Chearsley
Encyclopedia
Chearsley is a village
and civil parish within Aylesbury Vale
district in Buckinghamshire
, England
. It is situated about seven miles south west of Aylesbury
, and about four miles north of Thame
, in Oxfordshire
.
The village name is Anglo Saxon
in origin, and means 'Cerdic's clearing' or 'Cerdic's lea'. It was mentioned in the Domesday Book
of 1086 as Cerdeslai. It has been suggested that the village is the place mentioned in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle
as Cerdicesleah, where King Cerdic
and his son Cynric
defeated the Britons in 527.
The village was originally a hamlet
in the nearby parish
of Crendon
, though was established as a parish in its own right by the Bishop of Lincoln
in 1458.
The village was used as a location in the television series Midsomer Murders – ep. Country Matters, ITV.
Village
A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet with the population ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand , Though often located in rural areas, the term urban village is also applied to certain urban neighbourhoods, such as the West Village in Manhattan, New...
and civil parish within Aylesbury Vale
Aylesbury Vale
The Aylesbury Vale is a large area of flat land mostly in Buckinghamshire, England. Its boundary is marked by Milton Keynes to the north, Leighton Buzzard and the Chiltern Hills to the east and south, Thame to the south and Bicester and Brackley to the west.The vale is named after Aylesbury, the...
district in Buckinghamshire
Buckinghamshire
Buckinghamshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan home county in South East England. The county town is Aylesbury, the largest town in the ceremonial county is Milton Keynes and largest town in the non-metropolitan county is High Wycombe....
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. It is situated about seven miles south west of Aylesbury
Aylesbury
Aylesbury is the county town of Buckinghamshire in South East England. However the town also falls into a geographical region known as the South Midlands an area that ecompasses the north of the South East, and the southern extremities of the East Midlands...
, and about four miles north 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 ....
.
The village name is Anglo Saxon
Old English language
Old English or Anglo-Saxon is an early form of the English language that was spoken and written by the Anglo-Saxons and their descendants in parts of what are now England and southeastern Scotland between at least the mid-5th century and the mid-12th century...
in origin, and means 'Cerdic's clearing' or 'Cerdic's lea'. It was mentioned in the Domesday Book
Domesday Book
Domesday Book , now held at The National Archives, Kew, Richmond upon Thames in South West London, is the record of the great survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086...
of 1086 as Cerdeslai. It has been suggested that the village is the place mentioned in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle
Anglo-Saxon Chronicle
The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle is a collection of annals in Old English chronicling the history of the Anglo-Saxons. The original manuscript of the Chronicle was created late in the 9th century, probably in Wessex, during the reign of Alfred the Great...
as Cerdicesleah, where King Cerdic
Cerdic of Wessex
Cerdic was probably the first King of Anglo-Saxon Wessex from 519 to 534, cited by the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle as the founder of the kingdom of Wessex and ancestor of all its subsequent kings...
and his son Cynric
Cynric of Wessex
Cynric was King of Wessex from 534 to 560. Everything known about him comes from the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. There he is stated to have been the son of Cerdic, and also to have been the son of Cerdic's son, Creoda...
defeated the Britons in 527.
The village was originally a hamlet
Hamlet (place)
A hamlet is usually a rural settlement which is too small to be considered a village, though sometimes the word is used for a different sort of community. Historically, when a hamlet became large enough to justify building a church, it was then classified as a village...
in the nearby parish
Parish
A parish is a territorial unit historically under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of one parish priest, who might be assisted in his pastoral duties by a curate or curates - also priests but not the parish priest - from a more or less central parish church with its associated organization...
of Crendon
Long Crendon
Long Crendon is a village and civil parish within Aylesbury Vale district in Buckinghamshire, England, about west of Haddenham and north-west of Thame in neighbouring Oxfordshire.The village has been called Long Crendon only since the English Civil War...
, though was established as a parish in its own right by the Bishop of Lincoln
Bishop of Lincoln
The Bishop of Lincoln is the Ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of Lincoln in the Province of Canterbury.The present diocese covers the county of Lincolnshire and the unitary authority areas of North Lincolnshire and North East Lincolnshire. The Bishop's seat is located in the Cathedral...
in 1458.
The village was used as a location in the television series Midsomer Murders – ep. Country Matters, ITV.