Burnham (St. Peter)

BURNHAM (St. Peter), a parish, in the union of Eton, hundred of Burnham, county of Buckingham, 3½ miles (N. W. by N.) from Eton; containing 2284 inhabitants, and comprising the liberties of Upper Boveney, Britwell, East Burnham, Cippenham, and Town with Wood, and the chapelry of Lower Boveney. This place, which gives name to the hundred, is of very remote antiquity. It appears to have been the residence of the kings of Mercia during the heptarchy, and also of their successors of the Norman line after the Conquest, who had a palace near Cippenham, from which is dated the charter granted to Richard, Earl of Cornwall, who, in 1165, founded an abbey here for nuns of the order of St. Augustine, the revenue of which, at the Dissolution, amounted to £91. 5. 11. The parish is bounded on the west by the river Thames, and comprises 6250 acres, of which 573 are common or waste: the substratum is chiefly clay, in some parts overlaid with beds of diluvial gravel. The village is pleasantly situated on rising ground, about two miles east of the river. Near it is a brick-field, from which were obtained the bricks for the erection of the bridge carried over the Thames, near Maidenhead, as a viaduct for the Great Western railway. There are some extensive market-gardens, and a considerable part of the female population is employed in making lace by hand. A court leet for the manor is held every third year; and a statute-fair on October 2nd. The living is a vicarage, valued in the king's books at £16. 13. 4., and in the patronage of Eton College; impropriators, Sir C. H. Palmer, Bart., and others. The great tithes of the parish, exclusively of Lower Boveney, have been commuted for £750, and the small for £635; the vicar has a glebe of 24 acres. The church is a handsome structure. There is a place of worship for Independents. The remains of the abbey are, some ruinous walls, converted into a barn; part of the abbot's dwelling-house; and the fish-pond, now attached to the vicarage garden. There are also the remains of an ancient encampment, in the woodland called Burnham Beeches. Robert Aldrich, Bishop of Carlisle in the reign of Henry VIII., was a native of the place.