Stoke Poges, Buckinghamshire
Historical Description
Stoke Poges, a village and a parish in Bucks. The village stands 3½ miles N of Slough station on the G.W.R., and has a post, money order, and telegraph office (R.S.O.). The parish contains also Ditton hamlet, and parts of Slough and Salthill. Acreage, 3437 of land and 28 of water; population, 2356. There is a parish council consisting of eleven members. The manor belonged anciently to the Poges, passed to the Molins, the Hastings, the lawyer Coke, Lord Purbeck, the Gayers, the Halseys, Lady Cobham, and the Penns, and now belongs to the Bryants. Stoke Park is a fine mansion in the Italian style, with a beautiful interior, standing in a deer-park of about 500 acres. It was formerly the seat of Lord Chief Justice Coke, and was visited by Queen Elizabeth in 1601. Ditton Park is an ancient square mansion, surrounded by a moat, and standing in a park of about 260 acres. Stoke Place, Stoke Court, and Sefton Park are chief residences. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Oxford; gross value, £600 with residence, in the gift of the Duke of Leeds. The church is an ancient and interesting building in mixed styles, from Norman to Later English, consisting of chancel with Hastings chapel on S side, nave, aisles, S porch, and an embattled tower with spire. It has some good stained windows, and many ancient brasses, tombs, and memorials. The churchyard is the scene of Gray's " Elegy written in a Country Churchyard," and contains his tomb. A monument to the memory of the poet stands in Stoke Park, opposite the church. There are an hospital for six poor persons and some small charities. Chapels of ease are at Ditton and Holly Bush Hill, and a mission hall is in the Stoke Road. Baylis House, the property of the Duke of Leeds, is now used as a Roman Catholic boarding-school.
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 | Stoke-Poges St. Giles | |
Hundred | Stoke | |
Poor Law union | Eton |
Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.
Church Records
The parish register of baptisms and marriages dates from the year 1563; burials, 1564.
Churches
Church of England
St. Giles (parish church)
The church of St. Giles, standing in Stoke Park, is a large and ancient structure in mixed styles, consisting of chancel, with Hastings chapel on the south side. nave of three bays, aisles, a massive wooden south porch with pierced tracery and feathered gable, and an embattled tower, with spire, containing 6 bells: the tower and nave arcades are Early English, but some of the foundation walls are believed to be Saxon: the chancel arch, formerly Norman, has been replaced by another in the Gothic style, and there are some Early English and Decorated windows; the east window and Hastings chapel, erected in 1567, are Perpendicular: in the north wall is an Eastern sepulchre having a fine ogee feathered and crocketed arch over a deep recess: in the chancel is a tomb thought to be an Eastern sepulchre, and brass effigies to Sir William de Molyns, who fell at the siege of Orleans in 11429, and his wife Margaret and his daughter Alianore, 1425; there are also 16th century brasses to Edmund Hampden esq. 1560, and his wife; a brass to James Edward Coleman and his wife, of Hollenden Park, Kent, 1869; and a tablet to members of the Penn family, commencing with Thomas, son of William Penn, founder of Pennsylvania, who were buried in a vault in the church from 1775 to 1869, the founder himself being buried at the Friends' Meeting house at Jordans, Chalfont St. Giles: on the north wall of the chancel is a tablet, erected by subscription, in memory of the men of the parish who fell in the Great War, 1914-18: in the Hastings chapel, built by Sir Edward Hastings, Baron Hastings of Loughborough, who died 5 March, 1572, as a place of interment for his family, is a monument to Gregory Hascard D.D. dean of Windsor, d. 1708; on the north-west side is a private entrance, through the cloisters, from the Manor House: this cloister had eight windows, of which only four now remain, containing ancient stained glass of the 16th century collected and placed here by a former owner of Stoke Park: under the tower is a private pew originally the property of the Penn family: the chancel contains a small Norman window as well as two Early English lancet windows and a 15th century doorway and piscina: on the south wall of the sanctuary is an interesting specimen of the base of an altar cross of 15th century date: the cross has long since disappeared: the sanctuary was restored in 1928: there are 450 sittings.
Civil Registration
Stoke Poges was in Eton Registration District from 1837 to 1974
Directories & Gazetteers
We have transcribed the entry for Stoke Poges from the following:
- Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Stoke-Poges (St. Giles))
Land and Property
The Return of Owners of Land in 1873 for Buckinghamshire is available to browse.
Maps
Online maps of Stoke Poges 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
DittonVisitations Heraldic
A full transcript of the Visitation of Buckinghamshire, 1634 is online