The war divided loyalties between family and friends and brought disruption to everyday life.

Soldiers occupied the town throughout the war – first parliamentarians, then royalists and then parliamentarians. Soldiers were billeted with local families, at the inns, school and vicarage. Fights in the streets between opposing soldiers damaged buildings, and the Church served as a prison for captured royalist troops.

John Hampden, a leading parliamentarian who had attended Lord Williams’s School, died at the Greyhound Inn, Thame, following injury at the Battle of Chalgrove.

The school remained open, but normal Church services were suspended. The Market continued to flourish, though with disruption as each side tried to control the supply of food and goods leaving the town.