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Tiddington lies midway between Thame and Wheatley, astride the busy A418 road.
Drivers passing quickly through the village might see a garage, the Fox public
house and a large caravan sales and service centre, as well as a few houses
along the main road. Much of the village lies on the north-facing slope of the
valley of the river Thame, south of the A418.
The village street has a number of cottages dating from the 16th to 18th
centuries, with Tiddington House on the hill-top built in the reign of Queen
Anne. There has been a steady increase in building in the village, from the
Airey local authority housing of 1947 to the estate houses of the 1960s and
1970s. Other post-war dwellings, including a small estate built in the late
1980s, extend along the Ickford Road towards the water meadows of the river
Thame.
To the west of the village, Sandy Lane links the main road to the M40
London/Birmingham motorway junction at Milton Common. On the south-eastern
boundary of Tiddington lies Fernhill, a wood which has bluebells, a muntjak deer
and badger sets. A quarter of a mile to the east, along the Oxfordshire Way, is
the hamlet of Albury, once a much larger community than Tiddington. Here stands
the parish church of St Helen together with the Old Rectory, the Grange and
Church Farm. The original church was demolished in 1828 and the present church
was built in the Perpendicular style by Thomas Rickman in 1830. The Romanesque
font with zigzag ornamentation is all that remains from the original building.
Although the population of Tiddington has grown considerably since the Second
World War, these years have also seen the disappearance of many of the amenities
which were important to the village. The school, the general stores with post
office and the forge have all become private dwelling houses and the railway
line, once a useful link to Princes Risborough, Thame, Wheatley and Oxford, has
become a haven for wildlife.
In earlier times the villagers worked on the many farms in the area or for the
large estate of Rycote Park to the east. At the end of the 18th century there
were nine farms. Now only Manor Farm in the centre of Tiddington and Sandy Lane
Farm exist as working farms, where modern machinery replaces farm labourers.
Church Farm at Albury, which had for some years been a teaching farm, was closed
in 1988. People now travel away from the village to work in nearby towns or even
as far afield as London. The extension of the M40 motorway, scheduled to be
ready in Spring 1991, will bring Birmingham within easy reach.
The village hall is the community centre of the village. Built on the recreation
ground in 1953 by the villagers to commemorate the Coronation of Queen
Elizabeth II, it provides a meeting place for activities organised by several
clubs and groups. Coronation year also marked the beginning of the annual
tug-of-war between Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire, represented by Tiddington
and Ickford respectively, and contested from opposite banks of the river Thame,
which is the county boundary at Ickford Bridges. The tug-of-war is held on the
first Friday in August when junior and adult teams compete to avoid a ducking in
the river.
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