Finmere
Encyclopedia
Finmere is a village and civil parish in Oxfordshire
, south of the River Great Ouse
. It is almost 4 miles (6.4 km) west of Buckingham
in Buckinghamshire
and just over 4 miles (6.4 km) east of Brackley
in Northamptonshire
.
, Iron Age
and Roman
activity in Finmere Quarry abput 0.8 miles (1.3 km) west of the village. Five early Bronze Age
cremation pits were excavated, and from one pit two collared urns were recovered. The cremations were dated to about 2040 to 1880 BC.
The site of a late Iron Age settlement was found west of the cremation pits and just east of the trackbed of the former Great Central Main Line
railway. The settlement consisted originally of a number of roundhouses packed close together in a straight line, and then developed in phases with later structures overlapping the sites of some of the earlier ones. Enclosures, presumably to contain livestock, were created at different times and in different shapes, with the outlines of some enclosures from different periods overlapping the sites of the roundhouses and each other. Iron Age pottery recovered from the site suggests that the settlement was occupied in phases from the 4th to the 1st century BC.
A pair of ditches were found running parallel across the site about 4.5 metres (14.8 ft) apart and roughly east-west. The ditches were identified as flanking a track, and fragments of wheel-thrown pottery found on part of the site led to the track being dated to the period of Roman occupation of Britain. The site is about 0.8 miles (1.3 km) from the course of the Roman road
that linked Alchester near Bicester
with Lactodurum
(now Towcester
), which runs through the eastern side of Finmere village.
is derived from the Old English for "pool frequented by woodpecker
s". The village includes the hamlet of Little Tingewick.
Before and after the Norman Conquest of England
Wulfward the White, a thegn
of King Edward the Confessor
's Queen Edith
, owned the Manor
of Finmere. However, by 1086 William the Conqueror
had granted the manor to Geoffrey de Montbray
, who was Bishop of Coutances but also one of William's senior military commanders. Subsequently the manor passed to the Earls of Gloucester
, in whose family it stayed until the 4th Earl of Gloucester
died without a successor in 1314. In 1347 the manor passed to the 1st Earl of Stafford
, in whose family it then remained.
by 1189, when its advowson
was granted to the Augustinian
Friary in Bristol. The only surviving remnant from the parish church of that period seems to be the 12th century font
. The earliest surviving parts of the present Church of England parish church
of St Michael and All Angels
are the tower, the north wall of the chancel
and the Decorated Gothic windows in the chancel and the south wall of the nave
. The Perpendicular Gothic clerestory
was added later. The church underwent major repairs at various times in the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries. A west gallery
was added, probably in the 1760s. In 1856-58 the Gothic Revival architect
G.E. Street
removed the west gallery, restored the church, widened the chancel arch and added the north aisle. A vestry was added in 1868 and a porch in 1876. The architectural historians Sir Nikolaus Pevsner
and Jennifer Sherwood criticised Street's alterations for being "too aggressive" and dominating the rest of the building.
St. Michael's bell tower
has three bells. William Chamberlain of Aldgate
cast the tenor in about 1470 and an unidentified bellfounder
cast the treble in about 1599. The middle bell is of unknown age but Lester & Pack of the Whitechapel Bell Foundry
recast it in 1754. The tower also has an historic clock that was installed in 1697 and altered in 1859. The Church of England
parish is now a member of the Shelswell Benefice.
has had a chequered history. In 1634 it was a relatively small house of only four bays
. Thereafter it was enlarged to ten bays, but in 1662 a violent storm blew it down. The rector had it rebuilt as a house of only five bays, but that burnt down in 1668. By 1685 the rectory consisted of only three bays, but by 1738 it had been enlarged to six. Also in the 18th century "Capability" Brown designed its gardens. No trace of Brown's work survives, and in 1867 the house was demolished and replaced with a new rectory. This is now a private house, Finmere Place.
Other historic houses in Finmere include Finmere House (built in 1600 and re-fronted in 1739) and Lepper's House (built in 1638 and rebuilt in 1879).
by an Act of Parliament
in 1744. Since the 1920s the road has been classified as the A421
, and later in the 20th century a bypass was built past the former RAF Finmere
airfield, south of Finmere and the neighbouring Buckinghamshire village of Tingewick
, to take the A421 past the two villages.
