Brill is a small village at the top of the high Brill Hill in the Aylesbury Vale in northern Buckinghamshire, northeast of Oxford, and north-west of London. It was the only population centre in Bernwood Forest, a forest owned by English monarchs as a hunting ground. Traditionally believed to have been the home of King Lud, Brill Palace was a seat of the Mercian kings, the home of Edward the Confessor, and an occasional residence of the monarchs of England until at least the reign of Henry III (1216–1272). Brill was a centre for manufacture of pottery and bricks, but it was a long way from major roads or rivers, and separated by hills from Oxford. It remained small and isolated. In the 1861 census it had a population of 1,300.
