ROTHERFIELD GREYS AND SHEPHERD'S GREEN

Rotherfield Greys is a small village in the Oxfordshire Chilterns. The Norman village church is the heavily restored Church of St. Nicholas. There is a little housing near the church and also the village pub. For the history and full information about the Church of St. Nicholas click here.

According to the Domesday Book Rotherfield Greys was under the ownership of the Norman knight Anchetil de Greye, hence the origin of part of the village name. "Rotherfield" derives from the Old English redrefeld meaning "cattle lands".

About half a mile from Rotherfield Greys is Greys Green, a pleasant group of houses built around a village green where cricket is played, and with wide grass verges to the road which are attractively planted with trees.

A further half mile to the north-west of Greys Green is Shepherd's Green, which is another community of large attractive mainly 20th century houses, several of which are built around a large green.

Nearby is the National Trust property of Greys Court, a picturesque Tudor former manor house which has one surviving tower and a small section of the curtain wall of fortifications which date from 1347. The early Greys Court was for a time owned by Sir Francis Knollys, treasurer to Elizabeth I, and jailer of Mary, Queen of Scots. St.Nicolas' Church in Rotherfield Greys includes the 16th-century Knollys Chapel which houses an ornate tomb of the Knollys family with effigies of Sir Francis Knollys and his wife, who was Lady in Waiting to Queen Elizabeth I.

Greys Court has been the scene of a couple of episodes of the TV series Midsomer Murders.

Rotherfield Greys is about 2 miles west of Henly-on-Thames and a mile or so east of Rotherfield Peppard.