In 1847-50 the Buckinghamshire Railway
built a branch line
to through the northern part of the parish along the Great Ouse Valley. station was built on the line about 1.5 miles (2.4 km) northwest of the village. In 1899 the Great Central Railway
built its main line to London
through the western part of the parish and built Finmere for Buckingham station
about 1 miles (1.6 km) south of the village. Buckingham already had a railway station on the Banbury to Verney Junction Branch Line and was almost 5 miles (8 km) from the Great Central station, so the name was subsequently shortened to the more appropriate "Finmere". British Rail
ways closed Finmere station in 1963, and closed the section of the Great Central line through the station in 1966. BR also closed Fulwell and Westbury station and the branch line to Banbury in the 1960s.
. It served as an Bomber Command
operational training unit, flying Bristol Blenheim
medium bombers which by then were obsolete for combat operations and used only for training. They were eventually withdrawn from this role as well and from January 1944 the training unit at RAF Finmere flew de Havilland Mosquito
es. After the Second World War
RAF Finmere served as a Transport Command
storage depot until the 1950s, when it was decommissioned and closed as an RAF base. Part of one runway remains in use as a private airfield.
Since 1973 a Sunday market has been held on the area where the three concrete runways converge. Initially Buckinghamshire County Council
opposed the market and had the operators convicted and fined for breaking the Shops Act 1950 that forbade most forms of retailing in England and Wales
on Sundays. In 1974 Britain's local government reorganisation
transferred responsibility for planning to Aylesbury Vale District Council, which in 1975 granted the market planning permission for three years and in 1976 extended that permission until 1981. In 1994 Parliament
adopted the Sunday Trading Act
which greatly reduced restrictions on Sunday retailing in England and Wales, and since then Finmere Market has been less busy. However, the former airfield is now also the venue of the annual Bicester
Sheep Fair.
records that by 1086 the village had a watermill
. The village continued to have a mill on the Great Ouse until early in the 19th century, when the 1st Duke of Buckingham and Chandos had it demolished.
In 1645 during the English Civil War
a Parliamentarian
force from Newport Pagnell
surprised a platoon of eighteen Royalists stationed in Finmere. The Parliamentarians drove the Royalists out of the village, which thereafter remained under Parliamentarian control.
An open field system of farming predominated in the parish until 1667, when the common fields were enclosed
.
In 1824 the 1st Duke of Buckingham and Chandos built a National School
for the village. In 1926 it was reorganised as a junior school, with senior pupils thereafter going to the school in Fringford
.The first Finmere school was closed in
1948. A new school was built and opened in 1959.
, the Red Lion at Little Tingewick. It is now a gastropub
.
Oxfordshire
Oxfordshire is a county in the South East region of England, bordering on Warwickshire and Northamptonshire , Buckinghamshire , Berkshire , Wiltshire and Gloucestershire ....
, south of the River Great Ouse
River Great Ouse
The Great Ouse is a river in the east of England. At long, it is the fourth-longest river in the United Kingdom. The river has been important for navigation, and for draining the low-lying region through which it flows. Its course has been modified several times, with the first recorded being in...
. It is almost 4 miles (6.4 km) west of Buckingham
Buckingham
Buckingham is a town situated in north Buckinghamshire, England, close to the borders of Northamptonshire and Oxfordshire. The town has a population of 11,572 ,...
in Buckinghamshire
Buckinghamshire
Buckinghamshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan home county in South East England. The county town is Aylesbury, the largest town in the ceremonial county is Milton Keynes and largest town in the non-metropolitan county is High Wycombe....
and just over 4 miles (6.4 km) east of Brackley
Brackley
Brackley is a town in south Northamptonshire, England. It is about from Oxford and miles form Northampton. Historically a market town based on the wool and lace trade, it was built on the intersecting trade routes between London, Birmingham and the English Midlands and between Cambridge and Oxford...
in Northamptonshire
Northamptonshire
Northamptonshire is a landlocked county in the English East Midlands, with a population of 629,676 as at the 2001 census. It has boundaries with the ceremonial counties of Warwickshire to the west, Leicestershire and Rutland to the north, Cambridgeshire to the east, Bedfordshire to the south-east,...
.
Archaeology
In 2000 archaeologists found evidence of Bronze AgeBronze Age Britain
Bronze Age Britain refers to the period of British history that spanned from c. 2,500 until c. 800 BC. Lasting for approximately 1700 years, it was preceded by the era of Neolithic Britain and was in turn followed by the era of Iron Age Britain...
