The hamlet name is Anglo Saxon in origin, and means 'island farm', referring to an island in the River Thame that flows by the hamlet.
There was a manor at this hamlet as early as 1309, when it was the home of the Arch family. It was extended in 1610 by Sir William Dormer. By the late Eighteenth century it became one of the homes of Philip Stanhope, 5th Earl of Chesterfield, though he rarely used it, and it became empty and desolate during his ownership.
The house was purchased by the Rothschild family in the late Eighteenth century and extensively restored to its former glory. One of the features introduced by the Rothschilds is the Egyptian spring, a grand temple at nearby Sedrup.