The Domesday Book of 1086 does not record Hellidon. In the 12th century a manor of four hides at "Eliden" was recorded as being of the fee of Berkhamsted. From the 13th century Hellidon had two manors: Baskervilles and Giffords. The present manor house at the north-west end of the village is on the site of the former Baskervilles Manor. Giffords Manor was on the north-east side of the village – there are substantial rectilinear earthworks where the house is said to have stood. The house had been abandoned by the time of Hellidon's 18th-century land surveys.
The Church of England parish church of St John the Baptist is Decorated Gothic and hence either late 13th or early 14th century. The west tower survives in its medieval condition but in 1845–47 the nave and chancel were heavily restored for the Rev C. S. Holthouse under the direction of the Gothic Revival architectWilliam Butterfield. Twenty years later Butterfield designed the north aisle and the parish school, both of which were built in 1867. In 1897 a north aisle was added to the chancel, designed by Matthew Houlding. There is also a north transept. St John's is now a Grade II* listed building. The west tower has a ring of five bells. Hugh II Watts, who had foundries at Bedford and Leicester, cast the fourth bell in 1615 and the second, third and tenor bells in 1635. The Whitechapel Bell Foundry cast the treble bell in 1993.
Hellidon had a Nonconformist chapel in Berry Lane. The building is now a private house.
Economic and social history
Until the 1770s an open field system of farming prevailed in the parish. There were five open fields, and in 1726 they were mapped as Further Field, Lower Field, Middle Field, Upper Field and Short Attle Field. In 1774 Parliament passed an enclosure act for Hellidon and in 1775 the parish was surveyed for enclosure. On this map what had been Middle Field was marked as Hill Field and what had been Short Attle Field was simply Attle Field. On Windmill Hill a tower mill was built in the late 18th or early 19th century. By 1973 it was derelict, but since then the tower has been restored. It is no longer a mill, but an ancillary building for the Windmill Vineyard planted around it. A friendly society called the Institute was founded in Hellidon in 1805. It still existed in 1905, when it celebrated its centenary. The earliest known record of a post office in Hellidon is from 1847. The first postmaster was John Wells, who described himself as a shoemaker in the 1841 Census but as a shopkeeper in 1849. By 1854 he was described as "Postmaster and Letter Receiver". The Grange is a house designed by William Butterfield and built for Rev. C. S. Holthouse. The core is a small older house that Holthouse bought, but Butterfield enlarged for him in 1850 and again in 1861. It is a Grade II* listed building. Hellidon's highest recorded population was 449, in 1861. In August 1904 a fire in Cox's Lane destroyed three thatched cottages.
Railways
The Great Central Main Linefrom the north of England to was built in the 1890s. It passed through the eastern edge of the parish in the Catesby Tunnel, which was started in 1895 and completed in 1897. One of the tunnel's five air shafts is in Hellidon parish. The line opened for goods traffic in 1898 and its nearest passenger station opened in March 1899 at, about south-east of Hellidon village. British Railways closed the station in March 1963 and the line in September 1966. From 1917 until 1961 the Park Gate Iron and Steel Company had a quarry about south of the village, on the southern boundary with Charwelton parish. From there it ran a mineral railway down the Cherwell valley to take ironstone to the main line at Charwelton station. A steam locomotive called Charwelton was built for the line in 1917, worked it until 1942, and is now preserved on the Kent and East Sussex Railway.
Notable person
George Harry Dury, geographer and hydrologist, was born at Hellidon.
Amenities
Hellidon has a public house, the Red Lion, and in January 2019 it still has a post office.
