Long Crendon

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Thatched houses in Long Crendon

Long Crendon is a village in Buckinghamshire, England, about 3 miles west of Haddenham and 2 miles northwest of Thame.

The village has only been known as Long Crendon since the English Civil War.^[1] The "Long" prefix refers simply to the length of the village at that time, and was added to differentiate it from nearby Grendon Underwood. Previously it was simply known as Crendon. This name is Anglo-Saxon and means Creoda's Hill (in 1086 it was listed in the Domesday Book as Crededone).^[2]

The village has a long and illustrious history. The Manor in Long Crendon was once a great building that housed the Earls of Buckingham and over the years the various manorial estates in the village have passed through the hands of the Crown, Oxford University, the Earls of March and the Marquis of Buckingham.^[3] The latter is presently the Lord of the Manor of Long Crendon.

The Manor, Long Crendon

In 1162 an order of Augustine^[4] monks was founded in the village at nearby Notley Abbey. The park in which the abbey stood was donated to the abbey itself by the incumbent of the manor, the Earl of Buckingham. At the time of the Dissolution of the Monasteries the annual income was calculated as over £437: an immense amount of money for the time. In addition Notley Abbey was the marital home of acting royalty Sir Laurence Olivier and Lady Vivien Leigh. The abbey still stands, though is now a manor house in its own right.^[3]

Long Crendon parish church

In 1218 Long Crendon was granted a royal charter to hold a weekly market;^[3] the monies from which were to be collected by William Earl Marshall who owned the manor at that time. The town (as it was then) was certainly important in this period as it shared the distinction with Aylesbury as being the only places in the whole of England where needles were manufactured.^[1] The royal charter was later rescinded and the market moved and joined with the existing one in nearby Thame.

There was a Long Crendon Rural District from 1894 to 1934.

The village now has 3 pubs (one of which has recently become a Chinese restaurant), 2 inns (one of which is a well-known fish restaurant) a small square with about six little shops, an Indian restaurant, a traditional English restaurant 'The Mole and Chicken' (which is actually just outside the village in the hamlet of Easington), a hairdressers, a primary school, playing fields and two parks. Long Crendon School is a mixed, community school, which has approximately 240 pupils from the age of four through to the age of 11.

Long Crendon Courthouse

The parish church is dedicated to St Mary.^[5] The church is currently undergoing major renovation and refurbishment which is due to be completed early in 2008. There are also Baptist and Roman Catholic churches in the village.

Long Crendon Courthouse is a 15th century timber frame building. Manorial courts were held here from the reign of King Henry V to Victorian times. The courthouse was bought by the National Trust in 1900. The lower floor is residential, the upper floor can be visited.

Midsomer Murders, the ITV crime series is often filmed in Long Crendon with locals posing as extras.

There are two local football clubs in Long Crendon. Long Crendon Youth FC are an FA Charter Standard Club providing competitive football for U15 boys (2007/8), practising at the Recreation Ground on Chearsley Road and playing in Division 2 of the Bucks Free Press Junior League.^[6] Crendon Corinthians Youth Football Club (CCYFC) has over 200 members, with teams across 9 age groups from Under 6 to Under 18, competing in 5 different leagues. The club was awarded FA Charter Standard Status in 2004. ^[7]