Willen, Buckinghamshire
Historical Description
Willen, a village and a parish in Bucks, 1½ mile S of Newport Pagnell station on the Wolverton and Newport Pagnell branch of the L. & N.W.R. Post town and money order and telegraph office, Newport Pagnell. Acreage, 678; population, 86. The parish is bounded on the E by the river Ouse, and the Grand Junction Canal passes on the W. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Oxford; net value, £104 with residence. The church is a brick edifice in the Italian style, was built in 1688, and had an apse added in 1862.
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 | Willen St. Mary Magdalene | |
| Hundred | Newport | |
| Poor Law union | Newport-Pagnell |
Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.
Church Records
The parish register dates from the year 1665.
Churches
Church of England
St. Mary Magdalen (parish church)
The church of St. Mary Magdalen, built in 1680, from designs, it is said, by Robert Hooke, and restored in 1862, is a substantial edifice of brick, in the Italian style, consisting of nave with eastern apse, and a tower containing 3 bells: the apse was added in 1862; all the windows are stained, and there are 80 sittings.
Civil Registration
For general information about Civil Registration (births, marriages and deaths) see the Civil Registration page.
Willen was in Newport Pagnell Registration District from 1837 to 1934
Directories & Gazetteers
We have transcribed the entry for Willen from the following:
- Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Willen (St. Mary Magdalene))
Land and Property
The Return of Owners of Land in 1873 for Buckinghamshire is available to browse.
Maps
Online maps of Willen 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