Aylesbury ( or ) is the county town of Buckinghamshire, England. It is located midway between High Wycombe and Milton Keynes. In 2021, Aylesbury civil parish had a population of 63,273, while its urban area had a population of 87,950; the housing target for the town is set to grow, with 16,000 homes to be built by 2033.Vale of Aylesbury Local Plan It is home to the Roald Dahl Children's Gallery and the Waterside Theatre; the town's Queens Park Arts Centre received the King's Award for Voluntary Service.
Etymology
The town name is of Old English origin. It is first recorded in the form Æglesburg in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, a text which took its present form in the later ninth century. The word Ægles is a personal name in the genitive case, meaning "Ægel's" and means "fortification". Thus the name once meant "Fort of Ægel", though who Ægel was is not recorded.The Cambridge Dictionary of English Place-Names Based on the Collections of the English Place-Name Society, ed. by Victor Watts (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004), s.v. AYLESBURY; . Nineteenth-century speculation that the name contained the Welsh word meaning "a church" (from Latin ) has been discredited.
History Excavations in the town centre in 1985 found an Iron Age hillfort dating from the early 4th century BCE.
The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle portrays Aylesbury as being captured from the Britons by one Cuthwulf following the Battle of Bedcanford; the historicity of this event is doubtful, but the portrayal at least indicates that in the early Middle Ages the settlement was thought to be of some strategic importance. During the early medieval period, Aylesbury became a major market town and the burial place of Saint Osgyth, whose shrine attracted pilgrims. The town was a royal manor, with eight attached hundreds in 1086, and some historians have supposed that it was already a royal manor before the Norman conquest.. Some lands here were granted by William the Conqueror to citizens upon the tenure that the owners should provide straw for the monarch's bed, sweet herbs for his chamber, and two green geese and three eels for his table, whenever he should visit Aylesbury.
The town includes an Early English parish church, St. Mary the Virgin's, which has many later additions.
In 1450, a religious institution called the Guild of St Mary was founded in Aylesbury by John Kemp, Archbishop of York. Known popularly as the Guild of Our Lady, it became a meeting place for local dignitaries and a hotbed of political intrigue. The guild was influential in the outcome of the Wars of the Roses. Its premises at the Chantry are extant, although the site in Church Street now used mainly for retail.
Aylesbury was declared the new county town of Buckinghamshire in 1529 by King Henry VIII. Aylesbury Manor was among the many properties belonging to Thomas Boleyn, the father of Anne Boleyn, and it is rumoured that the change was made by the King to curry favour with the family. The plague decimated the population in 1603/4.
The town played a large part in the English Civil War when it became a stronghold for the Parliamentarian forces, like many market towns a nursing-ground of Puritan sentiment and, in 1642, the Battle of Aylesbury was fought and won by the Parliamentarians. Its proximity to Great Hampden, home of John Hampden has made of Hampden a local hero; his silhouette was used on the emblem of Aylesbury Vale District Council and his statue stands prominently in the town centre. Aylesbury-born composer, Rutland Boughton (1878–1960), possibly inspired by the statue of John Hampden, created a symphony based on Oliver Cromwell.
On 18 March 1664, Robert Bruce, 2nd Earl of Elgin in the Peerage of Scotland was created 1st Earl of Ailesbury.
The grade II* listed Jacobean mansion of Hartwell adjoining the south-west of the town was the residence of French king Louis XVIII during his exile (1810–1814); Bourbon Street is named after the king. Louis' wife, Marie Joséphine of Savoy, died at Hartwell in 1810 and is the only French queen to have died on English soil. After her death, her body was carried first to Westminster Abbey and, one year later, to Sardinia where the Savoy King of Sardinia had withdrawn during Napoleonic occupation of Turin and Piedmont; she is buried in the Cathedral of Cagliari.
Aylesbury's heraldic crest displays the Aylesbury duck, which has been bred here since the birth of the Industrial Revolution, although only one breeder of true Aylesbury ducks, Richard Waller, remains today
The town also received international publicity in 1963 when the culprits responsible for the Great Train Robbery (1963) were tried at Aylesbury Rural District Council Offices in Walton Street and sentenced at Aylesbury Crown Court. The robbery took place at Bridego Bridge, a railway bridge at Ledburn, about from the town.
A notable institution is Aylesbury Grammar School which was founded in 1598. The original building is now part of the County Museum buildings in Church Street and has grade II* architecture; other grammar schools now include Sir Henry Floyd Grammar School and Aylesbury High School. Other notable buildings are the King's Head Inn, (which, with the Fleece Inn at Bretforton, Worcestershire, is one of the few public houses in the country owned by the National Trust and still run as a public house) and the Queens Park Centre.