, Iron Age
British Iron Age
The British Iron Age is a conventional name used in the archaeology of Great Britain, referring to the prehistoric and protohistoric phases of the Iron-Age culture of the main island and the smaller islands, typically excluding prehistoric Ireland, and which had an independent Iron Age culture of...
and Roman
Roman Britain
Roman Britain was the part of the island of Great Britain controlled by the Roman Empire from AD 43 until ca. AD 410.The Romans referred to the imperial province as Britannia, which eventually comprised all of the island of Great Britain south of the fluid frontier with Caledonia...
activity in Finmere Quarry abput 0.8 miles (1.3 km) west of the village. Five early Bronze Age
Wessex culture
The Wessex culture is the predominant prehistoric culture of central and southern Britain during the early Bronze Age, originally defined by the British archaeologist Stuart Piggott in 1938...
cremation pits were excavated, and from one pit two collared urns were recovered. The cremations were dated to about 2040 to 1880 BC.
The site of a late Iron Age settlement was found west of the cremation pits and just east of the trackbed of the former Great Central Main Line
Great Central Main Line
The Great Central Main Line , also known as the London Extension of the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway , is a former railway line which opened in 1899 linking Sheffield with Marylebone Station in London via Nottingham and Leicester.The GCML was the last main line railway built in...
railway. The settlement consisted originally of a number of roundhouses packed close together in a straight line, and then developed in phases with later structures overlapping the sites of some of the earlier ones. Enclosures, presumably to contain livestock, were created at different times and in different shapes, with the outlines of some enclosures from different periods overlapping the sites of the roundhouses and each other. Iron Age pottery recovered from the site suggests that the settlement was occupied in phases from the 4th to the 1st century BC.
A pair of ditches were found running parallel across the site about 4.5 metres (14.8 ft) apart and roughly east-west. The ditches were identified as flanking a track, and fragments of wheel-thrown pottery found on part of the site led to the track being dated to the period of Roman occupation of Britain. The site is about 0.8 miles (1.3 km) from the course of the Roman road
Roman road
The Roman roads were a vital part of the development of the Roman state, from about 500 BC through the expansion during the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire. Roman roads enabled the Romans to move armies and trade goods and to communicate. The Roman road system spanned more than 400,000 km...
that linked Alchester near Bicester
Bicester
Bicester is a town and civil parish in the Cherwell district of northeastern Oxfordshire in England.This historic market centre is one of the fastest growing towns in Oxfordshire Development has been favoured by its proximity to junction 9 of the M40 motorway linking it to London, Birmingham and...
with Lactodurum
Lactodurum
Lactodurum was a town in the Roman province of Britannia. Today it is known as Towcester, located in the English county of Northamptonshire.Towcester lays claim to being the oldest town in Northamptonshire and possibly, because of the antiquity of recent Iron Age finds in the town, to be one of the...
(now Towcester
Towcester
Towcester , the Roman town of Lactodorum, is a small town in south Northamptonshire, England.-Etymology:Towcester comes from the Old English Tófe-ceaster. Tófe refers to the River Tove; Bosworth and Toller compare it to the "Scandinavian proper names" Tófi and Tófa...
), which runs through the eastern side of Finmere village.
Manor
Finmere's toponymToponymy
Toponymy is the scientific study of place names , their origins, meanings, use and typology. The word "toponymy" is derived from the Greek words tópos and ónoma . Toponymy is itself a branch of onomastics, the study of names of all kinds...
is derived from the Old English for "pool frequented by woodpecker
Woodpecker
Woodpeckers are near passerine birds of the order Piciformes. They are one subfamily in the family Picidae, which also includes the piculets and wrynecks. They are found worldwide and include about 180 species....
s". The village includes the hamlet of Little Tingewick.
Before and after the Norman Conquest of England
Norman conquest of England
The Norman conquest of England began on 28 September 1066 with the invasion of England by William, Duke of Normandy. William became known as William the Conqueror after his victory at the Battle of Hastings on 14 October 1066, defeating King Harold II of England...
Wulfward the White, a thegn
Thegn
The term thegn , from OE þegn, ðegn "servant, attendant, retainer", is commonly used to describe either an aristocratic retainer of a king or nobleman in Anglo-Saxon England, or as a class term, the majority of the aristocracy below the ranks of ealdormen and high-reeves...
of King Edward the Confessor
Edward the Confessor
Edward the Confessor also known as St. Edward the Confessor , son of Æthelred the Unready and Emma of Normandy, was one of the last Anglo-Saxon kings of England and is usually regarded as the last king of the House of Wessex, ruling from 1042 to 1066....
