Stokenchurch, Oxfordshire

Historical Description

Stokenchurch, a village and a parish in Oxfordshire. The village stands on one of the Chiltern Hills, 7 miles WNW of Wycombe, and 2½ SE from Aston Rowant station on the Watlington and Princes Risborough branch of the G.W.R. It commands a fine view, has a post, money order, and telegraph office under Tetsworth, and a horse fair on 10 July. The parish includes the hamlets of Beacons Bottom, Horsley's Green, and Water End, and comprises 5920 acres; population of the civil parish, 1780; of the ecclesiastical, 1603. There is a parish council consisting of fourteen members. The manor belongs to the Clerke-Brown family. Mallard's Court and Wormsley are chief residences. Chair-making is carried on. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Oxford; net value, £100 with residence. Patron, the Lord Chancellor. The church, an ancient building of flint in mixed styles, formerly belonged to Wallingford Priory, and consists of chancel, nave, aisle, S porch, and a low western tower. There are Congregational and Primitive Methodist chapels, also a Primitive Methodist chapel at Beacons Bottom.

Transcribed from The Comprehensive Gazetteer of England & Wales, 1894-5

Administration

The following is a list of the administrative units in which this place was either wholly or partly included.

Ancient County	Oxfordshire
Ecclesiastical parish	Stokenchurch St. Peter and St. Paul
Hundred	Lewknor
Poor Law union	Wycombe

Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.

Church Records

The parish register proper dates from about the year 1707, entries previous to that date having been made in the registers of Aston Rowant.

Ancestry.co.uk, in association with Oxfordshire Family History Society and Oxfordshire History Centre, have images of the Parish Registers for Oxfordshire online.

Churches

Church of England

SS. Peter and Paul (parish church)

The church of SS. Peter and Paul is an ancient structure of flint in mixed styles, consisting of chancel, nave, aisles, south porch and a low western tower with shingled spire, containing a clock and 3 bells: the chancel, restored about 1850, is Decorated, and retains a piscina and two brackets, with sanctuary house beside it, which is considered unique; on the north side is an ancient stone coffin-lid, discovered at the restoration of the church: the chancel arch is Transition Norman and has a hagioscope on the north side: the chapel has a good wooden roof, and retains a piscina and traces of an altar, but its windows are of a debased character, save one, which is Early English: the south doorway is also Early English and the font Perpendicular: a Norman doorway remains in the north wall of the nave: there are brasses to Robert Morle, 1415, in armour, with inscription in Norman French; and another to Robert Morle, 1415, similar to preceding: the church was thoroughly restored in 1847, and in 1893 it was enlarged by the addition of a north aisle: there are 420 sittings.

Directories & Gazetteers

We have transcribed the entry for Stokenchurch from the following:

Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Stokenchurch (St. Peter and St. Paul))

Land and Property

A full transcript of the Return of Owners of Land in 1873 for Oxfordshire is available online

Maps

Online maps of Stokenchurch 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 Oxfordshire newspapers online:

Visitations Heraldic

The Visitations of Oxfordshire, 1566, 1574 &1634 are available on the Heraldry page.

District	Wycombe
County	Buckinghamshire
Region	South East
Country	England
Postal district	HP14
Post Town	High Wycombe