But it does still retain much of the atmosphere of a village with its own church and pub.  The Domesday Survey of 1986 shows there were only twenty seven household in the village. As the name suggests there was some association with the Saxons. The Saxons were a pagan folk and were always looking for land to settle on to start their farms and on Old Down Farm there were discoveries of flint tools and a very rare  mace made of stone. Bronze Age barrows have also be found here and also a rather complicated array of boundary ditches and which curved in and out of the burial mounds instead of going over and destroying them.

The Royal Oak		Thatched Cottages by the riverside
The church of St Thomas
View of the river

The larger part of the village is situated at Foxcotte where the river is more accessible and further Archaeological finds have shown that brewing was an important part of the live in this area. Tallow from local sheep was also used in candle making and there was a steady trade of candles to London.

The Black Death also came to the village and it is said that the villages moved on to another location until the houses were of those infected were burnt down and the village recorded as safe, then they all moved back.