Ashendon
village in Buckinghamshire, England, UK
Ashendon is a small village and civil parish in Buckinghamshire, England. It is about nine miles west of Aylesbury and seven miles north of Thame.
The toponym is derived from the Old English for "Hill overgrown with ash trees". The Domesday Book of 1086 records the village as the property of the Grenville family; it was called Assedune. The original name refers to the fact that in Saxon times this area was forested, serving as hunting land for the king.
In recent times the manor of Ashendon passed into the hands of the Marquis of Buckingham.
Included in with the parish of Ashendon are the hamlets of Upper Pollicott and Lower Pollicott. The names of these hamlets derive from the Anglo-Saxon Pol's Cottage.
In the less distant past, Ashendon was an entirely farming village and, at present, there is still much agricultural activity. However, some of the farmhouses have been converted into private residences, including Ashendon Farm and its barns.
The public source identifies “Ashendon” as village in Buckinghamshire, England, UK. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Ashendon, village and Buckinghamshire.
Why this record matters
A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Ashendon”, the useful work is to connect “village in Buckinghamshire, England, UK” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.
Maps, plans, fabric surveys and administrative records can establish how the site’s name, extent and function changed over time. The source revision retrieved here is dated Oct 1, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q3481805. VIAF identifies the subject as 132778761. The Library of Congress control number is nb2005019955. Authority coordinates are 51.820, -0.980. 3 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1086.
Architectural summaries often privilege surviving fabric and can understate demolished phases, contested use or displaced communities. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Treat names, boundaries and functions as historically changeable. Maps, plans, inventories and administrative records can clarify what the place meant at different dates.
- Historic place names
- Jurisdictional context
- Routes into maps and plans
Contemporary maps, plans, listed-building records, estate papers and the responsible local or national archive.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Ashendon”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Ashendon primary sources, Ashendon archive and Ashendon research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
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Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Ashendon” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.