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Great Missenden, Buckinghamshire

Historical Description

Missenden, Great, a large village and a parish in Bucks. The village stands in a charming valley, near the source of the rivulet Mise or Miss, 4½ miles NW of Amersham, and 5½ NNE of Wycombe station on the Wycombe and Oxford. section of the G.W.R., and 4 W from Chesham station on the Metropolitan railway; is a considerable place, and has SL post, money order, and telegraph office (B.S.O.), and formerly had fairs on Easter Tuesday and the Monday after Old. Michaelmas day. The parish comprises 5819 acres; population of the civil parish, 2385; of the ecclesiastical, 1954. The manor, with Missenden Abbey, belongs to the Carringtons. A cottage above the village was long the retreat of Mr Stephen, the brother-in-law of Wilberforce, and his coadjutor in the struggle against slavery. An abbey for Black Canons was founded within the parish in 1133 by the family of D'Oiley; was endowed about 1293 by Admiral Sir Thomas Missenden; became the property of the Oldhams in 1787; belongs now to the Carringtons, and is still represented by its cloisters and by some sparse remains of flint walls at the mansion of Missenden Abbey. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Oxford; net value, £195 with residence. The church is an ancient cruciform building in the Early English style; was originally the church of the-abbey; consists of chancel, nave, aisles, N and S porches, transepts, and a W embattled tower; and contains brasses. of 1536 and 1596. There is a neat Baptist chapel in the Grecian style erected in 1778, another at Hyde Heath, and a. Primitive Methodist chapel at Lee Common.

Transcribed from The Comprehensive Gazetteer of England & Wales, 1894-5

Administration

The following is a list of the administrative units in which this place was either wholly or partly included.

Ancient CountyBuckinghamshire 
Ecclesiastical parishMissenden St. Peter And St. Paul 
HundredAylesbury 
Poor Law unionAmersham 

Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.


Church Records

The parish register dates from the year 1694; burials from 1678.


Churches

Church of England

SS. Peter and Paul (parish church)

The church of SS. Peter and Paul is an ancient cruciform structure in mixed styles, consisting of chancel, clerestoried nave of four bays, aisles, north and south porches, transepts, and a low embattled western tower containing 6 bells, the earliest being dated 1603: the tower was originally Early English, but has been much modernized; in 1906 it was repaired and a new bell frame provided: the pers and arches of the nave are Decorated, with moulded caps: there are various inserted Perpendicular windows, and the clerestory is also of that date; on the north side of the chancel. about 7 feet from the ground, is an arcade of Pointed arches with small detached pillars: there are mural tablets to the Bois and Dormer families, 1637-1729, one of which exhibits a figure of Time over a circular arch, composed of books: the east window is a memorial to G. Carrington esq. and was erected by his widow, who also placed one in the chancel to her father and mother: in the south transept is a brass with demi-female effigy and inscription, and also a female effigy, c. 1450; there is a brass in the north transept to the Rev. Joshua Greaves M.A. vicar 1854-85, and a memorial window to Frances Sarah, his wife: a stained window was inserted in tbe north transept by the Herbert family in 1914 in memory of their relatives: there is a mural tablet to Lady Warmington (d. 1913) erected by her husband, Sir Marshall Denham Warmington, 2nd bart.: the brass lectern was presented in 1905 by the Armitage family: the word Deus is scratched on a stone in the soffit of a 14th century doorway opening from the chancel to the north Vestry: between this door and the aumbry is a large hagioscope, and there is another between the chancel and the south transept, and adjoining it a two-light low-side window, which now contains fragments of ancient stained glass: the chancel is paved in part with ancient encaustic tiles found, with but few exceptions, in the Abbey grounds, the remainder being reproductions: the font is Norman: the church was in part restored in 1899-1900 at a cost of £3,800, the north aisle being practically rebuilt: the church affords 450 sittings.


Civil Registration

Great Missenden was in Amersham Registration District from 1837 to 1974


Directories & Gazetteers

We have transcribed the entry for Great Missenden from the following:


Land and Property

The Return of Owners of Land in 1873 for Buckinghamshire is available to browse.


Maps

Online maps of Great Missenden are available from a number of sites:


Newspapers and Periodicals

The British Newspaper Archive have fully searchable digitised copies of the following Buckinghamshire papers online:


Villages, Hamlets, &c

Prestwood

Visitations Heraldic

A full transcript of the Visitation of Buckinghamshire, 1634 is online

DistrictChiltern
CountyBuckinghamshire
RegionSouth East
CountryEngland
Postal districtHP16
Post TownGreat Missenden

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