Croughton, Northamptonshire

Croughton is a small village in the South Northamptonshire district of Northamptonshire, England. It is close to the border with Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire and is six kilometres southwest of the town of Brackley. Along with Aynho it is one of the county's two southernmost villages. Croughton has a population of about 400.

There is no one predominant pronunciation of the village's name, with residents either pronouncing it with its first syllable rhyming with "though" or with "thou". The origin of the name is thought to mean "town in the fork of a river". Croughton is situated upon the B4031 road running west from Buckingham, and is close to the Ockley Brook, a minor tributary of the River Cherwell, which it meets southwest of Aynho.

The village is most well known for its church, which is of historical significance for its murals, now sadly damaged. A historic elm reputedly stood in the church grounds for 800 years, and although it is popularly believed to have died of Dutch elm disease in the 1970s, its demise dates back to the early 1900s. The remains of an Iron Age fort, Rainsborough Camp, lie to the northwest of the village, and the site of the long-abandoned mediaeval village of Astwick lies to the northeast.

The village is dwarfed by RAF Croughton, a base on long-term lease to the United States Air Force, which lies two kilometres to the southeast of the village.

External links

• croughton.org.uk, a (controlled) village website