Drayton Beauchamp
| Drayton Beauchamp | |
|---|---|
 St. Mary the Virgin parish church |
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 The Old Rectory |
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 Drayton Beauchamp
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| Drayton Beauchamp shown within Buckinghamshire | |
| Population | 152 (2011 Census) |
| OS grid reference | SP9012 |
| Civil parish |
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| District | |
| Shire county | |
| Region | |
| Country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Police | Thames Valley |
| Fire | Buckinghamshire |
| Ambulance | South Central |
| EU Parliament | South East England |
Drayton Beauchamp (pronounced 'Beecham') is a village and civil parish within Aylesbury Vale district in Buckinghamshire, England. It is in the east of the county bordering Hertfordshire, about six miles from Aylesbury and two miles from Tring.
The village toponym is derived from the Old English for "farm where sledges are used". It is a common place name in England, and refers to places that were perched on the hillside, thus requiring the use of a sledge rather than a cart to pull heavy loads. The suffix 'Beauchamp' refers to the ancient manorial family of the parish. The village is intersected by the Icknield Way a prehistoric, long-distance trackway of significant importance in providing a trading route between East Anglia and the Thames Valley certainly during the Iron Age and maybe earlier. In more recent times it has been bisected by the Roman Road, Akeman Street now the A41 and by both the Aylesbury Arm and Wendover Arm of the Grand Union Canal.
Following the Norman conquest of England William I awarded land which later became known as Drayton Beauchamp to Robert, Earl of Morton who as Magno le Breton had accompanied William at the time of the Norman Invasion in 1066. The Morton family founded a church at Drayton on the site where the present-day church of St Mary the Virgin now stands. During the early part of the 13th century the manor was owned by William de Beauchamp (de Bello Campo). The lands were passed from the Beauchamp family to the Cobhams. Sir John Cobham gave the property to King Edward III. The King granted it to his shield-bearer Thomas Cheney (also spelt Cheyne) in 1364. It remained in the Cheyne family until the death of William Cheyne, Lord Viscount Newhaven in 1728.
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