brill

Coordinates: 51°49′13″N 1°03′05″W / 51.8204°N 1.0515°W / 51.8204; -1.0515

Brill
The windmill at Brill
Brill  Brill shown within Buckinghamshire
Population	1,190 [1]
OS grid reference	SP658139
Parish	Brill
District	Aylesbury Vale
Shire county	Buckinghamshire
Region	South East
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	Aylesbury
Postcode district	HP18
Dialling code	01844
Police	Thames Valley
Fire	Buckinghamshire
Ambulance	South Central
EU Parliament	South East England
UK Parliament	Buckingham
List of places: UK • England • Buckinghamshire

Brill is a village and civil parish in Aylesbury Vale district in Buckinghamshire, England, close to the boundary with Oxfordshire. It is about 4 miles (6.4 km) north-west of Long Crendon and 7 miles (11 km) south-east of Bicester. It has a Royal charter to hold a weekly market, but has not done so for many years.

History

Brill

Brill's name is a combination of Brythonic and Anglo Saxon words for 'hill' (Brythonic breg and Anglo Saxon hyll). At the time of Edward the Confessor it was a town known as Bruhella.

The manor of Brill was the central administration area for the royal hunting Forest of Bernwood and was for a long time a property belonging to the Crown. King Edward the Confessor had a grand palace here, which remained in place until the time of Charles I, who turned the building into a garrison. This action led to its eventual destruction by John Hampden in 1643 in the English Civil War. There is evidence that Henry II, John, Henry III and Stephen all held court here.

Ecclesiastically, Brill was originally a chapel of ease to the nearby parish of Oakley, but in the years since the English Civil War it grew to become a parish in its own right. Brill had a convent dedicated to St. Frideswide and a hermitage dedicated to St. Werburgh, both of which were both disbanded during the Dissolution of the Monasteries.

James Govier (1910-74) the British painter, etcher and engraver produced images of Brill church and windmill, along with images of Buckinghamshire. James was born in the adjoining parish of Oakley. The Govier family originated from Brill and Oakley. Examples of Govier's work can be seen at the County Museum in Aylesbury and at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford.

The perpetrators of the Great Train Robbery in 1963 hid at the remote Leatherslade Farm on the boundary with the village of Oakley.

Brill Windmill

Brill is also known for its famous windmill. With timbers dating back to 1685, Brill Windmill provides one of the earliest and best preserved examples of a post mill (the earliest type of European windmill) in the UK. The management and ownership of the Grade II* listed mill was passed to Buckinghamshire County Council in 1947 who, through a number of major interventions, have ensured that the mill still stands today. Crucial to the mill's survival was the Council's decision to install a structural steel framework in 1967. This framework helps to support the mill's ancient timber frame but means that the mill is 'static' and can no longer turn to face the wind.

Brill Windmill Restoration Project

Due to timber decay through water ingress and weathering the structural integrity of the mill became an important issue leading to the mill being described 'At risk'. In order to help draw-up a restoration project and to seek the necessary funds the Brill Windmill Management Group was established in 2007. With funding support provided by English Heritage and WREN the windmill has recently been subject to a full repair and preservation programme which was completed in July 2009. The mill is now back in good health and is once again open to the public, once a week, between March and September

The Brill Tramway

Former site of the Brill Tramway terminus

Brill once hosted a north-western terminus of the London Underground system (Oppitz, 2000).

After the completion in 1868 of the Aylesbury and Buckingham Railway, the Duke of Buckingham built the light railway to provide freight access by rail to his estates at Wotton Underwood. The extension to Brill gave access to a brickworks there. The line was opened in 1871, and following public demand passenger facilities were provided early in 1872. Originally known as the Brill Tramway, the line’s name changed to "Oxford and Aylesbury Tramroad" when a company was formed in an abortive attempt to extend the line to Oxford; the biggest hindering expense was the cost of tunnelling under Brill Hill.

The original Quainton Road station was north of the Quainton-Waddesdon road, and wagons from the Brill line reached it by means of a wagon turntable; there was no direct access (Mitchell and Smith, 2006). When the Metropolitan Railway took over the line in 1896, it doubled the main line from Aylesbury and re-sited the station to its present position, replacing a level crossing with the present road over bridge; a running connection between the Brill line and the main line was constructed at that time. In 1935, on the creation of the LPTB, control was transferred to it from the Metropolitan and Great Central Joint Committee which had taken it over in 1906; the whole branch was closed on 30 November 1935.

Little London

The hamlet of 'Little London' to the south was part of Brill parish until 1934; at that time the parish boundary was moved by Buckinghamshire County Council to Oakley. When the Metropolitan railway built the station, it has been said that in honour of the metropolitan ambience the planners were trying to evoke, another Little London was founded to the north of the village.

Amenities

The Church of England parish church is dedicated to All Saints.

Brill Church of England Combined School is a mixed, voluntary controlled, Church of England primary school. It takes children from the age of four through to the age of eleven. The school has about 175 pupils.

References in literature

Brill is featured in the novel The Book of Dave by Will Self. Set 2,000 years in the future, Brill (spelled 'Bril' in the novel) is the location of a manor of Plateist Queers.

It is also often said^{[citation needed]} that J. R. R. Tolkien based the village of Bree in The Lord of the Rings on Brill (Shippey, 2002). He used other nearby places in Oxfordshire as part of the Shire, sometimes using the same names, such as Buckland.

Sources

External links

• Brill Village Website
• Brill Church of England Combined School
• Brill windmill restoration - Buckinghamshire County Council

References

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