Linslade, Buckinghamshire
Historical Description
Linslade or Linchlade, a village and a parish in Buckinghamshire. The village stands on the L. & N.W.R., the Grand Junction Canal, and the river Ouzel, at the boundary with Beds, contiguous to the Leighton Buzzard station in the NNW vicinity of Leighton Buzzard, is a modern place of rapid growth promising to become a town, is a seat of petty sessions, and has a post, money order, and telegraph office under Leighton Buzzard, several inns, and a police station with cells, inspector's house, and police court. The parish contains also a small old village of Linslade or Linchlade, which was once a market-town, and likewise the hamlet of Southcote. Acreage, 1667 of land, and 26 of water; population, 1982. The manor belonged formerly to the Beau-champs, and belongs now to the Hayter family. A tunnel of the L. & N.W.R. here is 290 yards long. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Oxford; net value, £150 with residence. Patron, the Bishop of Oxford. The old church, a building in the Decorated and Perpendicular styles, stands at the old village, has a tower, and is now used onlyfor burials and for occasional services in summer. The new church of St Barnabas, a building of stone in the Decorated style, was built in 1849. There are Baptist and Primitive Methodist chapels. The parish council consists of nine members.
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 | Linslade St. Mary | |
| Hundred | Cottesloe | |
| Poor Law union | Leighton-Buzzard |
Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.
Church Records
The parish register dates from the year 1690.
Churches
Church of England
St. Barnabas (parish church)
The church of St. Barnabas, erected in 1849, is a building of stone in the Decorated style, consisting of chancel, nave of four bays, west porch, north and south aisles, south chapel, and a western tower with low spire added in 1868 and containing a clock and 8 bells, five of which were removed from the old church of St. Mary, and two were presented, c. 1906. by Mrs. Hadley, of this place, who also gave the clock, which has four dials and a chiming apparatus: the side chapel, together with choir and clergy vestries and the first bay of the north aisle were erected in 1905 at the cost of Miss Mary Lawford: the south aisle was completed and the church reseated in 1913: the chancel and sanctuary were enlarged in 1914; these alterations were made possible by a benefaction under the will of Mrs. Charlotte Maria Simpson, to whose memory the west window is dedicated: the stained east window is a memorial to Elizabeth Sarah Hadley, d. 1872: an organ, the gift of Henry Finch esq. of the Gablel, Linslade, was erected in 1889 at a cost of £1,400; it was rebuilt in 1914 and enlarged in 1923: there are 750 sittings.
St. Mary (parish church)
The old church of St. Mary, originally of the Norman period, but now chiefly Decorated and Perpendicular, is used for burials and occasionally for divine worship; it consists of chancel, nave, south porch and a western tower containing one bell: the chancel arch and font are Norman, and there are some remains of ancient glass, and effigies, c. 1500, of a man and 3 female figures: in 1898 this church was beautifully restored at the sole cost of Henry Finch esq. ; the churchyard was enlarged in 1893 by half an acre of ground, given by Sir A. D. Hayter bart. and a new boundary wall built: it contains the remains of a cross: a further half acre was added in 1926.
Independent
Strict and Particular Baptist
The Strict and Particular Baptist chapel here, erected in 1843, will seat 200 persons.
Methodist
Methodist Chapel
The Methodist chapel, built in 1861, affords 400 sittings.
Civil Registration
Linslade was in Leighton Buzzard Registration District from 1837 to 1935 and Aylesbury Registration District from 1935 to 1965
Directories & Gazetteers
We have transcribed the entry for Linslade from the following:
- Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Linslade (St. Mary))
Land and Property
The Return of Owners of Land in 1873 for Buckinghamshire is available to browse.
Maps
Online maps of Linslade 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