Shirburn Hill

Lewknor Bridge Halt railway station was a halt on the Watlington and Princes Risborough Railway which the Great Western Railway opened in 1906 to serve the Oxfordshire village of Lewknor. The opening of the halt was part of a GWR attempt to encourage more passengers on the line at a time when competition from bus services was drawing away patronage.

Lewknor is a village and civil parish about 5 miles (8 km) south of Thame in Oxfordshire.The civil parish includes the villages of Postcombe and South Weston. The 2011 Census recorded the parish's population as 663.

Christmas Common is a hamlet in Watlington civil parish, Oxfordshire about 7+1⁄2 miles (12 km) south of Thame in Oxfordshire, close to the boundary with Buckinghamshire. The hamlet is 812 feet (247 m) above sea level on an escarpment of the Chiltern Hills. Because of its elevation, Christmas Common has two radio masts that are prominent local landmarks.

Watlington and Pyrton Hills is a 112.7-hectare (278-acre) biological Site of Special Scientific Interest east of Watlington in Oxfordshire. An area of 1.6 hectares (4.0 acres) is Watlington Chalk Pit, which is a Local Nature Reserve.This site has floristically diverse chalk grassland, chalk scrub, broadleaved woodland and yew woodland. Watlington Hill has short turf which is grazed by rabbits, with flowering plants including yellow-wort, dropwort, horseshoe vetch, squinancywort and the nationally rare candytuft.

Aston Rowant National Nature Reserve is located on the north-west escarpment of the Chiltern Hills, in the Chilterns Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. It has an area of 159.1 hectares (393 acres), and most of it is a 128.5 hectares (318 acres) biological Site of Special Scientific Interest. It is listed as a Grade 1 site in A Nature Conservation Review. The reserve is in several sections, mostly in the parish of Lewknor in Oxfordshire, with smaller sections in the parish of Stokenchurch in Buckinghamshire. The reserve is home to plants and butterflies of chalk grassland. The flowers include at least seven species of orchid and the Chiltern gentian; the butterflies include the silver-spotted skipper and the Adonis blue. As well as chalk grassland, the reserve contains woodland with beech, yew, and juniper. Overhead, reintroduced red kites are resident.

The London Parachute School is a BPA affiliated parachuting centre and skydiving drop zone at Chiltern Park Aerodrome at Ipsden, near Wallingford, Oxfordshire The drop zone operates a Turbine Cessna 208B Grand Caravan. The centre provides student training in the Ram Air Progression System, Accelerated Freefall (AFF) and tandem skydiving.

Cowleaze Wood is a 70-acre (28 ha) woodland in the Chiltern Hills, a chalk ridge in South East England. The wood is in the civil parish of Lewknor, in Oxfordshire, about 1+1⁄4 miles (2 km) southeast of the village. It is next to the county boundary with Buckinghamshire, and adjoins Lydall's Wood on the Buckinghamshire side of the boundary. The Forestry Commission owns Coweleaze Wood, and planted it between 1957 and 1966. It is particularly known for its bluebells, and walkers are also attracted to the wood by sightings of red kites. There is a large car park adjoining the wood, and a picnic area with sculptured benches designed by furniture designer Fred Baier.

Shirburn is a village and civil parish about 6 miles (10 km) south of Thame in Oxfordshire. It contains the Grade I listed, 14th-century Shirburn Castle, along with its surrounding, Grade II listed park, and a parish church, the oldest part of which is from the Norman period. The parish has a high altitude by county standards. Its eastern part is in the Chiltern Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. Shirburn, the largest civil parish in the district, is forested to the south. A motorway cuts across one edge.

Shirburn Castle is a Grade I listed, moated castle located at the village of Shirburn, near Watlington, Oxfordshire. Originally constructed in the fourteenth century, it was renovated and remodelled in the Georgian era by Thomas Parker, the first Earl of Macclesfield who made it his family seat, and altered further in the early nineteenth century. The Earls of Macclesfield remained in residence until 2004, and the castle is still (2022) owned by the Macclesfield family company. It formerly contained an important, early eighteenth century library which, along with valuable paintings, sculptures, and other artifacts including furniture, remained in the ownership of the 9th Earl and were largely dispersed at auction following his departure from the property; notable among these items were George Stubbs's 1768 painting "Brood Mares and Foals", a record setter for the artist at auction in 2010, the Macclesfield Psalter, numerous rare and valuable books, and personal correspondence of Sir Isaac Newton. On account of its "fairy tale" external appearance and unmodernised interior, the castle has been used on occasion for film and television settings and is possibly best known to the outside world via that route, since it remains in private hands, no roads pass it, and it is generally not open to the public for visiting. In addition, any history of the castle is somewhat obscured by lack of permitted access to scholars of medieval architecture over the past one (to two) hundred years as well as by conflicting statements in available published accounts; these include that the present castle has Norman origins and/or is on the site of a Norman precursor (not supported by any evidence), that the castle is an early example of brick construction (based on a mis-interpretation), and that the castle was badly damaged during the English Civil War prior to its rebuilding in the eighteenth century (no evidence exists for this assertion). A further piece of apparently deliberate misinformation was a claim that "Shirburn Castle" was visited by a tutor of Dante at the end of the thirteenth century, before the present structure was known to exist; the 1802 document upon which this assertion was based was subsequently shown to be a forgery.

Watlington Chalk Pit is a 1.6-hectare (4.0-acre) Local Nature Reserve east of Watlington in Oxfordshire. It is owned by South Oxfordshire District Council and managed by Watlington Parish Council and Watlington Environment Group. It is part of Watlington and Pyrton Hills Site of Special Scientific Interest.This site has floristically rich chalk grassland and scrub. There are many lichens, mosses and liverworts, and twenty species of butterfly have been recorded. Wintering birds include fieldfares, redwings, yellowhammer and linnets.There is access from Hill Road.

All Saints' Church is the redundant Church of England parish church of the parish of Shirburn, Oxfordshire, England. It is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade II listed building, and is in the care of the Churches Conservation Trust. The church is at the west end of the village, immediately south of Shirburn Castle, the seat of the Earls of Macclesfield since 1715. The north chapel of the church is the mausoleum of the Parker family, Earls of Macclesfield.

Watlington railway station in Oxfordshire was the terminus of the Watlington and Princes Risborough Railway and opened in 1872. Watlington station was not in Watlington itself, but in the parish of Pyrton half a mile from Watlington. The line was always single track. The facilities at Watlington station included a stone-built passenger building, a goods shed, and locomotive and carriage sheds. The line was projected to be extended to Wallingford, where it would complete a cross-country line between Cholsey and Princes Risborough. Due to financial difficulties the Watlington - Wallingford section was never built. British Railways closed the Watlington and Princes Risborough Railway to passengers in 1957 and to goods in 1961. Remains of the buildings exist, heavily overgrown, on private land.