Fawley, Buckinghamshire

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Fawley
St Mary's, Fawley
Fawley shown within Buckinghamshire
OS grid reference	SU756869
Parish	Fawley
District	Wycombe
Shire county	Buckinghamshire
Region	South East
Constituent country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	Henley-on-Thames
Postcode district	RG9
Dialling code	01491
Police	Thames Valley
Fire	Buckinghamshire
Ambulance	South Central
European Parliament	South East England
UK Parliament	Wycombe
List of places: UK • England • Buckinghamshire

Coordinates: 51°34′33″N 0°54′38″W / 51.57591, -0.91046

Fawley is a village in the south-western corner of Buckinghamshire, England. It sits on the border between Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire, about seven miles west of Great Marlow and north of Henley-on-Thames.

The village name is Anglo-Saxon in origin, and means 'fallow-coloured woodland clearing'. It was recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 as Falelie. There are two other places in the country called Fawley.

Sir Bulstrode Whitelocke, a prominent Member of Parliament in Cromwell's day, was from Fawley. In 1642 he allowed soldiers fighting in the English Civil War to stay at the manor house in Fawley, but they were quite raucous in their behaviour and completely destroyed the contents of the house. In 1684 the house was completely redesigned, following a design by Sir Christopher Wren.

The parish church, which was rebuilt in 1748, is dedicated to St Mary the Virgin. It has a Tree of Life stained glass window designed by the artist John Piper, who lived nearby in Fawley Bottom, and Patrick Reyntiens.