James Henry Govier, the British painter and etcher, lived at Aylesbury. He produced a number of works relating to the town, including the church, canal, Walton, Aylesbury Gaol, the King's Head Inn and views of the town during the 1940s and 1950s; examples of which can be seen in the Buckinghamshire County Museum in Aylesbury.0
The town is the birthplace of the Paralympic Games. During the 1948 Olympics in London, German-British neurologist Sir Ludwig Guttmann, set up a small sporting event for World War II veterans known as the World Wheelchair and Amputee Games (WWAG) at Stoke Mandeville Hospital's Rehabilitation Facility. This eventually led to the growth of the phenomenon of the modern Paralympic Games that has been held immediately after every summer Olympic Games since 1988; the WWAG was held most years at Stoke Mandeville until 1997, when it has been held in other countries and cities ever since. During the 2012 Paralympics, the official mascot was called "Mandeville".
The Rothschild Family acquired many large country estates and stately homes around and near the town. These include Waddesdon Manor in nearby Waddesdon Village, Halton House near Wendover, and Tring Park in Tring, across the border in Hertfordshire. Today, most of these properties belong to the National Trust. They have brought in increased tourism to the town and the surrounding areas.
Railway history Railways came to the town in 1839, when the Aylesbury Railway opened from on Robert Stephenson's London and Birmingham Railway. The Wycombe Railway (later Great Western Railway) arrived via on 1 October 1863 and, on 23 September 1868, the Aylesbury and Buckingham Railway (later Metropolitan Railway) was opened from to almost connect a loop with the Wycombe Railway. The Metropolitan Railway (MetR) from arrived via in 1892.
The Great Central Railway (GCR) connected from to , via the MetR, in 1899. Between 1899 and 1953, Aylesbury had railway links to four London termini: Marylebone, Baker Street, and . The Aylesbury Railway closed in 1953 and the MetR, which later became the Metropolitan line of the London Underground, withdrew north of Aylesbury in 1936 and withdrew from the town in 1961.
The GCR was dismantled north of the town in 1966. As a result, there were no regular passenger services north of the town until the opening of in December 2008, which extended passenger services north-westwards. This is sited on the formerly goods-only line towards Quainton, at the point where the line crosses the A41 near Berryfields Farm on the north-west outskirts of the town, some north of the main Aylesbury station. This area is to be known as Berryfields, a major development area and will include park and ride facilities for Aylesbury. Only the GCR south of this new station to Marylebone is used today for regular services to London.
Trade and industry
Traditionally, the town was a commercial centre with a market dating back to the Saxon period. This is because it was established on the main Akeman Street which became an established trade route linking London to South West England. In 1180, a jail was established in the town.
15th century By 1477, flour was being ground in the town for surrounding parishes. By the modern period, this had grown into a huge established industry: the last grist mill in Aylesbury was closed in the 1990s (Hills & Partridge on the canal behind Tesco). By 1560 the manufacture of sewing needles had become a large industry in Long Crendon a village close by which was an important production centre.
17th century – lace making In 1672, poor children in Buckinghamshire were taught to make lace as a way to make a living. Bucks lace, as it became known, quickly became very sought after and production boomed as the lace was mainly made by poor women and children. The lace-making industry had died out by Victorian times, however, as new machine-made lace became cheaper.
In 1764, Euclid Neale opened his clockmaking workshop in Aylesbury. In the 18th century, he was one of the best clock makers in the country.
19th century – canals In 1814, the Aylesbury arm of the Grand Union Canal from Marsworth was opened bringing major industry to the town for the first time. At the same time, the Wendover arm was built leading to nearby Wendover.
20th century – motor manufacture
From 1919 until 1925, the Cubit Engineering Works on Bicester Road was a volume manufacturer of motor vehicles. Approximately 3,000 cars were built, but a somewhat slow and heavy design could not survive the onslaught from cheap American competition. Their robust design and high ground clearance made them popular in less developed parts of the British Empire which lacked paved roads like Australia and South Africa.Permanent display on the Cubit motor manufacturer at Aylesbury town museum. 2021 The works have been demolished for a housing development. The marque is commemorated by Cubitt Street (and Edge Street) which traverses the old works.
By the late 20th century, the printers and bookbinders, Hazell, Watson and Viney and the Nestlé dairy were the two main employers in the town, employing more than half the total population. These factories have long since been demolished and replaced by a Tesco supermarket, which opened in 1994, and a housing development respectively.
21st century
Today, the town is still a major commercial centre and the market still meets on the cobbles of the old Market Square four days a week. Hazell, Watson and Viney, along with Nestlé and US automotive parts producer TRW have gone; the last left the town in 2006. However, three major industrial and commercial centres make sure the town has one of the lowest unemployment rates in the country.
A£150million Arla Foods megadairy opened, just off the A41 road, in nearby Aston Clinton in November 2013; it lies from the town centre and is a major employer in the area. Traffic improvement measures were paid for by Arla, to reduce the impact of congestion and pollution.
One of the more prominent buildings in Aylesbury is the "Blue Leanie" office block, home to Lloyds Bank. When first built, it was thought to be a potential hazard to passing motorists, due to the sun reflecting off its large mirrored surface. As a result, a line of mature trees was planted alongside the main road to prevent dazzling.
The Aylesbury duck