For other villages with the same name, see Whaddon

Whaddon

Whaddon is the name of more than one place.*Whaddon, Buckinghamshire*Whaddon, Cambridgeshire*Whaddon, Cheltenham*Brookthorpe-with-Whaddon, Gloucestershire*Whaddon, Wiltshire...

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Whaddon is a village

Village

A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet with the population ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand , Though often located in rural areas, the term urban village is also applied to certain urban neighbourhoods, such as the West Village in Manhattan, New...

 and also a civil parish within Aylesbury Vale

Aylesbury Vale

The Aylesbury Vale is a large area of flat land mostly in Buckinghamshire, England. Its boundary is marked by Milton Keynes to the north, Leighton Buzzard and the Chiltern Hills to the east and south, Thame to the south and Bicester and Brackley to the west.The vale is named after Aylesbury, the...

 district, 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....

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The village name is Anglo Saxon

Old English language

Old English or Anglo-Saxon is an early form of the English language that was spoken and written by the Anglo-Saxons and their descendants in parts of what are now England and southeastern Scotland between at least the mid-5th century and the mid-12th century...

 in origin, and means 'hill where wheat is grown'. The village is referred to several times in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle

Anglo-Saxon Chronicle

The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle is a collection of annals in Old English chronicling the history of the Anglo-Saxons. The original manuscript of the Chronicle was created late in the 9th century, probably in Wessex, during the reign of Alfred the Great...

 generally in the form of Hwætædun.

The village is at the centre of the ancient Whaddon Chase, the site for many centuries of royal hunting lands. Whaddon Chase is designated an area of 'Special Landscape Interest'.

Whaddon Church of England School is a mixed 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...

 primary school. It is a voluntary controlled school, which takes children from the age of four through to the age of eight. The school has approximately 50 pupils.

Whaddon Hall

Whaddon Hall, (the village manor) was once home to the Selby-Lowndes family, whose ancestor William Lowndes

William Lowndes, Secretary of the Treasury

William Lowndes was Secretary to the Treasury of Great Britain under King William III and Queen Anne, and a Member of Parliament under William, Anne and George I....

 built the larger and grander Winslow Hall

Winslow Hall

Winslow Hall is a country house, now in the centre of the small town of Winslow, Buckinghamshire, England, built in 1700; its site at the edge of the village was a common one for a house of the gentry, with a public front facing the high street and a garden front that still commanded in 2007...

. Both mansions are still private houses. During World War II

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...

 Whaddon Hall served as headquarters of Section VIII of MI6, under the command of Brigadier Gambier-Parry. In February 1940, the "Station X" wireless interception function was transferred here from Bletchley Park

Bletchley Park

Bletchley Park is an estate located in the town of Bletchley, in Buckinghamshire, England, which currently houses the National Museum of Computing...

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