Aston Abbotts

Infobox UK place
country = England
official_name= Aston Abbotts
static_

static_image_caption=
latitude= 51.872951
longitude= -0.770171
civil_parish= Aston Abbotts
population = 404 [ [http://www.neighbourhood.statistics.gov.uk/dissemination/LeadTableView.do?a=7&b=792011&c=Aston+Abbotts&d=16&e=15&g=424499&i=1001x1003x1004&m=0&r=1&s=1215967350703&enc=1&dsFamilyId=779 Neighbourhood Statisitics 2001 Census ] ]
shire_district= Aylesbury Vale
shire_county= Buckinghamshire
region= South East England
constituency_westminster= Buckingham
post_town= AYLESBURY
postcode_district= HP22
postcode_area= HP
dial_code= 01296
os_grid_reference= SP8420

Aston Abbotts (or Aston Abbots) is a village and civil parish within Aylesbury Vale district in Buckinghamshire, England. It is situated about four miles north of Aylesbury and three miles south west of Wing. The parish had a population of 404 according to the 2001 census.

The village name 'Aston' is a common one in England, and is Anglo-Saxon for "Eastern Estate". The suffix 'Abbotts' refers to the ancient abbey in the village, which until the Dissolution of the Monasteries was the country home of the abbots of St Albans in Hertfordshire. The present house known as The Abbey, Aston Abbotts was largely rebuilt in the early 19th century.

The hamlet of Burston sits within this parish.

During the Second World War from 1940 to 1945 Dr Edvard Beneš, the exiled President of Czechoslovakia, stayed at The Abbey in Aston Abbotts. His advisers and secretaries (called his Chancellery) stayed in nearby Wingrave, and his military intelligence staff stayed at nearby Addington. President Beneš donated a bus shelter to the villages of Aston Abbotts and Wingrave in 1944. This is on the A418 between the two villages.

References

*Neil Rees "The Secret History of The Czech Connection – The Czechoslovak Government in Exile in London and Buckinghamshire" compiled by Neil Rees, England, 2005. ISBN 0-9550883-0-5

External links

* [http://www.czechsinexile.org/ Czechoslovak Government in Exile Research Society]
* [http://www.aston-abbotts.co.uk/ Aston Abbotts village website]
* [http://www.cix.co.uk/~phils/chronicle/ Aston Abbotts Chronicle Parish magazine website]