Princes Risborough, Buckinghamshire
Historical Description
Princes Risborough, a market-town and a parish in Bucks, 6½ miles E by S from Thame, 8 S from Aylesbury, and 8 NNW from High Wycombe. There is a station on the G.W.R.,at the junction of the Aylesbury and Thame and Oxford branches, about half a mile SW of the town, and a small line also starts from Princes Risborough and passes to Watlington. The town has a post, money order, and telegraph office (S. O.) Area of the parish, 4697 acres; population of the civil parish, 2318; of the ecclesiastical, 1269. There is a parish council consisting of eleven members. There is a literary institute and reading-room in the High Street, the gift of Lord Rothschild, which was opened in 1891. A weekly market for corn and cattle is held on Thursday, and fairs are held on 6 May and 21 Oct. There are steam and water flour mills. The church, which dates from the time of Henry VII., is a building of stone and flint, consisting of chancel, nave, aisles, S porch, and a western tower, with octagonal spire 100 feet in height. It was enlarged and restored in 1867-68, at a cost of over £2200. The living is a rectory, with Longwick annexed, in the diocese of Oxford; net value, £200 with residence, in the gift of the Bishop of Oxford. There are Baptist and Wesleyan Methodist chapels; also some useful charities, which are divided between the schools and the poor. Longwick is a hamlet situated 2 miles NW. . It has a flour mill, and Baptist and Wesleyan chapels.
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 | Prince's Risborough St. Mary | |
| Hundred | Aylesbury | |
| Poor Law union | Wycombe |
Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.
Church Records
The parish registers date from the year 1561, but during the period of the Commonwealth there are no entries.
Churches
Church of England
St. Mary (parish church)
The church of St. Mary, originally Early English but altered in the reign of Henry VII. is an edifice of stone and flint, consisting of chancel, clerestoried nave of seven bays, aisles, south porch and a western tower, with spire containing 2 bells: in 1908 the tower and spire were rebuilt at a cost of £2,000: the chancel retains two Early English windows, but the others are Decorated, and the piscina and sedilia are of the same date: the sacrarium is laid with mosaic pavement: in the south aisle are four recesses, probably for tombs, of the early 14th century, and sedilia and a piscina of the same date: there is a three-light window of the late 13th century, which was filled with stained glass at the cost of Mr. E. Barraud, and in 1905-6 a memorial window was erected to Elizabeth Mary, wife of the Rev. J. Mander, rector 1897-1914, and another by the children of the parish: in 1892 an organ was erected: a carved oak altar was installed in 1915 in memory of the Rev. J. Mander: in 1867-8 the church was enlarged and thoroughly restored: there are 410 sittings.
Civil Registration
For general information about Civil Registration (births, marriages and deaths) see the Civil Registration page.
Princes Risborough was in Wycombe Registration District from 1837 to 1974
Directories & Gazetteers
We have transcribed the entry for Princes Risborough from the following:
- Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Risborough, Prince's (St. Mary))
Land and Property
The Return of Owners of Land in 1873 for Buckinghamshire is available to browse.
Maps
Online maps of Princes Risborough 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:
Villages, Hamlets, &c
LongwickLooseley Row
Visitations Heraldic
A full transcript of the Visitation of Buckinghamshire, 1634 is online