Great Horwood

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Great Horwood
Great Horwood shown within Buckinghamshire
Population	1,025 (2001 Census)
OS grid reference	SP770312
Parish	Great Horwood
District	Aylesbury Vale
Shire county	Buckinghamshire
Region	South East
Constituent country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	MILTON KEYNES
Postcode district	MK17
Dialling code	01296
Police	Thames Valley
Fire	Buckinghamshire
Ambulance	South Central
European Parliament	South East England
UK Parliament	Buckingham
List of places: UK • England • Buckinghamshire

Coordinates: 51°58′23″N 0°52′41″W / 51.973, -0.878

Great Horwood is a small village in Buckinghamshire, England with a population of about 1025 people (2001 Census). It is about five miles ESE of Buckingham, six miles WSW of Milton Keynes.

The village name 'Horwood' is Anglo Saxon in origin, and means 'muddy wood'. The affix 'Great' was added later to differentiate it from the adjacent village Little Horwood. In the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle in 792 the village was recorded as Horwudu.

The village was from ancient times on the periphery of the Whaddon Chase: royal hunting land that stretched across the north part of the Aylesbury Vale. In 1447 the village was granted Royal charter to hold a weekly market, thus becoming a market town. The rents from the market were collected by New College, Oxford.

Great Horwood is no longer a market town.

A hamlet within the parish border of Great Horwood is Singleborough.

Both Great Horwood village itself and Singleborough have Conservation Areas and there are 46 Grade II Listed Buildings in the Parish.

The parish church is dedicated to St James.

The village is also home to Great Horwood Church of England Combined School, which is a mixed Church of England primary school. It is a voluntary controlled school, which takes children from the age of four through to the age of eleven. The school has approximately 160 pupils. Its catchment area also includes the villages of Thornborough, Nash, Beachampton and Whaddon.