Grendon Underwood
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Grendon Underwood is a village in Buckinghamshire, England. It is in the west of the county, close to the border with Oxfordshire and near the Roman road Akeman Street.
The village name is Anglo Saxon in origin, and means 'green hill near a wood', though the 'Underwood' part of the name was only added in the medieval period to differentiate the village from nearby Long Crendon and to signify the village's position near the Bernwood Forest. In the Domesday Book of 1086 the village was recorded as Grennedone.
The manor of Grendon anciently belonged to the St Armand family. Almeric de St Armand of this family was one of the godfathers of King Edward I when he was baptised in 1239.
The parish church is dedicated to St Leonard. The only local pub is The Swan. There is one village shop owned by Mr. Patel and The Grendon Garage is owned by Geoff the Younger and Geoff the Elder. The community school is Grendon Underwood Combined School, which caters for children from reception to year 6, or from 4 years old to 11 years old. The school has approximately 280 pupils.
Today Grendon Underwood is the location of two prisons, the B-Category prison Grendon which is the UK's only therapeutic community for the treatment of serious offenders, and the D-Category open prison, Spring Hill.
Grendon Underwood Junction was the point at Greatmoor, just east of Grendon Underwood village, at which the Alternative Route of the London Extension of the Great Central Railway left the original main line. This was a little north of the point where the main line joined the previous Metropolitan Railway's line from Verney Junction to Aylesbury, and thence to London; the latter junction no longer exists, as the line to Verney Junction has been closed and lifted. During the Second World War Grendon Hall was Station 53a of the Special Operations Executive (SOE).
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