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Thame Local History
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North Weston
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North Weston was a village that may have existed for more than a thousand years,
but which has now all but gone. Going out of Thame towards Tiddington today, the first turning on the right towards Shabbington is effectively at North Weston. The village lay along the road that leads off the A418 opposite the Shabbington turn. This road becomes a bridleway, and leads towards Manor Farm, which is all that remains of the ancient community at North Weston. The name North Weston is composed of two geographical elements, north and west, plus the Anglo Saxon word for a homestead or township. The north was added to distinguish North Weston from South Weston. Both were originally just Weston, which is Anglo Saxon for a homestead or township to the west of some other place. In the case of North Weston, that other place is Thame. It is thought that North Weston marks the western boundary of the hinterland of the seventh century minster church at Thame, which would suggest that the village at North Western also has its roots in the seventh century. In the Domesday Book of 1086, North Weston is not mentioned. It is included in the manorial holdings of Thame. Recently however, Dr John Blair of Oxford University has suggested that one of the Bishop of Lincoln's men at arms mentioned in the Domesday Book under the entries for Thame lived at North Weston, and was the original member of the Quartermain family to do so. The Quartermain family remained at North Weston for over three hundred years, such that by the time of Richard Quartemain in the fifteenth century they were no longer Norman conquerors but part of the English landowning classes. Richard Quartermain inherited the manor of North Weston, but he moved to nearby Rycote, through his marriage to Sybil Englefield. |
Do you live in a village near Thame?
Old maps of Thame and the villages |