's Queen Edith
Edith of Wessex
Edith of Wessex married King Edward the Confessor of England on 23 January 1045. Unlike most wives of kings of England in the tenth and eleventh centuries, she was crowned queen, but the marriage produced no children...
, owned the Manor
Manorialism
Manorialism, an essential element of feudal society, was the organizing principle of rural economy that originated in the villa system of the Late Roman Empire, was widely practiced in medieval western and parts of central Europe, and was slowly replaced by the advent of a money-based market...
of Finmere. However, by 1086 William the Conqueror
William I of England
William I , also known as William the Conqueror , was the first Norman King of England from Christmas 1066 until his death. He was also Duke of Normandy from 3 July 1035 until his death, under the name William II...
had granted the manor to Geoffrey de Montbray
Geoffrey de Montbray
Geoffrey de Montbray , bishop of Coutances , a right-hand man of William the Conqueror, was a type of the great feudal prelate, warrior and administrator at need....
, who was Bishop of Coutances but also one of William's senior military commanders. Subsequently the manor passed to the Earls of Gloucester
Earl of Gloucester
The title of Earl of Gloucester was created several times in the Peerage of England. A fictional earl is also a character in William Shakespeare's play King Lear. See also Duke of Gloucester.-Earls of Gloucester, 1st Creation :...
, in whose family it stayed until the 4th Earl of Gloucester
Gilbert de Clare, 7th Earl of Hertford
Gilbert de Clare, 6th Earl of Hertford, 7th Earl of Gloucester was a powerful English noble. Also known as "Red" Gilbert de Clare, probably because of his hair colour.- Lineage :...
died without a successor in 1314. In 1347 the manor passed to the 1st Earl of Stafford
Ralph Stafford, 1st Earl of Stafford
Ralph de Stafford, 2nd Baron Stafford, 1st Earl of Stafford, KG was an English nobleman and notable soldier during the Hundred Years War against France.-Early life and family:...
, in whose family it then remained.
Parish church
Finmere had a parish churchParish church
A parish church , in Christianity, is the church which acts as the religious centre of a parish, the basic administrative unit of episcopal churches....
by 1189, when its advowson
Advowson
Advowson is the right in English law of a patron to present or appoint a nominee to a vacant ecclesiastical benefice or church living, a process known as presentation. In effect this means the right to nominate a person to hold a church office in a parish...
was granted to the Augustinian
Augustinians
The term Augustinians, named after Saint Augustine of Hippo , applies to two separate and unrelated types of Catholic religious orders:...
Friary in Bristol. The only surviving remnant from the parish church of that period seems to be the 12th century font
Baptismal font
A baptismal font is an article of church furniture or a fixture used for the baptism of children and adults.-Aspersion and affusion fonts:...
. The earliest surviving parts of the present Church of England parish church
Church of England parish church
A parish church in the Church of England is the church which acts as the religious centre for the people within the smallest and most basic Church of England administrative region, known as a parish.-Parishes in England:...
of St Michael and All Angels
Michaelmas
Michaelmas, the feast of Saint Michael the Archangel is a day in the Western Christian calendar which occurs on 29 September...
are the tower, the north wall of the chancel
Chancel
In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar in the sanctuary at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building...
and the Decorated Gothic windows in the chancel and the south wall of the nave
Nave
In Romanesque and Gothic Christian abbey, cathedral basilica and church architecture, the nave is the central approach to the high altar, the main body of the church. "Nave" was probably suggested by the keel shape of its vaulting...
. The Perpendicular Gothic clerestory
Clerestory
Clerestory is an architectural term that historically denoted an upper level of a Roman basilica or of the nave of a Romanesque or Gothic church, the walls of which rise above the rooflines of the lower aisles and are pierced with windows. In modern usage, clerestory refers to any high windows...
was added later. The church underwent major repairs at various times in the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries. A west gallery
West gallery music
West Gallery Music, also known as "Georgian psalmody" refers to the sacred music sung and played in English parish churches, as well as nonconformist chapels, from 1700 to around 1850...
was added, probably in the 1760s. In 1856-58 the Gothic Revival architect
Gothic Revival architecture
The Gothic Revival is an architectural movement that began in the 1740s in England...
