Biddlesden

Biddlesden Park is a country house at Biddlesden in north-west Buckinghamshire. It is a Grade II* listed building.

Biddlesden was a Cistercian abbey founded in 1147 by Arnold de Bosco (de Bois), steward to the Earl of Leicester. Abbot William Wibert was deposed in 1198 for fraud, gross immorality and bribery. In the 14th to 15th centuries there was a long running dispute with the parish of Wappenham concerning the collection of tithes. It was never a wealthy house for most of its history and would have been dissolved in 1536 if the monks had not petitioned, and paid, for its continuation. The monastery was finally surrendered in September 1538 and became the possession of Thomas Lord Wriothesley. In the 1730s, the ruins of the abbey were demolished and a house built upon the site, Biddlesden Park House, now a grade II listed building. A few stones from the abbey remain but not in situ.

Syresham is a village and civil parish in the English district of West Northamptonshire. The civil parish population at the 2011 census was 855. It is near Brackley town and close to Silverstone Circuit. It is surrounded by villages and hamlets such as Biddlesden, Whitfield, Helmdon, Silverstone and Wappenham, and the border with Buckinghamshire lies just to the south of the village. The border itself is defined by the River Great Ouse, which rises within the parish. There are two small hamlets in the parish: Crowfield and Pimlico. The village's name means 'homestead/village of Sigehere' or 'hemmed-in land of Sigehere'.The local geology includes the cornbrash and oolitic limestone of Jurassic age. There is a large abandoned quarry north of the church which supplied the stone for many of the older buildings in the village. The population, like so many other villages in England, is now much lower than even a century ago due to the British agricultural revolution. There are the remains of a very large fish pond south of the church and close to the manor house. The dam wall still stands, but the pond was drained long ago for its rich pasture. Following the Dissolution of the Monasteries most of the land in and around Syresham passed to Magdalen College, Oxford. Much of the estate has now been sold off, however There are several deserted medieval villages nearby, including Astwell near Helmdon, the site of the still standing keep or gatehouse of Astwell Castle.

Syresham Marshy Meadows is a 17.8-hectare (44-acre) biological Site of Special Scientific Interest west of Silverstone in Northamptonshire.This site consists of two nearby areas of wetland in valleys which drain into the River Great Ouse. The northern one is a mire on shallow peat, and the southern one is agriculturally unimproved grassland and marsh on diverse soils, which has over a hundred flowering plant species.A footpath leads into the northern area, but there is no public access to the southern one.

Turweston Aerodrome (ICAO: EGBT) is an airfield located near the village of Turweston, in north Buckinghamshire near the Northamptonshire border. It is a former Royal Air Force Second World War bomber training facility, now a business park and airfield which is home to the Light Aircraft Association.Turweston Aerodrome is no longer licensed by the CAA as of August 2015. It previously held an Ordinary Licence (Number P750) that allowed flights for the public transport of passengers or for flying instruction. It is not licensed for night use. The main runway is 09/27 and tarmac with a parallel grass runway available that doubles as a taxiway for the majority of the time. There is an additional grass cross runway that is used also as a taxiway and as additional parking for events orientation of 03/21. Radio communication services are provided by Turweston Air/Ground on 122.180 MHz.

Crowfield is a hamlet of some two dozen houses in the civil parish of Syresham in that part of the English county of Northamptonshire popularly known as Banburyshire. It is situated in the ancient Whittlewood Forest and in ancient times was on the borders of Mercia and Wessex. The population is included in the civil parish of Syresham. It is administered as part of West Northamptonshire. There is evidence of pre-Roman habitation in the immediate vicinity of Crowfield, and the outlines of Roman fields can be seen from aerial photographs at the west end of the hamlet. About a mile to the north there is a densely wooded enclosure known as The Old Mountains. This was a moated site which contained a storage barn used by the pre-reformation Cistercian Abbey of St. Mary and St. Nicholas at Biddlesden, for storage of produce it received as tithes. Following the Dissolution of the Monasteries most of the land around Crowfield initially passed to Magdalen College, Oxford.

