TETSWORTH PAST & PRESENT
A Brief History The name Tetsworth has Anglo Saxon origins. It is believed to be made up of a person's name, 'Taetel', and the common Anglo Saxon place name ending 'worth' meaning enclosure. It certainly existed as a settled community at the time of the Domesday Book, although it was not mentioned in it.
Tetsworth’s position at the crossroads of the main London-Oxford route and a north-south roadway from Thame to Wallingford was recognised in the earliest known printing of a map of England in 1382. Until the late 16th century, the land comprising Tetsworth was controlled by either the church or crown in turn.
Tetsworth's early association with important roads was emphasised by the act of Richard Quartermain in setting up the Guild of St Christopher at Thame in 1447 and by the existence of the Swan Inn in the village from as early as 1482. Both royalist and parliamentary troops transited the village during the Civil War and the creation of the London-Oxford turnpike in 1718 cemented Tetsworth’s position as a well-used coaching stage.
The village’s growth and prosperity has always been heavily dependent on agricultural employment. As a result, there was a great deal of poverty in the early 19th century, but comparative wealth and population growth to more than 500 by 1851. In part due to the spread of railways elsewhere and fewer agricultural or other local employment opportunities, the 1931 census recorded fewer than 300 Tetsworth residents and only about 100 households.
The benevolence and foresight of John W Peers, the vicar of Tetsworth from 1841 – 1876, saw the building of the current St Giles church, the establishment of a village school and laying of the network of cobble village footpaths. His legacy is still with us today.
Tetsworth Today At the 2011 census (data available here), Tetsworth had a population of just under 700 people, nearly a quarter of whom were under 20 years old, with another quarter older than 60. Compared with the rest of the district, this age profile reveals a lower proportion of younger residents, but the older quartile is broadly in line with the wider community. The village supports 278 households, over three-quarters of which live in privately owned properties with or without a mortgage, while the remainder rely on the social or private rental sector.
Nearly half of the local housing stock is detached houses or bungalows, approximately a third is semi-detached dwellings with the remainder split between terraced homes and flats/apartments – although the latter category has recently been reduced as a result of the demolition of the Sunnymede sheltered apartments. Approximately 6% of houses were unoccupied at the time of the census probably reflecting the level of turnover in the local property market. Once established in Tetsworth, families tend to stay here for a long time.
Above average car ownership, at 2 cars per household, is a reflection of the paucity of public transport services and local employment opportunities – together with ready access to a well-developed road network connecting with more active centres of business and employment. Local unemployment has remained low, but the proportion of self-employed residents amongst the economically active is much higher than district and national levels.
Significant local business ventures include the Zioxi educational furniture plant, the Swan antiques centre and a number of neighbouring equestrian and agricultural enterprises. A proportion of residents also operate a range of home-based domestic and professional service businesses. However, most of those in employment commute out of the village to work.
Tetsworth no longer enjoys the services of a village post office or a broad range of retail outlets, but continues to support those pillars of a village community – its church, primary school, village hall, sports on the village green, and village pub and restaurant.
A Brief History The name Tetsworth has Anglo Saxon origins. It is believed to be made up of a person's name, 'Taetel', and the common Anglo Saxon place name ending 'worth' meaning enclosure. It certainly existed as a settled community at the time of the Domesday Book, although it was not mentioned in it.
Tetsworth’s position at the crossroads of the main London-Oxford route and a north-south roadway from Thame to Wallingford was recognised in the earliest known printing of a map of England in 1382. Until the late 16th century, the land comprising Tetsworth was controlled by either the church or crown in turn.
Tetsworth's early association with important roads was emphasised by the act of Richard Quartermain in setting up the Guild of St Christopher at Thame in 1447 and by the existence of the Swan Inn in the village from as early as 1482. Both royalist and parliamentary troops transited the village during the Civil War and the creation of the London-Oxford turnpike in 1718 cemented Tetsworth’s position as a well-used coaching stage.
The village’s growth and prosperity has always been heavily dependent on agricultural employment. As a result, there was a great deal of poverty in the early 19th century, but comparative wealth and population growth to more than 500 by 1851. In part due to the spread of railways elsewhere and fewer agricultural or other local employment opportunities, the 1931 census recorded fewer than 300 Tetsworth residents and only about 100 households.
