Croughton, Northamptonshire

Croughton
Croughton
Croughton shown within Northamptonshire
Population 992 (2011 census)
OS grid reference SP544335
• London 68 miles (109 km) SE
Civil parish
  • Evenley
District
Shire county
Region
Country England
Sovereign state United Kingdom
Post town BRACKLEY
Postcode district NN13
Dialling code 01869
Police Northamptonshire
Fire Northamptonshire
Ambulance East Midlands
EU Parliament East Midlands
UK Parliament

Croughton is a small village in the South Northamptonshire district of Northamptonshire, England. The population of the civil parish was 992 at the 2011 census.[1] It is close to the border with Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire and is six kilometres southwest of the town of Brackley. Along with Aynho it is one of the county's two southernmost villages.

Croughton All Saints Primary School is based on the High Street in the Village.

Name

There is no one predominant pronunciation of the village's name; residents pronounce its first syllable to rhyme either with "thou" or with "crow". The "thou" pronunciation was adopted by the Americans nearby at RAF Croughton when the airbase was in use by the USAF. In early records the name has spellings such as Crewelton, and is thought to mean "town in the fork of a river".[2]

Location

Croughton is situated upon the B4031 road running west from Buckingham, and is close to the Ockley Brook, a minor tributary of the River Cherwell, which it meets southwest of Aynho.

The village is dwarfed by RAF Croughton, a base on long-term lease to the United States Air Force, 2 miles (3.2 km) south-east.

History

The village is best known for its Parish Church dedicated to All Saints, which is of historical significance for its murals. An historic elm reputedly stood in the church grounds for 800 years, and although it is believed to have died of Dutch elm disease in the 1970s, its demise dates back to the early 1900s. The remains of an Iron Age fort, Rainsborough Camp, lie to the north-west of the village, and the site of the long-abandoned mediaeval village of Astwick lies to the north-east.

Notable people

References and notes

  1. ↑ "Civil Parish population 2011". Neighbourhood Statistics. Office for National Statistics. Retrieved 1 July 2016.
  2. ↑ Eilert Ekwall, The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Place-Names, 1960, page 133
  3. ↑ Whellan, Francis (1874). History, Topography, and Directory of Northamptonshire. Whittaker. p. 476.
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