G.E. Street
George Edmund Street
George Edmund Street was an English architect, born at Woodford in Essex.- Life :Street was the third son of Thomas Street, solicitor, by his second wife, Mary Anne Millington. George went to school at Mitcham in about 1830, and later to the Camberwell collegiate school, which he left in 1839...
removed the west gallery, restored the church, widened the chancel arch and added the north aisle. A vestry was added in 1868 and a porch in 1876. The architectural historians Sir Nikolaus Pevsner
Nikolaus Pevsner
Sir Nikolaus Bernhard Leon Pevsner, CBE, FBA was a German-born British scholar of history of art and, especially, of history of architecture...
and Jennifer Sherwood criticised Street's alterations for being "too aggressive" and dominating the rest of the building.
St. Michael's bell tower
Bell tower
A bell tower is a tower which contains one or more bells, or which is designed to hold bells, even if it has none. In the European tradition, such a tower most commonly serves as part of a church and contains church bells. When attached to a city hall or other civic building, especially in...
has three bells. William Chamberlain of Aldgate
Aldgate
Aldgate was the eastern most gateway through London Wall leading from the City of London to Whitechapel and the east end of London. Aldgate gives its name to a ward of the City...
cast the tenor in about 1470 and an unidentified bellfounder
Bellfounding
Bellfounding is the casting of bells in a foundry for use in churches, clocks, and public buildings. A practitioner of the craft is called a bellmaker or bellfounder. The process in Europe dates to the 4th or 5th century. In early times, when a town produced a bell it was a momentous occasion in...
cast the treble in about 1599. The middle bell is of unknown age but Lester & Pack of the Whitechapel Bell Foundry
Whitechapel Bell Foundry
The Whitechapel Bell Foundry is a bell foundry in Whitechapel in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, in the East End of London. The foundry is listed by the Guinness Book of Records as the oldest manufacturing company in Great Britain...
recast it in 1754. The tower also has an historic clock that was installed in 1697 and altered in 1859. The Church of England
Church of England
The Church of England is the officially established Christian church in England and the Mother Church of the worldwide Anglican Communion. The church considers itself within the tradition of Western Christianity and dates its formal establishment principally to the mission to England by St...
parish is now a member of the Shelswell Benefice.
Historic houses
Finmere rectoryRectory
A rectory is the residence, or former residence, of a rector, most often a Christian cleric, but in some cases an academic rector or other person with that title...
has had a chequered history. In 1634 it was a relatively small house of only four bays
Bay (architecture)
A bay is a unit of form in architecture. This unit is defined as the zone between the outer edges of an engaged column, pilaster, or post; or within a window frame, doorframe, or vertical 'bas relief' wall form.-Defining elements:...
. Thereafter it was enlarged to ten bays, but in 1662 a violent storm blew it down. The rector had it rebuilt as a house of only five bays, but that burnt down in 1668. By 1685 the rectory consisted of only three bays, but by 1738 it had been enlarged to six. Also in the 18th century "Capability" Brown designed its gardens. No trace of Brown's work survives, and in 1867 the house was demolished and replaced with a new rectory. This is now a private house, Finmere Place.
Other historic houses in Finmere include Finmere House (built in 1600 and re-fronted in 1739) and Lepper's House (built in 1638 and rebuilt in 1879).
Transport
Finmere was on the main road between Buckingham and Banbury, which was made into a turnpikeToll road
A toll road is a privately or publicly built road for which a driver pays a toll for use. Structures for which tolls are charged include toll bridges and toll tunnels. Non-toll roads are financed using other sources of revenue, most typically fuel tax or general tax funds...
by an Act of Parliament
Acts of Parliament in the United Kingdom
An Act of Parliament in the United Kingdom is a type of legislation called primary legislation. These Acts are passed by the Parliament of the United Kingdom at Westminster, or by the Scottish Parliament at Edinburgh....
in 1744. Since the 1920s the road has been classified as the A421
A421 road
The A421 is an important road for east/west journeys across England. Together with the A428, the A43 and A34, it forms the route from Cambridge through Milton Keynes to Oxford...
