Upper Ray Meadows

Grendon Underwood is a village and civil parish in west Buckinghamshire, England, near the border with Oxfordshire. The village sits between Woodham and Edgcott, near the Roman road Akeman Street (now part of the A41), and around 10 miles (16 km) north-west of Aylesbury. At the 2011 Census, the population of the civil parish was 1,625.

Edgcott is a village and a civil parish in Buckinghamshire district in the ceremonial county of Buckinghamshire, England. It is in the Aylesbury Vale, about eight miles east of Bicester. The village name is derived from the Old English for "oak cottage". In the Domesday Book of 1086 it is recorded as Achecote, "æcen" (from which the word "acorn" is derived) being the Old English word for oak. The manor of Edgcott was once owned by the physician and poet Sir Samuel Garth. The village also has HM Prison Grendon located nearby. In 1807 Edgcott was described as:The property is divided among a few. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Oxford. The church is old but good. There is an Independent chapel.

Ludgershall is a village and civil parish in the unitary authority area of Buckinghamshire, England. It is near the boundary with Oxfordshire, about 5.5 miles (9 km) south-east of Bicester and 5 miles (8 km) west of Waddesdon.

HM Prison Spring Hill is a Category D men's prison, located in the village of Grendon Underwood, in Buckinghamshire, England. The prison is operated by His Majesty's Prison Service, and is jointly managed with HMP Grendon, which is situated next to Spring Hill.

HM Prison Grendon is a Category B men's prison, located near the village of Grendon Underwood, in Buckinghamshire, England. The prison is operated by His Majesty's Prison Service, and is jointly managed with HMP Spring Hill which is situated next to Grendon.

Long Herdon Meadow is a 4.5-hectare (11-acre) biological Site of Special Scientific Interest south of Marsh Gibbon in Buckinghamshire. It is part of Upper Ray Meadows nature reserve, which is managed by the Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire Wildlife Trust.The site is an alluvial meadow next to the River Ray in the Vale of Aylesbury. It has clay soil and is liable to flooding. A regime of a hay cut followed by cattle grazing, without the use of artificial fertilisers, has resulted in a diverse grassland habitat now rare in England. Herbs include meadow buttercup, lesser knapweed and devil's bit scabious. Ditches and the riverbank provide a permanently wet habitat, encouraging wading birds such as snipe and curlew. Invertebrates include damselflies.There is access from the Bernwood Jubilee Way between Marsh Gibbon and the A41 road, adjacent to the River Ray.

Kingswood is a hamlet of 30 dwellings on the South side of the A41 from Waddesdon to Bicester and between the villages of Ludgershall and Grendon Underwood in Buckinghamshire, England. Kingswood is also a civil parish within Aylesbury Vale district. Parish matters are currently administered via a parish meeting. There is one Italian restaurant and public house, Canaletto which opened in 2013. There is also a derelict Village Hall blown down in the Great Storm of 1987.

Brill and Ludgershall railway station was a railway station serving the villages of Brill and Ludgershall in Buckinghamshire. It was on what is now known as the Chiltern Main Line.

Ham Home-cum-Hamgreen Woods is a 23.2-hectare (57-acre) biological Site of Special Scientific Interest in Kingswood near Grendon Underwood in Buckinghamshire. It is composed of two separate areas, Ham Home Wood and Hamgreen Wood, and is a small part of the formerly extensive Bernwood Forest.The site is woodland on clay, and although most of it has been coppiced at different times, it has a varied structure, and rich variety of flora and invertebrates. These factors, together with the presence of wild service trees, show that the woods are ancient. The main tree is oak, with an understorey which includes wych elm, crab apple and guelder rose. Flowers include primroses and bluebells, and in wetter areas there are ragged robin and marsh bedstraw. The woods have the largest British breeding colony of the nationally rare black hairstreak butterfly.There is access from the A41 road and Grendon Road

Rushbeds Wood is a 56-hectare (140-acre) nature reserve near Wotton Underwood in Buckinghamshire, managed by the Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire Wildlife Trust (BBOWT). It is a surviving fragment of the ancient Bernwood Forest. The reserve is part of Rushbeds Wood and Railway Cutting, an 80.2-hectare (198-acre) biological Site of Special Scientific Interest. This includes a section of the Chiltern Main Line railway cutting, which runs along the north-east side of the BBOWT reserve.The site is ancient woodland on heavy clay soils which are often waterlogged. The invertebrate fauna are described by Natural England as "exceptional", including over thirty butterfly species, such as the nationally rare black hairstreak and the scarce wood white and purple emperor. The woodland is wet ash and maple, with other trees including elm and hornbeam. The understorey has species indicative of long tree cover, such as Poa nemoralis and wood millet. There are many common breeding birds and in the ponds and ditches there are breeding smooth and great crested newts. The railway cutting is dominated by upright brome grass.There is access to the BBOWT site by a railway bridge at the eastern corner of the site.

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.

Marsh Gibbon is a village and civil parish in Buckinghamshire, England. It is close to the A41 and the border with Oxfordshire about 4 miles (6.4 km) east of Bicester. In the centre of the village the buildings are largely built of local stone, and roofed in tiles, slate and thatch. Many of which are listed buildings. The centre and east of the village are designated as the Marsh Gibbon Conservation Area, including the Greyhound pub, The Plough, the Manor House and the Church. In the south of the parish, formerly part of the ancient Bernwood Forest, the landscape and habitat has been designated as the Upper Ray Meadows Nature Reserve, while Long Herdon Meadow is a national Site of Special Scientific Interest.