Chearsley is a village and

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...

within the

Buckinghamshire Buckinghamshire (, abbreviated ''Bucks'') is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England and one of the home counties. It is bordered by Northamptonshire to the north, Bedfordshire to the north-east, Hertfordshir ...

district in the ceremonial county of

, England. It is situated about seven miles south west of

Aylesbury Aylesbury ( ) is the county town of Buckinghamshire, England. It is home to the Roald Dahl Children's Gallery and the Aylesbury Waterside Theatre, Waterside Theatre. It is located in central Buckinghamshire, midway between High Wycombe and Milt ...

, and about four miles north of

Thame Thame is a market town and civil parish in South Oxfordshire, England, about east of the city of Oxford and southwest of Aylesbury. It derives its name from the River Thame which flows along the north side of the town and forms part of the ...

, in

Oxfordshire Oxfordshire ( ; abbreviated ''Oxon'') is a ceremonial county in South East England. The county is bordered by Northamptonshire and Warwickshire to the north, Buckinghamshire to the east, Berkshire to the south, and Wiltshire and Glouceste ...

History

The village was mentioned in the

Domesday Book Domesday Book ( ; the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book") is a manuscript record of the Great Survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 at the behest of William the Conqueror. The manuscript was originally known by ...

of 1086 as ''Cerdeslai''. It was originally a

hamlet ''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a Shakespearean tragedy, tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play. Set in Denmark, the play (the ...

in the nearby

parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christianity, Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest#Christianity, priest, often termed a parish pries ...

of Crendon. It was established as a parish in its own right by the

Bishop of Lincoln The Bishop of Lincoln is the Ordinary (officer), ordinary (diocesan bishop) 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 Nort ...

in 1458.

Etymology

The village name is

Anglo Saxon The Anglo-Saxons, in some contexts simply called Saxons or the English, were a cultural group who spoke Old English and inhabited much of what is now England and south-eastern Scotland in the Early Middle Ages. They traced their origins to Ge ...

in origin, and means 'Cerdic's clearing' or 'Cerdic's lea'.

Elite personal names

The incidence of Brittonic personal names in the royal genealogies of a number of "Anglo-Saxon" dynasties is significant. The

Wessex The Kingdom of the West Saxons, also known as the Kingdom of Wessex, was an Anglo-Saxon Heptarchy, kingdom in the south of Great Britain, from around 519 until Alfred the Great declared himself as King of the Anglo-Saxons in 886. The Anglo-Sa ...

royal line was traditionally founded by a man named

Cerdic Cerdic ( ; ) is described in the ''Anglo-Saxon Chronicle'' as a leader of the Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain, being the founder and first king of Wessex, reigning from around 519 to 534 AD. Subsequent kings of Wessex were each claimed by the ...

, an undoubtedly Brittonic name ultimately derived from

Caratacus Caratacus was a 1st-century AD British chieftain of the Catuvellauni tribe, who resisted the Roman conquest of Britain. Before the Roman invasion, Caratacus is associated with the expansion of his tribe's territory. His apparent success led ...

. This may indicate that Cerdic was a native Briton, and that his dynasty became anglicised over time.Koch, J.T., (2006) Celtic Culture: A Historical Encyclopedia, ABC-CLIO, , pp. 392–393.Myres, J.N.L. (1989) The English Settlements. Oxford University Press, pp. 146–147

Notability

The village was used as a location in the television series Midsomer Murders – ep. Country Matters, ITV.

References

Gallery

File:Chearsley, River Thame - geograph.org.uk - 585908.jpg, River Thame at Chearsley, view from footbridge at the Cuddington parish boundary. File:Parish Church of St Nicholas, Chearsley - geograph.org.uk - 65467.jpg, Parish Church of St Nicholas, Chearsley. File:The Bell Inn, Chearsley - geograph.org.uk - 65466.jpg, The Bell Inn, Chearsley. File:River Thame floods facing Notley from Railway embankment - geograph.org.uk - 352097.jpg, River Thame floods facing Notley from Railway embankment

External links

The Chearsley Times – village information

Images at Geograph.com
{{authority control Villages in Buckinghamshire Civil parishes in Buckinghamshire