Hitcham, Buckinghamshire
Historical Description
Hitcham, a parish in Bucks, on the river Thames, at the boundary with Berks, adjacent to the G.W.R., 2 miles NE by E from Maidenhead, and 1 mile NE from Taplow station.. Post town, Maidenhead; money order and telegraph office. Taplow. Acreage, 1484; population of the civil parish, 512;. of the ecclesiastical, 453. Hitcham House was the seat of the Clerkes, and was visited in 1602 by Queen Elizabeth.. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Oxford; net value,. £400 with residence. Patron, Eton College. The church is a small but ancient building of stone, flint, and brick, has stained windows, and contains two brasses of the 16th century, and several ancient monuments.
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 | Hitcham St. Mary | |
| Hundred | Burnham | |
| Poor Law union | Eton |
Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.
Church Records
The parish register dates from the year 1559; it records the burial of Dr. Friend, the celebrated writer on medical matters, and court physician; he owned the manor of Hitcham and died 1728.
Churches
Church of England
St. Mary (parish church)
The parish church of St. Mary is a small building of stone, brick and flint, of the Norman and Decorated periods, and consists of chancel, nave, south porch and an embaitled western tower containing one Pre-reformation bell and 6 bells added in 1919: there are five Decorated windows retaining fragments of ancient stained glass, and four modern stained windows; the glass in the chancel windows, lately restored, dates from the year 1340: in the nave are four Norman windows: the carved pulpit is canopied, and there is an ancient oak chest: in the chancel is a monument with kneeling figures to Roger Alford, his wife, son and daughter, 1580, and another with recumbent effigy in armour, executed in alabaster, to Sir William Clarke. kt. 1624; this monument is canopied, and on either side is the figure of a knight holding back a curtain; on the front of the tomb are other figures kneeling: there is also a monument to George Cruickshank, 1765; a brass with effigies to Nicholas Clarke and three children, 1551; another brass to Sir Francis Clark knt. 1631, and one with effigies to Thomas Ramsey, 1510, and Margaret his wife: a carved stone tablet on the north wall of the chancel, commemorates the men connected with the parish who fell in the Great War, 1914-18: the church was restored in 1866 and again in 1907; the oak pews, the gift of Col. L. H. Hanbury, were presented in 1938: there are 100 sittings.
Civil Registration
For general information about Civil Registration (births, marriages and deaths) see the Civil Registration page.
Hitcham was in Eton Registration District from 1837 to 1934
Directories & Gazetteers
We have transcribed the entry for Hitcham from the following:
- Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Hitcham (St. Mary))
Land and Property
The Return of Owners of Land in 1873 for Buckinghamshire is available to browse.
Maps
Online maps of Hitcham 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