Hardwick, Buckinghamshire
Historical Description
Hardwicke, a parish in Bucks, 4 miles NNW from Aylesbury, which is the nearest railway station on the G.W.R. and L. & N.W.R. It includes the township of Weedon, and its post town is Aylesbury; money order and telegraph office, Whitchnrch. Acreage, 3009; population, 620. There were found in the parish some interesting fossils now in the London Geological Museum. The Rothschild family are the chief landowners of Weedon. Lilies, at Weedon, is a modern mansion of red brick, standing in a park of about 100 acres. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Oxford; gross yearly value, £1000 with residence. Patron, New College, Oxford. The church is ancient and good, with a tower, and has over the altar a monument of Sir Thomas Lee, of date 1616. There is an endowed free school.
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 | Hardwicke St. Mary | |
| Hundred | Cottesloe | |
| Poor Law union | Aylesbury |
Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.
Church Records
The parish registers date from the 16th century and are very imperfect.
Churches
Church of England
St. Mary (parish church)
The parish church of St. Mary is a building of stone of various dates, a window over the north door is of pre-Conquest date; it consists of chancel, nave, south aisle, south porch and a western square embattled tower containing a clock, 6 bells and a sanctus bell and a south porch: in the south aisle is a very curious monument to Sir Thomas Lee knt. dated 1616: there are also seven tablets to former rectors of this parish: at the east end of the aisle is a curious circular window and a piscina: the church was restored in 1872-3, when several stained windows were inserted, principally through the munificence of Peter Reid esq.: there is also a memorial window to the Rev. Christopher Erle M.A. rector from 1833, and a brass eagle lectern has been placed in the church as a memorial to Philip Cazenove esq. by his son, Henry Cazenove esq. who died 1894: on the north side of the nave is a stained window commemorating the silver wedding of Mr. and Mrs. Cazenove: a font was presented about 1893 by Miss C. M. Yonge, and in 1901 a reredos was erected in memory of the Rev. W. H. Biggwither, rector 1870-99: there is a Crusaders' jug in the south wall at the end of the nave: there are 360 sittings: in the churchyard is a lych gate, and on the south side is a monument recording the re-interment by Lord Nugent of 247 persons killed at the battle of Aylesbury, March 21st, 1642, which had been found in a field near Aylesbury.
Civil Registration
For general information about Civil Registration (births, marriages and deaths) see the Civil Registration page.
Hardwick was in Aylesbury Registration District from 1837 to 1974
Directories & Gazetteers
We have transcribed the entry for Hardwick from the following:
- Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Hardwicke (St. Mary))
Land and Property
The Return of Owners of Land in 1873 for Buckinghamshire is available to browse.
Maps
Online maps of Hardwick 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