Wendover, Buckinghamshire
Historical Description
Wendover, formerly an incorporated borough, now a small market-town and parish, in Bucks. The town stands at the terminus of a branch of the Grand Junction Canal, under the Chiltern Hills, 5 miles SE by S of Aylesbury, and 3 W from Little Kimble station on the Aylesbury branch of the G.W.R. There is a station at the town on the Metropolitan Extension railway. It sent two members to Parliament in the times of Edward I. and Edward VII., and from the time of James II. till disfranchised by the Reform Act of 1832. Flints are found here in considerable quantities, straw-plait is manufactured, and there is a coal wharf on the canal. The town has a post, money order, and telegraph office under Tring, a county police station, and a literary institution with library and reading-room. Fairs are held on 13 May and 2 October. Since the opening of the Metropolitan railway the town and neighbourhood have become quite a health resort. The parish comprises 5788 acres; population, 2036. There is a parish council consisting of eleven members. A reservoir of about 50 acres is here, and supplies water-power to Weston Turville and Aylesbury mills. Buccombe Hill, Boddington Hill, and Coombe Hill, command extensive and charming views. There are several good residences in the parish and neighbourhood. The manor was held by the Fiennes, passed to the Molins, the Hollands, the Knollys, the Hampdens, and the Verneys, and belongs now to the Smith family. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Oxford; net value, £190 with residence. Patron, the Lord Chancellor. The church, which was restored in 1869 under the direction of the late G. E. Street, R.A., at a cost of about £5000, is a building of flint chiefly in the Decorated style, consisting of chancel, nave, aisles, N and S porches, and an embattled western tower. There are Baptist and Congregational chapels, and a mission hall.
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 | Wendover St. Mary | |
Hundred | Aylesbury | |
Poor Law union | Wycombe |
Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.
Church Records
The Phillimore transcript of Marriages at Wendover 1576-1812, Buckinghamshire is available to browse online.
The parish register of baptisms dates from 1626; marriages and burials, 1670: the entries of marriages and burials from 1626 to 1670 have been cut out, and the record of burials from 1731-1813 is missing.
Churches
Church of England
St. Mary (parish church)
The church of St. Mary is a building of flint, chiefly in the Decorated style, and consists of chancel, clerestoried nave, aisles, north and south porches, and a western embattled tower containing 6 bells, a sanctus bell and a clock; the tower was restored and the sixth bell added in 1914 in memory of the Rev. Albert Smith, vicar 1867-1914: the chancel, restored in 1839, retains a piscina: the nave has arcades of five arches on either side, springing from clustered pillars with moulded brass and foliaged caps: the south aisle retains a plain trefoiled piscina, and the south doorway has good Decorated mouldings and ball-flower ornament; there are remains of a stoup: in the south aisle is a curious mural brass to W. Bradseshaw, gent. 1537, his wife, nine children and 23 grand-children: the church was restored in 1869: there are 14 stained windows: the reredos and an alabaster and marble pulpit were erected in memory of the Rev. Charles Francis Champneys M.A. a former vicar: there are sittings for 500 persons. The churchyard has been enlarged.
Civil Registration
Wendover was in Wycombe Registration District from 1837 to 1924 and Aylesbury Registration District from 1924 to 1974
Directories & Gazetteers
We have transcribed the entry for Wendover from the following:
- Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Wendover (St. Mary))
Land and Property
The Return of Owners of Land in 1873 for Buckinghamshire is available to browse.
Maps
Online maps of Wendover 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