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The Parish of Bix & Assendon history of the parish |
| History of the Parish In Anglo-Saxon times the parish was known as Byxe, and by the time that the Normans arrived, the parish consisted of two separate settlements known as Bixa Brand and Bixa Gibwin/Gibwyn. Today the parish consists mainly of the three hamlets of Lower Assendon, Middle Assendon and Bix. The origin of the name Bix is most likely to have been box shrub, a type of evergreen which grows in the parish. Some historians have asserted that the origin was "behaesan", an Anglo-Saxon word meaning to vow. The Domesday Survey of 1086 recorded Bixa as being within the Hundred of Binfield. The term Hundred, which was pre-Norman, is thought to refer to an administrative district of one hundred hides within a shire, from which the notables and village representatives usually held court each month. A hide varied in extent between 100-120 acres, and in Norman times the term manor was introduced for an area of land irrespective of its size. Byxe Brand was the Saxon settlement situated in the area around the ruins of the ancient parish church of St James at Bix Bottom. Byxe/Bixa Gibwin/Gibwyn, spelt variously throughout the centuries, was uphill of Bix Hall in the area towards the present hamlet of Bix. At the time of the Domesday Survey, an individual called Hugh, was recorded as holding two and a half hides valued at £3.00 in Bixa Brand which he leased from Walter Giffard. Another individual called Hervey, recorded as a King's officer, held two and a half hides at Bixa Gibwin which he leased from the King, also with a £3.00 valuation. At this time, Bixa Brand supported ten families whilst Bixa Gibwin supported seven families. Records of 1141 state that the church of Bixa Brand was within the adjacent Royal Manor of Besintone, subsequently Bensington and Benson of today, which had been granted to the Augustine Abbots of Dorchester by Queen Matilda who was the uncrowned Queen of England and who only reigned for seven months. In 1196 the manor of Bix was recorded as having been held by Peter de Bix when it was assessed as being worth "a half knight's fee". During the early 13th century the family of Brands held the manor of Bix, after which the Stonor family became Lord of the Manors of both Bix Brand and Bix Gibwin, which they held for nearly 500 years from 1346 until 1894, after which Mackenzie of Fawley Court obtained the title. Lower and Middle Assendon were first recorded in 800 A.D. as Assundene which was thought to derive from the Saxon word "denu", meaning a long, narrow, winding valley, and "assa", meaning an ass; together this was translated as the Valley of the Wild Ass. Assundene changed to Afsington and then to Assendene. This was the name of the hamlets until the early 20th century, when the modern name of Assendon came into use. The civil name of the parish was changed from Bix to Bix and Assendon by unanimous agreement at the annual parish meeting in 1985, but the Church Council of St. James voted in 1991 not to change the ecclesiastical name of Bix for the parish.
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