Mursley

Mursley is a small village in and also a civil parish within Aylesbury Vale district Buckinghamshire, England. It is located about three miles east of Winslow and four miles south west of Fenny Stratford.

The village name is Anglo Saxon in origin, and means 'Myrsa's woodland'. In the Domesday Book of 1086 the village was recorded as Muselai.

The village was at one time a more important place; it was once a market town, by virtue of a royal charter granted in 1230, and the centre of the local deanery. The size of the place has been much reduced since then, most likely by the bubonic plague of the 17th century.

There was also at one time a grand manor house in the village, built by the Chancellor of the Exchequer John Fortescue, that was visited by King James I. This house has since also disappeared.

Actor David Tomlinson who played George Banks in Mary Poppins and Mr. Emelius Browne in Bedknobs and Broomsticks lived and raised his children in Mursley until his death on 24 June 2000. David became notorious around the village for flying very low in his Tiger Moth and on one occasion he crash landed in a field near his house and was tried with, but acquitted of, reckless flying. Legend has it he was attempting to drop chocolates from his plane for his wife Audrey.

The Beechams estate in the village draws its name from Sir Thomas Beecham who resided in Mursley Hall which used to exist on the site of this estate.

Mursley Church of England School is a Victorian, Church of England primary school. It is a voluntary controlled infant school, which has approximately 25 pupils from the age of three through to the age of nine. Situated on Main Street in Mursley, it is a classic village school, with very small class sizes and excellent teacher to pupil ratios. Mursley School is particularly proud of its music teaching.