Preston Bissett

Human settlement in England

Preston Bissett is a village and civil parish in the unitary authority area of Buckinghamshire, England. It is about four miles SSW of Buckingham, six miles north east of Bicester in Oxfordshire. The soil is clay and gravel, but the subsoil varies. The parish is watered by a tributary of the River Great Ouse.

The toponym "Preston" is common in England; it is derived from the Old English for "priest's farm". The Domesday Book of 1086 records the village as Prestone. The affix "Bissett" came later and refers to the lords of the manor, distinguishing it from other places called Preston.

The village has a public house, the White Hart, a playing field, a cricket pitch, garden nurseries and a farm shop.

As of 1927, the History of the County of Buckingham described the village as 'picturesque', mainly composed of thatched cottages grouped around the parish church, which in turn stood in a churchyard on rising ground; although it reported there were "a few modern residences" on the east end of the village.^[2]

Lords of the Manor

• The manor was held for five generations by the Barons de Ros de Hamlake. The last of these to hold the manor was Thomas de Ros, 9th Baron de Ros, a zealous Lancastrian, who was attainted in 1461, with the manor escheating to the crown.
• Sir William Fowler (MP for Wycombe) was given Preston manor in 1465 for services by his father William to King Edward IV.^[3] The manor passed in 1467 to his son,
• Sir Richard Fowler, king's counsel and later Chancellor of the Exchequer for Edward IV^[4]

References

1. Neighbourhood Statistics Census 2011, Accessed 3 February 2013
2. 'Parishes :Preston Bissett', A History of the County of Buckingham: Volume 4 (1927), pp. 215-220. Date accessed: 17 January 2013
3. Calendar of the Patent Rolls Preserved in the Public Record Office 1461–7, p. 440. Cited in Parishes : Preston Bissett', A History of the County of Buckingham: Volume 4 (1927), pp. 215-220. Date accessed: 17 January 2013
4. Calendar of the Patent Rolls Preserved in the Public Record Office 1467–77, p. 18, Cited in Parishes : Preston Bissett', A History of the County of Buckingham: Volume 4 (1927), pp. 215-220. Date accessed: 17 January 2013

Further reading

• Page, W.H., ed. (1927). A History of the County of Buckingham, Volume 4. Victoria County History. pp. 215–220.
  • URL for above
• Pevsner, Nikolaus (1973) [1966]. Buckinghamshire. The Buildings of England. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books. p. 225. ISBN 0-14-071019-1.

External links

Media related to Preston Bissett at Wikimedia Commons