Little Marlow, Buckinghamshire
Historical Description
Marlow, Little, a parish in Bucks, adjacent to the Thames, 1¼ mile from Great Marlow market-place, about half a mile from Great Marlow railway station, and 4 miles S by E of High Wycombe. It has a post office under Mar-low; money order and telegraph office, Marlow. Acreage, 3328; population, 929. The manor belonged to Edith, the queen of the Confessor; passed to the Bishop of Baieux, the Marshalls, the Clares, and the Borlases; and, with the manor house, belongs now to the Ellames family. Westhorpe House is occupied by the Jackson family. A Benedictine nunnery was founded in the time of Henry II. at what is now a farm. Chalk is manufactured into lime, and there are many beech trees in the neighbourhood. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Oxford; net value, £41 with residence. The church is a plain edifice of stone in the Norman and Early English styles, and contains the tomb of the builder of its chancel, Nicholas de Ledwick (1430), and tablets to the Nugent, Chase, and Warren families; it was restored in 1866. There are some small charities.
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 | Little Marlow St. John the Baptist | |
Hundred | Desborough | |
Poor Law union | Wycombe |
Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.
Church Records
The parish register of baptisms dates from 1562; marriages and burials from 1559; these books also include the baptisms and burials of Hedsor till about 1590.
Churches
Church of England
St. John the Baptist (parish church)
The church of St. John the Baptist is a plain edifice of stone in the Early English and Perpendicular styles, consisting of chancel, nave of four bays, aisles. north porch and a lofty western tower containing 3 bells and a clock: it was originally erected in 1190, but of the earlier building the Early English tower and chancel only remain: the nave and aisles, rebuilt in 1430, were reseated with open benches, an organ placed in the south aisle and the church carefully restored in 1866; a gallery and the high square pews were then removed, the timber roof of the chancel opened and two elegant Early English windows in the chancel restored: the east window is stained, and there are three others; in the church are many marble tablets to the Nugent, Chase and Warren families and an altar tomb with brasses to Nicholas Ledewich, ob. 1430: there is also a tablet recording the names of the men connected with this parish who fell in the Great War. 1914-18: during 1902 various restorations and repairs were carried out at a cost of about £1,000, the 14th century roofs being re-covered and the window mullions renewed; in the course of the work traces of the rood-loft, a priest's door in the chancel and a Norman piscina were brought to light: there are 270 sittings.
Civil Registration
For general information about Civil Registration (births, marriages and deaths) see the Civil Registration page.
Little Marlow was in Wycombe Registration District from 1837 to 1974
Directories & Gazetteers
We have transcribed the entry for Little Marlow from the following:
- Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Marlow, Little (St. John the Baptist))
Land and Property
The Return of Owners of Land in 1873 for Buckinghamshire is available to browse.
Maps
Online maps of Little Marlow 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