Little Missenden, Buckinghamshire
Historical Description
Missenden, Little, a village and a parish in Bucks. The village stands on the rivulet Mise or Miss, 2½ miles NW of Amersham, and 5¼ ENE of Wycombe station on the Wycombe and Oxford section of the G.W.R., and 3 SW from Chesham station on the Metropolitan railway, and has a post office under Amersham; money order and telegraph office, Amersham. The parish comprises 3215 acres; population of the civil parish, 1136; of the ecclesiastical, 711. It has a parish council consisting of nine members. The manor belongs to Earl Howe. Missenden House and Little-Missenden Abbey are the chief residences. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Oxford; net value, £145. Patron,. Earl Howe. The church is a small plain building of stone in the Norman style, with lofty W tower, containing four bells, two. of which are supposed to have been given by King. John. It was repaired in 1853, and contains two brasses. of the Stiles family. There are two Baptist chapels, a Wehleyan chapel, and several useful charities. There is a yew tree said to be 1100 years old. Beamond End, Brays Green, and Holmer Green are adjacent hamlets. Little Kingshill is partly in this parish and partly in the parish of Great Missenden.
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 Missenden St. John The Baptist | |
Hundred | Aylesbury | |
Poor Law union | Wycombe |
Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.
Church Records
The parish register dates from the year 1559.
Churches
Church of England
St. John the Baptist (parish church)
The church of St. John the Baptist is a small and plain building of stone in the Early Norman and later styles, consisting of chancel, nave, aisles, transept and a lofty western tower containing 5 bells: the first bell was hung in 1350 and is inscribed :-+ Ave Maria. +; the second in 1450 inscribed:Sacta Margareta, Ora Pro Nobis; the others were hung in 1660, 1663 and 1881 respectively. In 1914 the plaster was removed from the roof, exposing the ancient timbers, and in 1931 mediaeval wall paintings dating from 12th to 16th centuries were uncovered: the east window is Early English: there is a fine Aylesbury type font and a brass inscription to John Style, of Holmer, 1613; James Henry Bird esq. gave the stained east window as a memorial to his wife, besides two others in the north chapel and south aisle; six further commemorative windows were added between 1936-38: in the church is an inscribed tablet to Mr. Bird and his wife: a new organ was provided in 1910: some oak panelling was erected in the sanctuary in memory of the men of this parish who fell in the Great War, 1914-18: a new prayer desk, lectern and pulpit were added in 1930: the ancient key of the church is preserved in the baptistery: there are 300 sittings.
Civil Registration
For general information about Civil Registration (births, marriages and deaths) see the Civil Registration page.
Little Missenden was in Wycombe Registration District from 1837 to 1901 and Amersham Registration District from 1902 to 1974
Directories & Gazetteers
We have transcribed the entry for Little Missenden from the following:
- Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Missenden, 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 Missenden 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