentine c.1890.jpg|thumb|200px|The nave of Durham Cathedral demonstrates the characteristic round arched style, though use of shallow pointed arches above the...

 doorways and a 14th-century Decorated Gothic east window. The church's dedicatee was Saint Helen

Helena of Constantinople

Saint Helena also known as Saint Helen, Helena Augusta or Helena of Constantinople was the consort of Emperor Constantius, and the mother of Emperor Constantine I...

. In 1828 the church was demolished and in 1830 a new St. Helen's was completed, designed by the Gothic Revival architect Thomas Rickman

Thomas Rickman

Thomas Rickman , was an English architect who was a major figure in the Gothic Revival.He was born at Maidenhead, Berkshire, into a large Quaker family, and avoided the medical career envisaged for him by his father, a grocer and druggist; he went into business for himself and married his first...

. The only feature that Rickman retained from the old church was the 12th-century font. The architect A. Mardon Mowbray

Alfred Mardon Mowbray

-Career:Mowbray was articled to Charles Buckeridge 1865–70 and assistant to architects including Joseph Clarke and J.W. Hugall 1870–72. He practiced in Oxford 1872–77, then in Eastbourne until after 1880. He was made a Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects in 1881 but lapsed in 1896....

 restored the building in 1891. By 1552 the old St. Helen's belfry had two bells. The new St. Helen's also has two, but these were cast in 1686 and the 18th century.

Economic history

The parish was originally farmed under the open field system

Open field system

The open field system was the prevalent agricultural system in much of Europe from the Middle Ages to as recently as the 20th century in some places, particularly Russia and Iran. Under this system, each manor or village had several very large fields, farmed in strips by individual families...

. Albury's common land

Common land

Common land is land owned collectively or by one person, but over which other people have certain traditional rights, such as to allow their livestock to graze upon it, to collect firewood, or to cut turf for fuel...

s were enclosed

Enclosure

Enclosure or inclosure is the process which ends traditional rights such as mowing meadows for hay, or grazing livestock on common land. Once enclosed, these uses of the land become restricted to the owner, and it ceases to be common land. In England and Wales the term is also used for the...

 in stages, and the process was complete by the 17th century.

The Wycombe Railway

Wycombe Railway

The Wycombe Railway was a British railway between and that connected with the Great Western Railway at both ends; there was one branch, to .-History:The Wycombe Railway Company was incorporated by an act of Parliament passed in 1846...

 extension from to was completed and opened in 1864. A station was opened in the parish at Tiddington

Tiddington, Oxfordshire

Tiddington is a village about west of Thame in Oxfordshire, England. The village is on the A418 road between Thame and Oxford.Tiddington is in the civil parish of Tiddington-with-Albury, which is on the county boundary with Buckinghamshire. Historically Tiddington was a manor and hamlet of the...

 0.3 miles (482.8 m) west of Albury. British Rail

British Rail

British Railways , which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was the operator of most of the rail transport in Great Britain between 1948 and 1997. It was formed from the nationalisation of the "Big Four" British railway companies and lasted until the gradual privatisation of British Rail, in stages...

ways closed the line and Tiddington railway station

Tiddington railway station

Tiddington railway station was on the Wycombe Railway and served the village of Tiddington, Oxfordshire.In 1864 the Wycombe Railway opened an extension from Thame to Oxford...

in 1963.