Pyrton

infobox UK place
country = England
static_

static_image_caption=
latitude= 51.69
longitude=-00.93
official_name =Pyrton
population =
shire_district=
shire_county= Oxfordshire
metropolitan_borough=
metropolitan_county =
region=South East England
constituency_westminster=
post_town=
postcode_district =
postcode_area=
dial_code=
os_grid_reference= SU6996

Pyrton is a village and civil parish in Oxfordshire, England. It lies just over a mile north of the small town of Watlington, at the foot of the Chiltern Hills. The village is in South Oxfordshire District.

History

The name Pyrton is of Old English origin and means "pear-tree farm". [Mills A. and Room, A. "A Dictionary of British Place-Names" Oxford University Press]

Pyrton was a royal estate in 774, when Offa gave land there to Worcester Cathedral. The village was mentioned in the Domesday Book, and after the Norman Conquest the estate of Pyrton Manor passed to Hugh d'Avranches, 1st Earl of Chester. By the 15th century the manor had reverted to the Crown, and in 1480 Edward IV gave it to St George's Chapel, Windsor, who were lords of the manor until about 1870. In the 17th century the parliamentarian Richard Hampden was a lessee.

Pyrton is a strip parish. The ancient parish extended for about 12 miles, from Stonor in the Chilterns to the low-lying clay lands to the north west of the village. Stonor became a separate parish in 1896.

ee also

*St Mary's Church, Pyrton

References

* [http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=63823 Victoria County History of Oxfordshire]