, and later in the 20th century a bypass was built past the former RAF Finmere
RAF Finmere
Royal Air Force Station Finmere, more commonly referred to as RAF Finmere, is a former Royal Air Force military airbase situated to the south-east of Finmere in the county of Oxfordshire, a few miles west of Buckingham.-Layout:...
airfield, south of Finmere and the neighbouring Buckinghamshire village of Tingewick
Tingewick
Tingewick is a village and civil parish about west of Buckingham in the Aylesbury Vale district of Buckinghamshire, England. The parish is bounded to the north by the River Great Ouse, to the east by a tributary of the Great Ouse, to the west by the county boundary with Oxfordshire and to the...
, to take the A421 past the two villages.
In 1847-50 the Buckinghamshire Railway
Buckinghamshire Railway
The Buckinghamshire Railway was a railway company in Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire, England that constructed railway lines connecting Bletchley, Banbury and Oxford...
built a branch line
Banbury to Verney Junction Branch Line
The Banbury to Verney Junction Branch Line was a railway branch line constructed by the Buckinghamshire Railway which connected the Oxfordshire market town of Banbury with the Buckinghamshire town of Bletchley via the historic county town of Buckingham and the Northamptonshire town of Brackley, a...
to through the northern part of the parish along the Great Ouse Valley. station was built on the line about 1.5 miles (2.4 km) northwest of the village. In 1899 the Great Central Railway
Great Central Railway
The Great Central Railway was a railway company in England which came into being when the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway changed its name in 1897 in anticipation of the opening in 1899 of its London Extension . On 1 January 1923, it was grouped into the London and North Eastern...
built its main line to London
Great Central Main Line
The Great Central Main Line , also known as the London Extension of the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway , is a former railway line which opened in 1899 linking Sheffield with Marylebone Station in London via Nottingham and Leicester.The GCML was the last main line railway built in...
through the western part of the parish and built Finmere for Buckingham station
Finmere railway station
Finmere was a railway station on the former Great Central Main Line which ran between and London Marylebone. It was opened in 1899 and served the nearby village of Finmere...
about 1 miles (1.6 km) south of the village. Buckingham already had a railway station on the Banbury to Verney Junction Branch Line and was almost 5 miles (8 km) from the Great Central station, so the name was subsequently shortened to the more appropriate "Finmere". British Rail
British Rail
British Railways , which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was the operator of most of the rail transport in Great Britain between 1948 and 1997. It was formed from the nationalisation of the "Big Four" British railway companies and lasted until the gradual privatisation of British Rail, in stages...
ways closed Finmere station in 1963, and closed the section of the Great Central line through the station in 1966. BR also closed Fulwell and Westbury station and the branch line to Banbury in the 1960s.
RAF Finmere
The War Department built a military airfield south of Finmere and Tingewick in 1941-42, which was commissioned in July 1942 as RAF FinmereRAF Finmere
Royal Air Force Station Finmere, more commonly referred to as RAF Finmere, is a former Royal Air Force military airbase situated to the south-east of Finmere in the county of Oxfordshire, a few miles west of Buckingham.-Layout:...
. It served as an Bomber Command
RAF Bomber Command
RAF Bomber Command controlled the RAF's bomber forces from 1936 to 1968. During World War II the command destroyed a significant proportion of Nazi Germany's industries and many German cities, and in the 1960s stood at the peak of its postwar military power with the V bombers and a supplemental...
operational training unit, flying Bristol Blenheim
Bristol Blenheim
The Bristol Blenheim was a British light bomber aircraft designed and built by the Bristol Aeroplane Company that was used extensively in the early days of the Second World War. It was adapted as an interim long-range and night fighter, pending the availability of the Beaufighter...
medium bombers which by then were obsolete for combat operations and used only for training. They were eventually withdrawn from this role as well and from January 1944 the training unit at RAF Finmere flew de Havilland Mosquito
De Havilland Mosquito
The de Havilland DH.98 Mosquito was a British multi-role combat aircraft that served during the Second World War and the postwar era. It was known affectionately as the "Mossie" to its crews and was also nicknamed "The Wooden Wonder"...
es. After the Second World War
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
RAF Finmere served as a Transport Command
RAF Transport Command
RAF Transport Command was a Royal Air Force command that controlled all transport aircraft of the RAF. It was established on 25 March 1943 by the renaming of the RAF Ferry Command, and was subsequently renamed RAF Air Support Command in 1967.-History:...
storage depot until the 1950s, when it was decommissioned and closed as an RAF base. Part of one runway remains in use as a private airfield.