Shalstone is a village and civil parish in Buckinghamshire, England. It is located in the north of the county, about four miles north west of Buckingham. The village name is Anglo-Saxon in origin, and means 'farm by a shallow stream'. In the Domesday Book of 1086 the village was recorded as Celdestone. Shalstone Church, dedicated to St Edward the Confessor, was almost entirely reconstructed in 1862 by the architect Sir George Gilbert Scott. Some memorial tablets in the church survived the rebuilding; these are dedicated to members of the Purefoy family and their relatives the Jervoise family. Some of the memorial statuary is by Sir Richard Westmacott (remembered chiefly for his work on the new Houses of Parliament in London). One memorial tablet commemorates the life of Elizabeth Purefoy. She was widowed in 1704 aged 32, and survived her husband by a further 61 years, as well as her unmarried son, Henry. The memorial, which she wrote herself and had installed in the church when she was still alive, reads: She was a Woman of Excellent Sense and Spiritt Prudent and Frugal As well as a true friend To the family She married into And was moreover endued With all Those Graces and Virtues Which distinguish and Adorn The good Wife The good Mother and good Christian (sic)She died in 1765.The 'Purefoy Letters', a detailed catalogue of the everyday lives of the inhabitants of the village and surrounding area as seen through the eyes of the 90-year-old Elizabeth Purefoy to her son Henry during the period 1735-1753, were published in 1973. Henry- the squire- and his mother both lived at Shalstone House. The book records Shalstone at this period in minute detail.Shalstone House is built in the Georgian style, of stone. The rectangular house is of a plain design five bays by six bays, on two floors. The hipped roof is hidden by a solid parapet. The house contains a notable chimneypiece by William Palmer installed in 1739. Shalstone House is still the home of the Purefoy family today.

Westbury is a village and civil parish in northern Buckinghamshire, England, about 2.5 miles (4.0 km) east of Brackley and 5 miles (8.0 km) west of Buckingham. It is close to the A422 and the border with Oxfordshire. The village was given by King Edward IV to the Company of Cooks in London, and has since been sold into private hands.The parish church is St Augustine, a Grade II* listed building. The church dates back to the 13th century, though much restored in 1863. The church tower house four bells, one of which dates back to the 14th century.The village is home to Beachborough School, a private prep school established originally in Hampshire in 1910, but relocated to Westbury in 1942 in the manor house.The village has a website providing information regarding the services and events taking place in the village. www.westburyvillage.org

Whitfield is a village and parish in the south-west of the English county of Northamptonshire in the valley of the River Great Ouse which forms the border with Buckinghamshire. Nearby villages include Syresham, Biddlesden, Helmdon and Silverstone. At the time of the 2001 census, the parish had 215 inhabitants, including Radstone and increasing to 274 at the 2011 Census.The Church of England parish church is dedicated to St John the Evangelist and is a Grade II listed building, built in 1870. The original church, built in the 13th century, was damaged by a heavy gale on 1 February 1869, which blew down the west tower, which required it to be rebuilt entirely.

Bucknell Wood Meadows is a 9.2-hectare (23-acre) biological Site of Special Scientific Interest north-west of Silverstone in Northamptonshire.This site consists of agriculturally unimproved fields on seasonally waterlogged soils. The flora is diverse with many herbs, including bird's-foot-trefoil, meadow buttercup and devil's-bit scabious. Variations in the types of flora are partly due to different soils and partly to previous management practices.There is access from public footpaths which pass through the site.

South Northamptonshire was a local government district in Northamptonshire, England, from 1974 to 2021. Its council was based in the town of Towcester, first established as a settlement in Roman Britain. The population of the Local Authority District Council in 2011 was 85,189.The largest town in the district was Brackley, which had a population of 14,000 in 2008, followed by Towcester, which had a population of nearly 10,000. Other significant settlements in size included Deanshanger, Bugbrooke, Roade, King's Sutton, Silverstone and Middleton Cheney. Many of the villages listed had populations exceeding 1,000.

Wappenham is a linear village and civil parish in Northamptonshire, England. It is 5 miles (8 km) south-west of Towcester, north of Syresham and north-west of Silverstone and forms part of West Northamptonshire. At the time of the 2001 census, the parish's population was 266 people, increasing to 294 at the 2011 Census.The village's name means 'homestead/village of Waeppa' or 'hemmed-in land of Waeppa'.