Latimer, Buckinghamshire
Historical Description
Latimer, an ecclesiastical parish, formed in 1868 out of the civil parish of Chesham, partly in Buckinghamshire and partly in Hertfordshire, on the river Chess, adjacent to Herts, 3½ miles SE from Chesham, 3¼ NE from Amersham, and 1 mile N from Chalfont Road station on the Metropolitan railway. It has a post and telegraph office under Chesham (R.S.O.); money order office, Chesham. Population, with Flaunden, 351. Latimer House, a mansion of red brick in the Elizabethan style, standing in a well-timbered park of 800 acres, is the seat of Lord Chesham, who is sole landowner. The manor belonged to the Latimers, passed to the Nevilles, the Grevilles, and the Sandys, and belongs now to Lord Chesham. The living is a rectory, united with the vicarage of Flaunden Herts, in the diocese of Oxford; net value, £220 with residence. Patron, Lord Chesham. The church, rebuilt in 1867, is a building in the Gothic style.
Administration
The following is a list of the administrative units in which this place was either wholly or partly included.
Ancient County | Buckinghamshire | |
Civil parish | Chesham | |
Hundred | Burnham | |
Poor Law union | Amersham |
Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.
Church Records
The parish register of baptisms dates from the year 1782; marriages, 1755; burials, 17B4; the previous registers, are at Chesham.
Churches
Church of England
St. Mary Magdalene (parish church)
The church of St. Mary Magdalene, built in 1841 at the cost of the first Lord Chesham, and rebuilt in 1867, is an edifice in the Gothic style, consisting of apsidal chancel, transepts, vestry and organ chamber, south porch and a turret over it containing one bell: the chancel has a credence and stone sedilia on each side: the prayer desk and lectern were the gift of the Rev. Burgess Bryant M.A. rector 1851-89, and the sanctuary carpet was worked and presented by Lady Chesham and other ladies: there are memorial windows in the apse to Charles, 1st Baron Chesham, d Nov. 10th, 1863, Catherine Susan, his wife, d. Dec. 14th, 1866; and to the Hon. Algernon William Cavendish, d. April 29th, 1865, besides other stained windows on both sides and a memorial west window, erected in 1887, to William George, 2nd Lord Chesham, d. June 27th, 1882, and Henrietta Frances (Lascelles), his wife; there is also a memorial tablet to the Hon. Charles W. H. Cavendish. 17th Lancers, eldest son of the 3rd Baron Chesham, who was killed at Diamond Hill, South Africa, June 11th, 1900: there is a mural tablet in the nave and a memorial in the churchyard to Major-Gen. Lord Chesham P.C., K.C.B. (3rd Baron), who was killed in the hunting field in 1907: there is also an alabaster memorial to the Hon. Marjorie Beatrice Cavendish, daughter of the above-mentioned, who was killed by a fall from a pony in 1891; and a memorial to his widow, Beatrice Lady Chesham, ob. 1911: the church has 220 sittings: the land required for the extension of the building, as well as in part for the enlargement of the churchyard, was given by the 3rd Baron Chesham: the churchyard was further enlarged in 1930 by the consecration of a piece of additional ground, the gift of the present baron.
Civil Registration
Latimer was in Amersham Registration District from 1899 to 1974
Directories & Gazetteers
We have transcribed the entry for Latimer from the following:
- Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Latimer, Iselhempstead, or Eastmansted-Latimer)
Land and Property
The Return of Owners of Land in 1873 for Buckinghamshire is available to browse.
Maps
Online maps of Latimer 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