The benevolence and foresight of John W Peers, the vicar of Tetsworth from 1841 – 1876, saw the building of the current St Giles church, the establishment of a village school and laying of the network of cobble village footpaths. His legacy is still with us today.
Tetsworth Today At the 2011 census (data available here), Tetsworth had a population of just under 700 people, nearly a quarter of whom were under 20 years old, with another quarter older than 60. Compared with the rest of the district, this age profile reveals a lower proportion of younger residents, but the older quartile is broadly in line with the wider community. The village supports 278 households, over three-quarters of which live in privately owned properties with or without a mortgage, while the remainder rely on the social or private rental sector.
Nearly half of the local housing stock is detached houses or bungalows, approximately a third is semi-detached dwellings with the remainder split between terraced homes and flats/apartments – although the latter category has recently been reduced as a result of the demolition of the Sunnymede sheltered apartments. Approximately 6% of houses were unoccupied at the time of the census probably reflecting the level of turnover in the local property market. Once established in Tetsworth, families tend to stay here for a long time.
Above average car ownership, at 2 cars per household, is a reflection of the paucity of public transport services and local employment opportunities – together with ready access to a well-developed road network connecting with more active centres of business and employment. Local unemployment has remained low, but the proportion of self-employed residents amongst the economically active is much higher than district and national levels.
Significant local business ventures include the Zioxi educational furniture plant, the Swan antiques centre and a number of neighbouring equestrian and agricultural enterprises. A proportion of residents also operate a range of home-based domestic and professional service businesses. However, most of those in employment commute out of the village to work.
Tetsworth no longer enjoys the services of a village post office or a broad range of retail outlets, but continues to support those pillars of a village community – its church, primary school, village hall, sports on the village green, and village pub and restaurant.
TETSWORTH’S UTILITY INFRASTRUCTURE
Introduction
The infrastructure supporting the water, electricity and telecoms services in Tetsworth is often hidden away and taken for granted – until there is a problem. In fact, as well as comprehensive local distribution networks for electricity, telephone landlines, water and sewage, the parish also hosts mobile telecoms aerial masts, a high voltage power transmission line, two high pressure gas pipelines and an oil pipeline in the surrounding countryside.
This document records the physical evidence of the utilities infrastructure within the village and the pipelines and transmission lines crossing over or under the surrounding parish countryside.
Electricity
Provision of the residential distribution network is the responsibility of SSE Networks. Supplies to the more recently built homes in the village are buried underground, but many of the older dwellings in the core of the village and isolated properties in the countryside still rely on overhead lines supported on wooden posts, often shared with BT landlines.
An east-west high voltage electricity transmission line bisects the parish, but lies mainly to the south of the M40 and the village settlement. It crosses the Thame road close to the Toll House, and the A40, M40 and Stoke Talmage road just outside the south-eastern edge of the village.
Water and Sewage
There is no above ground evidence, other than occasional leaks, of the fresh water distribution network. However, Thames Water is responsible for connecting all households to a fresh water supply by buried pipe as far as a publicly accessible water meter or stop cock.
Thames Water is also responsible for the village’s main drainage and sewerage treatment facilities. All drains connected to the system lead to the securely-fenced sewage treatment works located on low ground close to the Spencer’s Farm farmyard on the north-west edge of the village.
Transfer of effluent from drains and properties east of The Mount require the assistance of a pumping station which is located opposite the High Street junction with the Stoke Talmage road.
Discharge from the sewage treatment plant flows into Latchford Brook.
Telecoms
BT is responsible for providing telephone landlines and internet connectivity to all properties requesting the service. Tetsworth has a telephone exchange building located on the north side of the High Street adjacent to the entrance to the Blackthorn Rise side road. Like the domestic electricity distribution network, most of the post-war homes have an underground connection while the older parts of the village are still served by overhead lines, often but not always shared with electrical power lines.
Superfast broadband connectivity arrived in the village in 2016 when BT Openreach installed fibre-optic cabling to two distribution cabinets in the village. One is located on the edge of the Village Green near the PATCH play area and the other alongside the Stoke Talmage road adjacent to the A40 junction.
Mobile telecom users are served by one of two aerial masts in the parish. One is sited on high ground adjacent to the bridge over the M40 leading to Manor Farm to the west of the village settlement. The other is located to the north of the village near the high point of Horsenden Hill close to the western side of Judds Lane.
