Kingsey

Kingsey
Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire
St Nicholas, Kingsey
Location
Grid reference:	SP7406
Location:	51°45’14"N, -0°55’34"W
Data
Population:	207  (2011 (inc. Aston Sandford))
Post town:	Aylesbury
Postcode:	HP17
Dialling code:	01844
Local Government
Council:	Buckinghamshire
Parliamentary constituency:	Buckingham

Kingsey is a small village and parish on the borders of Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire, about two miles east of Thame and a mile south of Haddenham. The parish church, dedicated to St Nicholas, is in the Buckinghamshire part of the parish. The current building was completed in 1893, but records show there has been a religious building on the site since 1043.

The village toponym is of 12th-century origin and means 'king's island', referring to a piece of dry land that belonged to the king in the marshes that were once common in this part of the country. In 1174 the village was called Eya, meaning 'island', though by 1192 it had gained its more modern name of Kingesie. This leads historians to believe that the village is named after King Richard I.

Historically people from this village and those surrounding it were known by the derogatory term 'wetfeet', because of the high water table of the area leading to the ground being so waterlogged.

Grade-I-listed Tythrop Park in the Oxfordshire part of the parish is listed as having an early duck decoy similar to that in Boarstall Duck Decoy in Buckinghamshire.

Outside links

("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Kingsey)

• About Kingsey
• Tythrop House Duck Decoy listing in "The Book of Duck Decoys" by Sir Ralph Payne-Gallwey, 1886.