Wotton railway station (Great Central Railway)

Wotton railway station was a small station in Buckinghamshire, England, built by the Duke of Buckingham in 1871. Part of a private horse-drawn tramway designed to carry freight from and around his lands in Buckinghamshire, Wotton station was intended to serve the Duke's home at Wotton House and the nearby village of Wotton Underwood. In 1872 the line was extended to the nearby village of Brill, converted to passenger use, equipped with steam locomotives, and renamed the Brill Tramway. In the 1880s, it was proposed to extend the line to Oxford, but the operation of the line was instead taken over by London's Metropolitan Railway. Although situated in an unpopulated area, Wotton station was relatively well used. It saw the highest passenger numbers of any station on the line other than the terminus at Brill railway station and the junction with the main line to London at Quainton Road railway station, and it also carried large quantities of milk from the area's dairy farms. In 1906 the Great Western and Great Central Joint Railway (commonly known as the Alternative Route) was opened, crossing the Brill Tramway at Wotton. Although the lines were not connected, a station (also named Wotton) was built on the new line very near the existing Wotton station; the two stations shared a stationmaster.In 1933 the Metropolitan Railway, which leased the line, was taken into public ownership and became the Metropolitan line of London Transport. Despite being a small rural station 49 miles (79 km) by train from the City of London, Wotton became a station on the London Underground. Frank Pick, the Chief Executive of the London Passenger Transport Board, aimed to abandon freight operations on the London Underground network, and saw no way in which the more distant parts of the former Metropolitan Railway could ever become viable passenger routes. As a result, all passenger services north of Aylesbury were withdrawn between 1935 and 1936; the last trains on the Brill Tramway ran on 30 November 1935. The line then reverted to the descendants of the Duke of Buckingham, but having no funds and no rolling stock they were unable to operate it. On 2 April 1936, the line's entire infrastructure, including Wotton station, was sold for scrap at auction. Except for a small building which once housed the Brill Tramway's forge, all the station buildings at Wotton have been demolished.

Wotton Underwood is a village and civil parish in Buckinghamshire, England, 7 miles (11 km) north of Thame, Oxfordshire. The toponym is derived from the Old English for "farm near a wood". It is recorded in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle of AD 848 as Wudotun and in the Domesday Book of 1086 as Oltone. The affix "Underwood" was added later to distinguish the village from other places also called Wotton. The affix means "near the wood" and refers to the village's nearness to the ancient Bernwood Forest.The present manor house in the village, Wotton House, dates from the early eighteenth century, but has been much altered since, notably by John Soane in the 1820s. The former stables, now called South Pavilion, was the home of actor Sir John Gielgud; it was bought by Tony and Cherie Blair for £4m, in 2008.

Wotton House, Wotton Underwood, Buckinghamshire, England, is a stately home built between 1704 and 1714, to a design very similar to that of the contemporary version of Buckingham House. The house is an example of English Baroque and a Grade I listed building. The architect is uncertain although William Winde, the designer of Buckingham House, has been suggested. The grounds were laid out by George London and Henry Wise with a formal parterre and a double elm avenue leading down to a lake. Fifty years later William Pitt the Elder and Capability Brown improved the landscape, creating pleasure grounds with two lakes. After a fire gutted the main house in 1820 Richard Grenville, 1st Earl Temple, commissioned John Soane to rebuild it. After the 3rd Duke of Buckingham and Chandos, the last direct Grenville male heir, died in 1889, the house was let to a succession of tenants; including, notably; the philanthropist, Leo Bernard William Bonn (1850-1929) who became deaf while residing at Wotton, and later founded (1911) what became the RNID. His son and heir, the decorated First World War hero, Major Walter Basil Louis Bonn, DSO, MC, MA (Oxon.) FRSA, FZSL (1885-1973) is also listed as resident at Wotton House; in the New College archives, at Oxford University; during his three years as an Oxford undergraduate, there, 1903–1906, while living fifteen miles away from his family home of many years, at Wotton House. In 1929 Wotton was bought by Major Michael Beaumont MP who renovated it. In 1947 Beaumont sold the estate to a charity who divided the grounds into small parcels and let the main house to two boys' schools. By 1957 the house had become derelict and was due to be demolished when Elaine Brunner found it and with the help of the architect Donald Insall restored most of the Soane features. Her daughter and son-in-law David Gladstone have continued the work she started. The South Pavilion (the former coach house) was sold separately in 1947. It has had a number of notable owners including Sir Arthur Bryant and Sir John Gielgud, and is now co-owned by former British Prime Minister Tony Blair and his wife Cherie, as well as David Gladstone, with Gladstone owning the main building (shown above) and the former British Prime Minister owning the smaller house next to it, with the fields of land being co-owned.

