Brill

infobox UK place
country = England
latitude= 51.8204
longitude= -1.0515
official_name= Brill
population = 1,190 [ [http://www.neighbourhood.statistics.gov.uk/dissemination/LeadTableView.do?a=7&b=792019&c=brill&d=16&e=15&g=424069&i=1001x1003x1004&m=0&r=1&s=1215978582015&enc=1&dsFamilyId=779 Neighbourhood Statistics 2001 Census] ]
shire_district= Aylesbury Vale
shire_county = Buckinghamshire
region= South East England
constituency_westminster= Buckingham
post_town= Aylesbury
postcode_district = HP18
postcode_area= HP
dial_code= 01844
static_

static_image_caption= The windmill at Brill
os_grid_reference= SP658139

Brill is a village and civil parish within Aylesbury Vale district in Buckinghamshire, England, close to the border with Oxfordshire. It is about four miles north-west of Long Crendon and seven miles south-east of Bicester. Although it still has a Royal charter to hold a weekly market on account of its prestigious history, the village has not hosted such an event for many years.

History

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 has, for a long time, been a property belonging to the Crown. 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, though in the years since the English Civil War it grew to become a parish in its own right. There was also a convent in Brill, dedicated to St Frideswide, and a hermitage dedicated to St Werburgh, though these 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.

The Brill Tramway

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.

Today

Today the village of Brill is small, but it is easy to see from some of the buildings in the village and the extent of its common land that it was once a grand place. The 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 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.

References

* Mitchell, V. and Smith, K. (2006) "Aylesbury to Rugby, including the Brill Branch", Midland Main Lines, Middleton Press, p. 24-48, ISBN 1-904474-91-8

* Oppitz, L. (2000) "A tramway built for a Duke", In: Lost Railways of the Chilterns, Countryside Books, p. 73-82, ISBN 1 85306 643 5

* Shippey, T. (2002) "Tolkien and Iceland: the philology of envy", Symposium, The Nordic House, Laxness, Undset, 12^th and 13^th September 2002, [http://www.nordals.hi.is/Apps/WebObjects/HI.woa/wa/dp?detail=1004508&name=nordals_en_greinar_og_erindi| Sigurður Nordal Office: Árni Magnússon Institute of Icelandic Studies website] , (accessed 22 January 2007)

External links

* [http://www.brillvillage.co.uk/ Brill Village Website]
* [http://www.brill.bucks.sch.uk/ Brill Church of England Combined School]