Mursley is a small village in and also a

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of Parish (administrative division), administrative parish used for Local government in England, local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below district ...

Buckinghamshire Buckinghamshire (), abbreviated Bucks, is a ceremonial county in South East England that borders Greater London to the south-east, Berkshire to the south, Oxfordshire to the west, Northamptonshire to the north, Bedfordshire to the north-eas ...

, England. It is located about three miles east of Winslow and about seven miles south west of Central Milton Keynes. The village name is Old English in origin, and is thought to mean 'Myrsa's woodland clearing'. 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 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manusc ...

of 1086 the village was recorded as ''Muselai'', with the form ''Murselai'' being attested from the thirteenth century. The village was at one time a more important place; it was once a

market town A market town is a Human settlement, settlement most common in Europe that obtained by custom or royal charter, in the Middle Ages, a market right, which allowed it to host a regular marketplace, market; this distinguished it from a village or ...

, by virtue of a

royal charter A royal charter is a formal grant issued by a monarch under royal prerogative as letters patent. Historically, they have been used to promulgate public laws, the most famous example being the English Magna Carta (great charter) of 1215, but ...

granted in 1230, and the centre of the local

deanery A deanery (or decanate) is an ecclesiastical entity in the Roman Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Anglican Communion, the Evangelical Church in Germany, and the Church of Norway. A deanery is either the jurisdiction or reside ...

. ''"The prosperity of the town continued until well into the 17th century"'' but around the middle of the 18th century, Mursley was described as having ''"dwindled into a neglected village', being 'small and depopulated', the parish having about 66 families and 258 souls."'' There was at one time a

manor Manor may refer to: Land ownership *Manorialism or "manor system", the method of land ownership (or "tenure") in parts of medieval Europe, notably England *Lord of the manor, the owner of an agreed area of land (or "manor") under manorialism *Man ...

in the locality called "Salden", within which stood a

manor house A manor house was historically the main residence of the lord of the manor. The house formed the administrative centre of a manor in the European feudal system; within its great hall were held the lord's manorial courts, communal meals with ...

built by the Chancellor of the Exchequer from 1589 until 1603, John Fortescue of Salden (1531–1607). The manor house was visited by

King James I James VI and I (James Charles Stuart; 19 June 1566 – 27 March 1625) was King of Scotland as James VI from 24 July 1567 and King of England and Ireland as James I from the union of the Scottish and English crowns on 24 March 1603 until hi ...

and

Anne of Denmark Anne of Denmark (; 12 December 1574 – 2 March 1619) was the wife of King James VI and I; as such, she was Queen of Scotland from their marriage on 20 August 1589 and Queen of England and Ireland from the union of the Scottish and En ...

in 1603.''HMC Salisbury Hatfield'', vol. 15 (London, 1930), p. 170. It has since disappeared. Actor David Tomlinson, who played George Banks in '' Mary Poppins'' and Mr. Emelius Browne in '' Bedknobs and Broomsticks'', lived and raised his children in Mursley until his death on 24 June 2000. Tomlinson became notorious around the village for flying very low in his

Tiger Moth The de Havilland DH.82 Tiger Moth is a 1930s British biplane designed by Geoffrey de Havilland and built by the de Havilland Aircraft Company. It was operated by the Royal Air Force (RAF) and other operators as a primary trainer aircraft. ...

and on one occasion he crash landed in a field near his house and was tried for, but acquitted of, reckless flying. The Beechams estate in the village draws its name from Sir Thomas Beecham who resided in Mursley Hall which used to exist on the site of this estate. Mursley's Church of England School is a Victorian,

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britai ...

primary school A primary school (in Ireland, the United Kingdom, Australia, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, and South Africa), junior school (in Australia), elementary school or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary ed ...

. It is a voluntary controlled infant school, which has approximately 45 pupils from the age of four through to the age of seven.

Sport & Leisure

Mursley has a

non-League football Non-League football describes association football, football leagues played outside the top leagues of a country. Usually, it describes leagues which are not fully professional. The term is primarily used for football in England, where it is s ...

team Mursley United F.C. who play at the Playing Field in Station Road.

Notes

References

External links

Mursley Parish Website (www.Mursley.net)Mursley Village History
{{authority control Villages in Buckinghamshire Civil parishes in Buckinghamshire