Grendon Underwood, Buckinghamshire
Historical Description
Grendon Underwood, a village and a parish in Bucks. The village stands 3½ miles from Marsh Gibbon station on the L. & N.W.R., and 6½ ESE from Bicester, is characterized in an old Buckinghamshire rhyme as " the dirtiest town that ever stood," but is now cleaner, and is said to have furnished to Shakespeare, on occasion of his spending a night in it, some of the humour of his "Midsummer Night's Dream." It has a post and money order office under Ayles-bury; telegraph office. Marsh Gibbon. The parish comprises '2566 acres; population of the civil parish, 379; of the ecclesiastical, 373. The manor belonged anciently to Almeric <3e St Amand, a godfather of Edward L, passed to the Pigotts, and belongs still to the Pigott family. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Oxford; gross value, £ with residence. This living has been in the gift of the Pigott family for nearly 400 years. The church is ancient and good, and contains monuments of the Pigotts, and one of Lord Saye and Sele. There are a Baptist chapel and an endowed school Grendon Hall is a large mansion in the Elizabethan style, standing in a park of about 160 acres.
Administration
The following is a list of the administrative units in which this place was either wholly or partly included.
| Ancient County | Buckinghamshire | |
| Ecclesiastical parish | Grendon-Underwood St. Leonard | |
| Hundred | Ashendon | |
| Poor Law union | Aylesbury |
Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.
Church Records
The parish register dates from the year 1560 for marriages and 1592 for burials and baptisms.
Churches
Church of England
St. Leonard (parish church)
The parish church of St. Leonard is an ancient building of mixed styles, and consists of a chancel, nave, and an embattled western tower with turret containing 3 bells, dated 1621, 1644 and 1677: the edifice dates from the latter half of the 12th century, with the exception of the tower, which is of the 15th century, and the chancel, which is of the early part of the 14th century: the interior was restored in 1866, when a five-light window, carefully renewed from the mutilated remains of its predecessor, was placed at the east end; the nave roof was also repaired, an open-timbered roof placed over the chancel, the chancel arch restored and the fittings in the chancel renewed; the pulpit, dated 1620, was set up afresh on a pedestal of Bath stone, and the font repaired in a similar manner; the nave was seated with oak benches and a lectern introduced: in 1902 the exterior was restored: an organ was provided in 1914: the church contains monuments to Lord and Lady Saye and Sele and to the family of Pigott: in the chancel and nave are piscinae in good preservation; and on the south side is a doorway of 1220: the church plate includes a cup dated 1569 and a paten dated 1570. There are 150 sittings.
Civil Registration
Grendon Underwood was in Aylesbury Registration District from 1837 to 1974
Directories & Gazetteers
We have transcribed the entry for Grendon Underwood from the following:
- Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Grendon-Underwood (St. Leonard))
Land and Property
The Return of Owners of Land in 1873 for Buckinghamshire is available to browse.
Maps
Online maps of Grendon Underwood are available from a number of sites:
- Bing (Current Ordnance Survey maps).
- Google Streetview.
- National Library of Scotland. (Old maps)
- OpenStreetMap.
- old-maps.co.uk (Old Ordnance Survey maps to buy).
- Streetmap.co.uk (Current Ordnance Survey maps).
- A Vision of Britain through Time. (Old maps)
Newspapers and Periodicals
The British Newspaper Archive have fully searchable digitised copies of the following Buckinghamshire papers online:
Visitations Heraldic
A full transcript of the Visitation of Buckinghamshire, 1634 is online