Ashendon is a small village and civil parish in Buckinghamshire, England. It is about nine miles west of Aylesbury and seven miles north of Thame. The toponym is derived from the Old English for "Hill overgrown with ash trees". The Domesday Book of 1086 records the village as the property of the Grenville family; it was called Assedune. The original name refers to the fact that in Saxon times this area was forested, serving as hunting land for the king. In recent times the manor of Ashendon passed into the hands of the Marquis of Buckingham. Included in with the parish of Ashendon are the hamlets of Upper Pollicott and Lower Pollicott. The names of these hamlets derive from the Anglo-Saxon Pol's Cottage. In the less distant past, Ashendon was an entirely farming village and, at present, there is still much agricultural activity within the village. However, some of the farmhouses have been converted into private residences, the best example of this being Ashendon Farm and its barns. Although Ashendon is a small village, in comparison with many nearby Buckinghamshire villages, it has a pub, a recreational playing field, a church and a thriving social club. One mile south-west of the village, near Lower Pollicott, on the Chiltern Main Line between Princes Risborough and Bicester North, is the site of the former Ashendon Junction, which was an elaborate flying junction engineered for a high-speed turnout on to the now-dismantled link to the now disused Great Central Main Line at Grendon Underwood Junction. In former times this route was used by express trains between London Marylebone, Leicester and Sheffield.

Ashendon Junction in Buckinghamshire, England, was a major mainline railway junction where, from July 1910, the Great Western Railway's (GWR) London-Birmingham direct route diverged from the Great Central Railway's (GCR) main London-Sheffield route. It was near the small village of Ashendon, about 10 miles north-east of Oxford. The junction was where what is now the Chiltern Main Line (formerly the "Birmingham Direct Line" aka "Bicester cut-off" of the GWR), inaugurated in 1910, joined the post-1906 "Alternative Route" alignment of the GCR. It was located 3 miles 44 chains (5.71 km) north-west of today's Haddenham and Thame Parkway; 44 miles 4 chains (70.89 km) from London Paddington via Northolt Junction, and 45 miles 31 chains (73.04 km) from London Marylebone via Neasden and Northolt Junctions. It was a high-speed flying junction carrying southbound GWR trains from Birmingham via Bicester North (Engineer's Line Reference NAJ2) on an embankment with a girder bridge over the top of northbound Great Central trains travelling from London Marylebone on to the 90 mph five-mile link to Grendon Underwood Junction (Engineer's Line Reference GUA) where they rejoined the original Great Central Main Line towards Brackley and beyond to the East Midlands and North.

The Rocket Propulsion Establishment at Westcott, Buckinghamshire on the site of the former RAF Westcott has made a number of notable contributions in the field of rocket propulsion, including input on the rocket design for the Blue Streak missile and the propulsion systems on Chevaline. It was also known as the Guided Projectiles Establishment and PERME Westcott (Propellants, Explosives and Rocket Motor Establishment, Westcott). For many years this establishment was regarded as so secret that it was not marked on Ordnance Survey maps, although it was present, from necessity, on maps for the use of pilots.

Dorton Halt railway station was a railway station serving the village of Dorton in Buckinghamshire. It was on what is now known as the Chiltern Main Line. The station was geographically nearer to Brill than Brill and Ludgershall railway station.

Dorton (or Dourton) is a village and civil parish in the Aylesbury Vale district of Buckinghamshire. It is in the western part of the county, about 5 miles (8 km) north of the Oxfordshire market town of Thame.

Dorton House is a Jacobean country house near the village of Dorton in Buckinghamshire, England. It was built between 1596 and 1626. It currently houses Ashfold School, an independent preparatory school. Dorton House is a Grade I listed building.

Woodham is a hamlet and civil parish about 7.5 miles (12.1 km) west of Aylesbury in Buckinghamshire. At the 2011 Census the population of the hamlet was included in the civil parish of Kingswood. The toponym is derived from the Old English for "home near a wood", referring to its proximity to the ancient Bernwood Forest. Woodham is on the ancient Akeman Street Roman road, which since the 1920s has been classified as the A41. In 1906 the Great Central Railway built a line through the parish and opened Akeman Street railway station where it crossed the main road at Woodham. The station had a short working life, being closed by the GCR's successor the London and North Eastern Railway in 1930.

Akeman Street was a railway station at Woodham, Buckinghamshire, where the railway linking Ashendon Junction and Grendon Underwood Junction crossed the Akeman Street Roman road (now the A41 road).

Wood Siding railway station was a halt in Bernwood Forest, Buckinghamshire, England. It opened in 1871 as a terminus of a short horse-drawn tramway built to assist the transport of goods from and around the Duke of Buckingham's extensive estates in Buckinghamshire, as well as connect the Duke's estates to the Aylesbury and Buckingham Railway at Quainton Road. In 1872, a lobbying campaign by residents of the town of Brill led to the tramway being converted for passenger use and extended a short distance beyond Wood Siding to Brill railway station, becoming known as the Brill Tramway. The railway was cheaply built, ungraded, and used poor quality locomotives; services were very slow, initially limited to a speed of 5 miles per hour (8 km/h). In the 1890s it was planned to extend the tramway to Oxford, but the scheme was abandoned. Instead, the operation of the line was taken over by the Metropolitan Railway in 1899. Between 1908 and 1910 the station was completely rebuilt on a bridge over the newly built Chiltern Main Line of the Great Western Railway, which passed directly beneath the station. In 1933 the Metropolitan Railway was taken into public ownership and became the Metropolitan line of London Transport. As a result, Wood Siding became a station on the London Underground network, despite being over 45 miles (72 km) from the City of London. London Transport's new management aimed to move away from goods services to concentrate on passenger services. As the line served a very lightly populated rural area, the new management believed it very unlikely that it could ever be made viable. Wood Siding was closed, along with the rest of the line, from 30 November 1935. All infrastructure associated with the station was removed in 1936; the remains of the bridge which supported the station are still in place.