Lewknor

The village of Lewknor is a quiet village at the junction of the M40 motorway and the B4009 right at the foot of the Chilterns where the motorway passes through the Stokenchurch cutting. Since the construction of the motorway the B4009 has become a bypass for the village and the motorway has blocked the direct road from the village to Aston Rowant.

The village name is Old English, meaning the hill slope of a man called Leofeca. The suffix 'nor' means a spring. There has been a settlement here since at least 990AD and excavation during the construction of the M40 motorway confirmed that there was habitation in the area during the Roman period.

Many of the cottages in Lewknor are built using flints and some of the newer construction has been sympathetically built in a similar style using the same materials. At the centre of the village is the remnant of Town Pond which at one time was used for watercress growing. The cress was sent to London by train from the nearby halt on the Watlington to Princes Risborough branch line (now no longer there). Scenes from several episodes of the popular TV series Midsomer Murders were filmed in the village.

The flint church of St. Margaret's was rebuilt and enlarged in the 14th century and the tower was added in the 15th century. Access to the church is through the village school playground.

Above the village on the Chilterns escarpment is the Aston Rowant Nature Reserve from which there are superb views over the Oxford Plain.