Aylesbury

Aylesbury is the county town of Buckinghamshire in south central England. It had a population in the 2001 census of 65,173 and is part of the London commuter belt.

The town name is Anglo-Saxon, though excavations in the town centre in the early 1990s found an Iron Age hillfort dating from around 650BC. The town is sited on an outcrop of Portlandian limestone which accounts for its prominent position in the surrounding landscape, which is largely clay. Aylesbury was a major market town in Anglo-Saxon times, famous in addition as the burial place of Saint Osyth, whose shrine attracted pilgrims. The Early English parish church of St. Mary (with many later additions) is built over remains of the Saxon crypt. At the Conquest, the king took the manor of Aylesbury for himself, and it is listed as a royal manor in the Domesday Book, 1086.

In 1450 a religious institution called the Guild of St Mary was founded in Aylesbury by John Kemp, Archbishop of York. Known popularly as the Guild of Our Lady it became a meeting place for local dignitaries and a hotbed of political intrigue. The Guild was influential in the final outcome of the Wars of the Roses. Its premises at the Chantry in Church Street, Aylesbury, are still there, though today the site is occupied mainly by almshouses.

Aylesbury was declared the county town of Buckinghamshire in 1529 by King Henry VIII: Aylesbury Manor was among the many properties belonging to Thomas Boleyn the father of Anne Boleyn and it is rumoured that the change was made by the king in order to curry favour with the holders of the manor. (Previously the county town of Buckinghamshire was Buckingham).

The town played a large part in the English Civil War when it became a stronghold for the Parliamentarian forces, like many market towns a nursing-ground of Puritan sentiment. Its proximity to Great Hampden, home of John Hampden has made of Hampden a local hero: his silhouette is on the emblem used by Aylesbury Vale District Council and his statue stands prominently in the town centre. The town's heraldic crest is the Aylesbury duck, which has been bred here since the birth of the Industrial Revolution.

The Jacobean mansion of Hartwell nearby was the residence of Louis XVIII during his exile (1810 – 1814). The town also received international publicity in the 1960s when the culprits responsible for the Great Train Robbery were tried at Aylesbury Crown Court. The robbery took place at Bridego Bridge, a railway bridge at Ledburn, about six miles from the town. The 7 July 2005 Piccadilly Line bomber Germaine Lindsay's home was in Aylesbury at the time of the bombings, though he was originally from Jamaica.

A notable institution is Aylesbury Grammar School, which was founded in 1598; other notable buildings are the King's Head Inn, which with the Fleece Inn at Bretforton is one of the few public houses in the country owned by the National Trust still run as a public house, and the Queens Park Centre, the UK's largest independent arts centre.

Chequers, the country residence of the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom since 1921, is just southeast of Aylesbury.

The town's population has doubled since the 1960s due to new housing developments, including many London overspill housing estates, built to ease pressure on the capital, and to move people from crowded inner city slums to more favourable locations. Indeed Aylesbury, to a greater extent than any English market town, saw substantial areas of its own heart demolished in the 1950s/1960s as 16th - 18th century houses (many in good repair) were pulled down to make way for commercial developments.

Aylesbury's population was expected to increase between 2003 and 2005 with a new housing estate designed to cater for eight thousand people on the north side of the town, sandwiched between the A41 (Akeman Street) and the A413, and the expansion of Fairford Leys village.

Housing estates in the modern Aylesbury include: Bedgrove, Broughton, Elm Farm, Elmhurst, Fairford Leys, Haydon Hill, Hawkslade Farm, Meadowcroft, Prebendal Farm, Quarrendon, Southcourt, Stoke Grange, Walton Court, Watermead and The Willows. Aylesbury has also been extended to completely surround the former hamlets or farms at Bedgrove, Broughton, California, New Zealand, Prebendal Farm, Quarrendon, Turnfurlong and Walton. If plans to increase the size of the town by twenty thousand people go ahead, suburban Aylesbury could well meet up with the neighbouring villages of Bierton, Hartwell, Stoke Mandeville, Stone and Weston Turville.

The town centre has many pubs and bars, along with some nightclubs, and Friday and Saturday nights can be lively.

The local newspaper is The Bucks Herald. The local radio station is Mix 96.

One of the more prominent buildings in Aylesbury is the "Blue Leanie" office block, home to Halifax Bank of Scotland (HBOS). When first built it was thought to be a potential hazard to passing motorists, due to the sun reflecting off its large mirrored surface. As a result a line of trees was planted alongside the main road to prevent dazzling. The town is served by Aylesbury railway station, which is the present terminus of passenger services from London Marylebone.

In recent years Aylesbury has had a lot of bad press, with several murders, a racial riot and being home to Germaine Lindsay, one of the suicide bombers behind the 7 July 2005 London bombings.