Owlswick

Owlswick is a hamlet in Buckinghamshire, England, about 3 miles E of Thame and 4 miles SSE of Aylesbury. It is part of the civil parish of Longwick-cum-Ilmer and is in the ecclesiastical parish of Monks Risborough.

The name appears in a document of about 1200 as Ulveswike, meaning the dairy farm of Ulf, which was a Danish personal name. The district is well to the south of the Danelaw, but a man of Danish origin may have come south and settled here.[1]

The hamlet was not mentioned in Domesday Book in 1086 because it formed part of the manor of Monks Risborough. It was later subinfeudated (i.e. granted as a feudal sub-manor) to a military subtenant and was held by knight-service by the 13th century. It continued as a separate sub-manor, paying a quit-rent to the manor of Monks Risborough until copyhold tenure was abolished in 1925.[2]

Today the hamlet is small but picturesque, and affords magnificent views of the nearby Chiltern Hills.

References

  1. ^ Mawer & Stenton: The Place Names of Buckinghamshire (Cambridge 1925)
  2. ^ Victoria History of the County of Buckingham Vol.2 (1908) p.257