Pitchcott is a village

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 also a 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 located about two and a half miles north east of Waddesdon

Waddesdon

Waddesdon is a village within the Aylesbury Vale district in Buckinghamshire, England, 6 miles from Aylesbury on the A41 road. The centre of a civil parish, including the hamlets of Eythrope, Wormstone and Woodham, Waddesdon was an agricultural settlement with milling, silk weaving and lace making...

, and four miles south of Winslow

Winslow, Buckinghamshire

Winslow is a small market town and also a civil parish designated as a town council within Aylesbury Vale district in north Buckinghamshire. It has a population of about 4500....

.

Pitchcott was described in 1806 in Magna Britannia

Magna Britannia

Magna Britannia, being a concise topographical account of the several counties of Great Britain was an ambitious topographical and historical survey published by the antiquarians Daniel Lysons and his brother Samuel Lysons in several volumes between 1806 and 1822...

as follows:

PITCHCOTE, in the hundred of Ashendon and deanery of Waddesdon, lies about seven miles [11 km] north-west of Aylesbury. The manor was in the family of Vernon as early as the year 1377, and continued to be their property in 1557. It was anciently held under the Bohuns, earls of Hereford. In 1603 it was purchased of Sir Walter Pye by an ancestor of Thomas Saunders esq. who is the present proprietor, and patron of the rectory.

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 'cottage where pitch is stored'. In manorial

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...

 rolls of 1176, the village is recorded as Pichecote.

The parish church

Church of England parish church

A parish church in the Church of England is the church which acts as the religious centre for the people within the smallest and most basic Church of England administrative region, known as a parish.-Parishes in England:...

 dedicated to Saint Giles

Saint Giles

Saint Giles was a Greek Christian hermit saint from Athens, whose legend is centered in Provence and Septimania. The tomb in the abbey Giles was said to have founded, in St-Gilles-du-Gard, became a place of pilgrimage and a stop on the road that led from Arles to Santiago de Compostela, the...

 has been deconsecrated and converted to a private house, although the churchyard

Churchyard

A churchyard is a patch of land adjoining or surrounding a church which is usually owned by the relevant church or local parish itself. In the Scots language or Northern English language this can also be known as a kirkyard or kirkyaird....

 is still in use. Pitchcott is joined with nearby Oving

Oving, Buckinghamshire

Oving is a village and also a civil parish within Aylesbury Vale district in Buckinghamshire, England. It is located about three and a half miles north east of Waddesdon, four miles south of Winslow....

 to form the ecclesiastical 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 "Oving with Pitchcott", which is served by All Saints

All Saints

All Saints' Day , often shortened to All Saints, is a solemnity celebrated on 1 November by parts of Western Christianity, and on the first Sunday after Pentecost in Eastern Christianity, in honour of all the saints, known and unknown...

 church in Oving.

Pitchcott today is a small parish of only 1000 acres (4 km²); this includes approx. 32 acres (130,000 m²) of arable land, the remainder being grassland. There are a few new barn conversion

Conversion (barn)

The Conversion of Barns involves the conversion of old farming barns to commercial or residential use structures. Many older farm buildings are being converted for holiday use...

s that were built in 2007.