Chinnor

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Chinnor is a large village situated on the Icknield Way and the Chiltern escarpment, in South Oxfordshire. Approximately four miles south of Thame, it was formerly home to a cement works and artisans supporting High Wycombe's furniture making industry, but is primarily a dormitory for Thame, Wycombe, Aylesbury and London in the 21st century.

Dating back to Saxon times, as Ceonna, Chennore, and then Chynor, the village has a good mix of old and new buildings. It grew fastest in the 1960s - from 1950 population of 1,961 to 4,471 in 1971. Chinnor was then situated largely around the main 'square' of Station Road, Lower Road, High Street, and Church Road (actually rectangular). The hamlet of Oakley to the southwest was subsumed into the village around this time, when building along Oakley Road and the Mill Lane estate more than doubled the physical size of the village. Today the population is around 7,300, though the 2001 census records details on only 6,850.

Chinnor played a small part in the English Civil War and many of the village's ghost stories and historical anecdotes date from this time. A number of Civil War-era buildings still survive. More recently, Chinnor was the birthplace of rock musician Adam Clayton.

The village has two primary schools - St Andrew's Church of England, and Mill Lane - but no secondary school. Teenage children are bussed to Thame and Watlington for secondary education, and Henley or Thame for sixth form and further education.

Chinnor is at one end of the Chinnor & Princes Risborough Railway line, which is a heritage railway. Steam locomotives are run on some weekends and bank holidays.

Chinnor has three churches: St Andrew's Church, Chinnor Methodist Church, and Chinnor Congregational Church.