Wendover

Wendover is a town and civil parish at the foot of the Chiltern Hills in Buckinghamshire, England. It is situated at the point where the main road across the Chilterns between London and Aylesbury intersects with the once important road along the foot of the Chilterns. The town is 35 miles (56 km) north west of London and 5 miles (8 km) south east of Aylesbury.

The parish has an area of 5,832 acres (2,360 ha) and had, at the time of the 2011 census, a population of 7,399. Outside Wendover, the parish is mainly arable and also contains several hamlets in the surrounding hills. Wendover has a weekly market, and has had a market charter since 1464.

The name is likely of Brythonic Celtic origin. The initial part of the name could be related to wyn or gwyn, as in modern Welsh, meaning white. The second part of the name "dwr" could derive from "dwfr" meaning "water". The Brythonic ancestor to the Welsh "dwr" is also the etymology of the city of Dover.

The first known documentary reference to Wendover, then known as Wændofron, is in the will of Ælfheah, the ealdorman of Hampshire, and dates from between 965 and 971. Prior to the Norman Conquest, the manor, which at the time measured 24 hides in area, was held by Edward the Confessor. The settlement appears to have been centred some 600 metres (2,000 ft) to the south of the present-day focus of the town, near the current location of the parish church of St Mary. By 1086, the manor of Wendovre was in the hundred of Aylesbury, with William the Conqueror as its tenant in chief.

The manor remained in royal ownership until 1154, and then passed back and forth between royal and private ownership several times. Wendover was granted a market charter in 1214, and had become a borough by 1228, although it does not appear to have achieved any degree of self-government. It is likely that around this time the focus moved north to its current location, allowing the market to cater to traffic on the road running along the Chilterns between Chinnor and Tring, as well as that crossing the Chilterns between London and Aylesbury. The current layout of the older parts of the town show clear signs of medieval town planning, especially the presence of long, narrow and rectilinear burgage plots.

Both parliamentary and royalist forces visited the town during the Civil War, with looting reported by both sides. Many of the buildings in the town centre, and especially on High Street, Pound Street, and Aylesbury Road, date from the 17th century. It is not known whether this is because they needed rebuilding after civil war damage, or is an indication of the prosperity of the town at the time.

In 1721, the Wendover to Buckingham Turnpike Trust was established, and Wendover became a stop for coach routes to and from London. It is likely that at this time a number of new inns and hostelries were built along the High Street. The Wendover Arm of the Grand Union Canal was built between 1793 and 1797 and served local industries whilst also providing a water supply for the parent canal. In September 1892, the railway reached the town with the opening of Wendover railway station on the Metropolitan Railway's line to Aylesbury. Responsibility for the station was transferred from London Transport, who had inherited it from the Metropolitan Railway, to British Railways, in 1961.

The 1841 census reveal the population that year was 1,877.