Drayton Beauchamp, Buckinghamshire
Historical Description
Drayton Beauchamp, a village and a parish in Bucks, on the Wendover Canal, at the boundary with Herts, near the L. & N.W.R., 2 miles WNW of Trine. Post town and money order and telegraph office, Tring. Acreage, 1319; population, 175. Drayton Lodge is a chief residence. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Oxford; net yearly value, £180 with residence. The church is Early English, has two fine brasses of the Cheynes, a large marble monument of Lord Newhaven, and a figured old east window, and is good. I)r Hooker, author of the " Ecclesiastical Polity," was rector.
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 | Drayton-Beauchamp St. Mary | |
Hundred | Cottesloe | |
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 1538.
Churches
Church of England
The Virgin Mary (parish church)
The parish church of the Virgin Mary, erected in the year 1213, is an edifice of stone, chiefly (excepting the earlier portion) in the Decorated style, consisting of chancel, nave, aisles, north porch and a western embattled tower containing 3 bells: the font is Norman, with a series of roundheaded arches panelled on it; the arch at the north door is of the same period: on the north side of the chancel is a large monument to William Cheyne, 2nd and last Viscount Newhaven, who died Dec. 14, 1728; the monument includes a reclining figure of the viscount, attired in his robes and in the tall-bottomed peruke and lace ruffles of the period; in the background is a pyramid of veined marble, between two pilasters, supporting a pediment with the arms of Cheyne, on a pedestal lower than the monument is an effigy of his second wife Gertrude (Pierrepont), resting on the verge of the mattress on which reposes the statue of her lord, her face reclining on her hand; on a cushion near her feet is a large coronet in white marble: on the south side of the chancel is a stone, with brass effigy nearly four feet in length and inscriptions to Thomas Cheyne esq. who for his faithful and valued services as armour-bearer to Edward III. had the grant of Drayton Manor conferred upon him in the year 1368, and this property remained with his descendants till 1732; there is also a brass, with effigy, to William Cheyne esq. dated 1375, and other memorials of the same family, and the brass effigy, now headless, of Henry Fazakerley, priest, 1531: the stained east window, a work of the 15th century, represents in compartments the 12 Apostles, with one of the articles of the creed over each; of these figures eight are original, the remaining four having been added in place of the missing figures: the six stained windows in the aisle and the west window were inserted between 1872 and 1908 by Mr. James Griffin as memorials of relatives: in 1919 a brass tablet was affixed in the church in memory of the men of the parish who fell in the Great War, 1914-18: in 1887 an oak reredos was placed in the chancel, to the memory of the Rev. Henry Harpur-Crewe M.A. vicar 1860-84, by his numerous friends. The learned and judicious Richard Hooker D.D. author of the Ecclesiastical Polity, became rector here in 1584, and a carved oak pulpit has been erected to his memory; in the church is a list of rectors dating back to 1220: there are 200 sittings.
Civil Registration
For general information about Civil Registration (births, marriages and deaths) see the Civil Registration page.
Drayton Beauchamp was in Aylesbury Registration District from 1837 to 1974
Directories & Gazetteers
We have transcribed the entry for Drayton Beauchamp from the following:
- Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Drayton-Beauchamp (St. Mary))
Land and Property
The Return of Owners of Land in 1873 for Buckinghamshire is available to browse.
Maps
Online maps of Drayton Beauchamp 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