Dinton, Buckinghamshire
Historical Description
Dinton, a village and a parish in Bucks. The village stands near the river Thame, 4 miles SW of Aylesbury, which is the nearest railway station. The parish includes also the hamlets of Ford and Upton, and it has a post and money order office under Aylesbury; telegraph office, Haddenham. Acreage, 3897; population, 747. Dinton Hall, an ancient mansion, now the residence of the Goodall family, retains portions of an edifice of the time of Edward the Confessor, was built chiefly by Archbishop Warham in the time of Henry VIII.; Oliver Cromwell stayed a night in it at the time of Charles I. being at Oxford, when it belonged to Simon Mayne the regicide. It is associated with the name of James Bigg, " The Dinton hermit," whom tradition alleges to have been the decapitator of Charles (probably he was Mayne's secretary), and possesses curious relics of Cromwell, Mayne, and Bigg, also a fine Anglo-Saxon glass and a jug of Edward IV. dug up in the neighbourhood. The living is a vicarage in;the diocese of Oxford; net yearly value, £320 with residence. Patron, the Lord Chancellor. The church is an ancient building of stone, chiefly in the Early English style, has a south door with spirally shafted pillars and a very curiously sculptured Norman arch, contains a fine Early Decorated font, and is very good. There are two Baptist chapels and a mission hall.
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 | Dinton St. Peter and St. Paul | |
Hundred | Aylesbury | |
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 1562.
Churches
Church of England
SS. Peter and Paul (parish church)
The parish church of SS. Peter and Paul is an ancient building of stone, chiefly in the Early English style, consisting of chancel, nave, south aisle and a massive embattled western tower, with octagonal turret rising over the parapet, and containing 6 bells, and south porch; an arcade of five Early English arches on octagonal piers separates the nave and aisle; the south doorway is Norman, and is ornamented with zigzag and billet mouldings and spiral shafts: in the tympanum, inclosed with an intertwined guilloche, is a rude carving of two wyverns devouring fruit from a tree, and below these another rude carving of St. Michael thrusting a cross into the mouth of a winged monster, a kind of dragon: there are also two inscriptions: in the chancel are two piscinae and a hagioscope, and there is a piscina in the south aisle: the pulpit dates from 1600; an old oak table, dated 1606, and a chest dated 1612, are still preserved: the porch is Perpendicular and the font Early Decorated: the whole edifice was restored in 1868, when the chancel was almost entirely rebuilt, and the east window, a fine triplet of lancets, widely separated, filled with stained glass, partly under the direction of Lady Eastlake, to the memory of the Rev. John Harrison, vicar 1833-65, and other members of his family, 1853-68, and presented by his daughter, Mrs. Acton Tindal, of the Manor house, Aylesbury: the west window was erected by Mr. Sackville Phelps to his wife, Matilda (Goodall), 1867: there is also a memorial window placed by the Rev. Charles Henry Burton M.A. vicar, 1869-79 and Lydia Helen, his wife, to their daughter, Emiline Lydia, 1871: the ancient monuments, formerly in the chancel, were re-erected in the tower: the brasses, now in the south aisle, include one to the father of Simon Mayne, one of the judges who condemned King Charles I. and Colubery, his wife, 1617-28; there are others to John Compton, 1424, and wife; Thomas Grenewey and wife, 1539, both figures headless; Richard Greenway, 1551 and Joan, his wife; John Lee, of Morton, 1500; William Lee and Alice, his wife, 1486; Francis Lee, 1558, and his wife; and Elenor, wife of Sir Thomas Lee, of Morton, 1633: the communion plate includes two flagons, given by Sir John Vanhattem knt in 1772, and a salver given by Thomas Ingoldsby and Benjamin Gatton, vicar, in 1721: the old pews were replaced with fine open seats, under the superintendence of G. E. Street esq. R.A., F.S.A.. dioceean architect, and the church reopened December 8th, 1868, by the Bishop of Oxford: there are 350 sittings: in the churchyard are remains of a cross. At the entrance to the churchyard is a cross of Portland stone, resting on a bed of concrete with three steps leading up to the base, on which are inscribed the names of the men of the parish who fell in the Great War, 1914-18.
Civil Registration
For general information about Civil Registration (births, marriages and deaths) see the Civil Registration page.
Dinton with Ford & Upton was in Aylesbury Registration District from 1837 to 1974
Directories & Gazetteers
We have transcribed the entry for Dinton from the following:
- Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Dinton (St. Peter and St. Paul))
Land and Property
The Return of Owners of Land in 1873 for Buckinghamshire is available to browse.
Maps
Online maps of Dinton 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:
Villages, Hamlets, &c
FordWaldridge
Visitations Heraldic
A full transcript of the Visitation of Buckinghamshire, 1634 is online