Chetwood (St. Mary and St. Nicholas)
CHETWOOD (St. Mary and St. Nicholas), a parish, in the union, hundred, and county of Buckingham, 5 miles (S. W. by W.) from Buckingham; containing 197 inhabitants. The living is a perpetual curacy, annexed to that of Barton-Hartshorn: the tithes were commuted for land in 1812. The church, made parochial in 1480, is remarkable for some beautiful specimens of stained glass, formerly belonging to a priory of Augustine monks, founded by Sir Ralph de Norwich in 1244, and which was dissolved on account of its poverty in 1460, and annexed to the abbey of Nutley. There was also a hermitage dedicated to St. Stephen and St. Lawrence, founded by a member of the Chetwode family, the representative of which claims suit and service, by prescriptive right, over this place and some neighbouring hamlets, that are said to have been included within the limits of an ancient forest of 1000 acres, called Rockwood.
Transcribed from A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858.