Gas Pipelines
Tetsworth is not connected to the National Grid-operated gas distribution network, but two of its high pressure pipelines from Bedfordshire to Chalgrove are buried under open countryside to the west of the village. FM09, Steppingley to Chalgrove and FM07, Old Warden to Chalgrove, pass under the A40 just beyond the Tetsworth parish boundary and continue south-east across the parish under the M40 towards Chalgrove. Their presence is marked at highway and byway crossing points by poles warning of the excavation hazard.
Oil Pipeline
Just to the east of the Stoke Talmage road junction with the A40, there is a buried north-south interconnector oil pipeline. Its presence crossing under the A40 is marked, like the gas pipelines, with notices prohibiting excavation adjacent to its route. On a securely-fenced site between the A40 and M40, the pipeline briefly emerges above ground and features what appear to be control mechanisms.
Introduction
The infrastructure supporting the water, electricity and telecoms services in Tetsworth is often hidden away and taken for granted – until there is a problem. In fact, as well as comprehensive local distribution networks for electricity, telephone landlines, water and sewage, the parish also hosts mobile telecoms aerial masts, a high voltage power transmission line, two high pressure gas pipelines and an oil pipeline in the surrounding countryside.
This document records the physical evidence of the utilities infrastructure within the village and the pipelines and transmission lines crossing over or under the surrounding parish countryside.
Electricity
Provision of the residential distribution network is the responsibility of SSE Networks. Supplies to the more recently built homes in the village are buried underground, but many of the older dwellings in the core of the village and isolated properties in the countryside still rely on overhead lines supported on wooden posts, often shared with BT landlines.
An east-west high voltage electricity transmission line bisects the parish, but lies mainly to the south of the M40 and the village settlement. It crosses the Thame road close to the Toll House, and the A40, M40 and Stoke Talmage road just outside the south-eastern edge of the village.
Water and Sewage
There is no above ground evidence, other than occasional leaks, of the fresh water distribution network. However, Thames Water is responsible for connecting all households to a fresh water supply by buried pipe as far as a publicly accessible water meter or stop cock.
Thames Water is also responsible for the village’s main drainage and sewerage treatment facilities. All drains connected to the system lead to the securely-fenced sewage treatment works located on low ground close to the Spencer’s Farm farmyard on the north-west edge of the village.
Transfer of effluent from drains and properties east of The Mount require the assistance of a pumping station which is located opposite the High Street junction with the Stoke Talmage road.
Discharge from the sewage treatment plant flows into Latchford Brook.
Telecoms
BT is responsible for providing telephone landlines and internet connectivity to all properties requesting the service. Tetsworth has a telephone exchange building located on the north side of the High Street adjacent to the entrance to the Blackthorn Rise side road. Like the domestic electricity distribution network, most of the post-war homes have an underground connection while the older parts of the village are still served by overhead lines, often but not always shared with electrical power lines.
Superfast broadband connectivity arrived in the village in 2016 when BT Openreach installed fibre-optic cabling to two distribution cabinets in the village. One is located on the edge of the Village Green near the PATCH play area and the other alongside the Stoke Talmage road adjacent to the A40 junction.
Mobile telecom users are served by one of two aerial masts in the parish. One is sited on high ground adjacent to the bridge over the M40 leading to Manor Farm to the west of the village settlement. The other is located to the north of the village near the high point of Horsenden Hill close to the western side of Judds Lane.
Gas Pipelines
Tetsworth is not connected to the National Grid-operated gas distribution network, but two of its high pressure pipelines from Bedfordshire to Chalgrove are buried under open countryside to the west of the village. FM09, Steppingley to Chalgrove and FM07, Old Warden to Chalgrove, pass under the A40 just beyond the Tetsworth parish boundary and continue south-east across the parish under the M40 towards Chalgrove. Their presence is marked at highway and byway crossing points by poles warning of the excavation hazard.
Oil Pipeline
Just to the east of the Stoke Talmage road junction with the A40, there is a buried north-south interconnector oil pipeline. Its presence crossing under the A40 is marked, like the gas pipelines, with notices prohibiting excavation adjacent to its route. On a securely-fenced site between the A40 and M40, the pipeline briefly emerges above ground and features what appear to be control mechanisms.