Since 1973 a Sunday market has been held on the area where the three concrete runways converge. Initially Buckinghamshire County Council
Buckinghamshire County Council
Buckinghamshire County Council is the upper-tier local authority for the non-metropolitan county of Buckinghamshire, in England, the United Kingdom. Its area of control does not include Milton Keynes, which is a unitary authority...
opposed the market and had the operators convicted and fined for breaking the Shops Act 1950 that forbade most forms of retailing in England and Wales
Wales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...
on Sundays. In 1974 Britain's local government reorganisation
Local Government Act 1972
The Local Government Act 1972 is an Act of Parliament in the United Kingdom that reformed local government in England and Wales on 1 April 1974....
transferred responsibility for planning to Aylesbury Vale District Council, which in 1975 granted the market planning permission for three years and in 1976 extended that permission until 1981. In 1994 Parliament
Parliament of the United Kingdom
The Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the supreme legislative body in the United Kingdom, British Crown dependencies and British overseas territories, located in London...
adopted the Sunday Trading Act
Sunday Trading Act 1994
The Sunday Trading Act 1994 is an Act of Parliament in the United Kingdom governing the right of shops in England and Wales to trade on a Sunday...
which greatly reduced restrictions on Sunday retailing in England and Wales, and since then Finmere Market has been less busy. However, the former airfield is now also the venue of the annual Bicester
Bicester
Bicester is a town and civil parish in the Cherwell district of northeastern Oxfordshire in England.This historic market centre is one of the fastest growing towns in Oxfordshire Development has been favoured by its proximity to junction 9 of the M40 motorway linking it to London, Birmingham and...
Sheep Fair.
Social and economic history
The Domesday bookDomesday Book
Domesday Book , now held at The National Archives, Kew, Richmond upon Thames in South West London, is the record of the great survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086...
records that by 1086 the village had a watermill
Watermill
A watermill is a structure that uses a water wheel or turbine to drive a mechanical process such as flour, lumber or textile production, or metal shaping .- History :...
. The village continued to have a mill on the Great Ouse until early in the 19th century, when the 1st Duke of Buckingham and Chandos had it demolished.
In 1645 during the English Civil War
English Civil War
The English Civil War was a series of armed conflicts and political machinations between Parliamentarians and Royalists...
a Parliamentarian
Roundhead
"Roundhead" was the nickname given to the supporters of the Parliament during the English Civil War. Also known as Parliamentarians, they fought against King Charles I and his supporters, the Cavaliers , who claimed absolute power and the divine right of kings...
force from Newport Pagnell
Newport Pagnell
Newport Pagnell is a town in the Borough of Milton Keynes , England. It is separated by the M1 motorway from Milton Keynes itself, though part of the same urban area...
surprised a platoon of eighteen Royalists stationed in Finmere. The Parliamentarians drove the Royalists out of the village, which thereafter remained under Parliamentarian control.
An open field system of farming predominated in the parish until 1667, when the common fields were enclosed
Enclosure
Enclosure or inclosure is the process which ends traditional rights such as mowing meadows for hay, or grazing livestock on common land. Once enclosed, these uses of the land become restricted to the owner, and it ceases to be common land. In England and Wales the term is also used for the...
.
In 1824 the 1st Duke of Buckingham and Chandos built a National School
National school (England and Wales)
A national school was a school founded in 19th century England and Wales by the National Society for Promoting Religious Education.These schools provided elementary education, in accordance with the teaching of the Church of England, to the children of the poor.Together with the less numerous...
for the village. In 1926 it was reorganised as a junior school, with senior pupils thereafter going to the school in Fringford
Fringford
Fringford is a village and civil parish in Oxfordshire, about northeast of Bicester. The parish is bounded to the east by the Roman road that linked Alchester Roman Town with Roman Towcester, to the south by a brook that joins the River Bure, to the north mostly by a brook that is a tributary of...
.The first Finmere school was closed in
1948. A new school was built and opened in 1959.
Amenities
The parish has one public housePublic house
A public house, informally known as a pub, is a drinking establishment fundamental to the culture of Britain, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand. There are approximately 53,500 public houses in the United Kingdom. This number has been declining every year, so that nearly half of the smaller...
, the Red Lion at Little Tingewick. It is now a gastropub
Gastropub
Gastropub or Gastrolounge refers to a bar and restaurant that serves high-end beer and food.The term gastropub, a portmanteau of gastronomy and pub, originated in England in the late 20th century. English pubs were drinking establishments and little emphasis was placed on the serving of food. If...
.