The village
toponym is derived from the
Old English for "farm where sledges are used". It is a common place name in England, and refers to places that were perched on the hillside, thus requiring the use of a sledge rather than a cart to pull heavy loads. The suffix 'Beauchamp' refers to the ancient
manorial family of the parish. The village is intersected by the
Icknield Way a prehistoric, long-distance trackway of significant importance in providing a trading route between
East Anglia and the
Thames Valley certainly during the
Iron Age and maybe earlier. In more recent times it has been bisected by the
Roman Road,
Akeman Street now the
A41 and by both the
Aylesbury Arm and
Wendover Arm of the
Grand Union Canal. Following the
Norman conquest of England William I awarded land which later became known as Drayton Beauchamp to Robert, Earl of Morton who as Magno le Breton had accompanied William at the time of the Norman Invasion in 1066. The Morton family founded a church at Drayton on the site where the present-day church of St Mary the Virgin now stands. During the early part of the 13th century the manor was owned by William de Beauchamp (de Bello Campo). The lands were passed from the Beauchamp family to the Cobhams.
Sir John Cobham gave the property to King
Edward III. The King granted it to his shield-bearer
Thomas Cheney (also spelt Cheyne) in 1364. It remained in the Cheyne family until the death of William Cheyne, Lord
Viscount Newhaven in 1728. During the period after 1066 in which the Lord of the Manor of Drayton was Magno le Breton the southern end of the manor would have been valued for its summer pasture. This area which became known later as
Cholesbury contained a large
Iron Age Hillfort. This gradually became a permanent settlement and was subsequently separated off as a separate manor. In 1541 it was sold by Robert Cheyne to
Chief Justice John Baldwin and became an autonomous manor. Drayton Beauchamp was sold by the Cheyne family to John Gumley in 1728 for £22,200 and in 1788 the Lordship of the Manor was inherited by Lady Robert Manners. The manor house beside the church had been demolished around 1760 and a new one built elsewhere in the parish by the Gumleys. In 1835 the Lordship of the Manor passed to Mrs. Caroline Jenney and remained in that family until the death of Miss Airmyne Harpur-Crewe in 1999. ==Parish church of St Mary==