Cholesbury
Encyclopedia
Cholesbury is a village in Buckinghamshire, England, on the border with Hertfordshire
. It is situated in the Chiltern Hills
, about 4 miles (6.4 km) east of Wendover
, 5 mi (8 km) north of Chesham
and 5 mi (8 km) from Berkhamsted
.
Cholesbury is one of four villages comprising Cholesbury-cum-St Leonards
, a civil parish within Chiltern District
. Braziers End is a hamlet which has always been closely associated with Cholesbury.
It is a rural community and most local people rely for employment on neighbouring towns, the proximity of London, the availability of broadband technology.
over a chalk formation
. Several examples of puddingstone
s a characteristic form of this aggregate have been found locally. There are no streams in the area due to the porous chalk sub soil. In places the occurrence of clay close to the surface accounts for several natural ponds fed by springs. Until connection with mains water in the mid 20th century, the scarcity of water had necessitated the sinking of deep wells and capture of rainwater.
. Both chalk and a small amount of clay have been extracted over the years. The latter as a raw material for pottery and more recently brick-making. Meanwhile in more recent times flint was dug out for road making. Both activities have left their mark in the form of small mounds and shallow depressions.
Historically, many homes had access to orchards, gardens for vegetable production and pasture for domestic animals. These have largely disappeared and over the last ten years or so the increasing popularity of horse riding has created a demand for suitable land for paddocks.
, St Leonards
and Buckland Common
. The hamlet of Braziers End is closely associated with the village of Cholesbury. The name is purported to derive from braziers lit by Travellers who periodically gathered to celebrate weddings.
Until 1935 Cholesbury did not have mains water and drainage did not arrive until 1963. The road down to Chesham was frequently impassible in winter and periodic flooding has occurred even in recent years. The Second World War resulted in an influx of people escaping the London Blitz and not returning afterwards. This migration had a lasting affect with more houses built or greatly enlarged or refurbished. Transport improvements enabling daily commuting to London from the 1950s onwards also led to a further change with the growth in more affluent families which irrevocably changed the composition of the village community.
Concerns in the 1960s about uncontrolled housing development encouraged the establishment of resident's groups focused on preserving the village scene. Situated in the Chilterns AONB, and combined with national and local government planning controls there is strict enforcement of restrictions on residential building developments. This has led to a shortage in affordable and social housing. The scarcity of available property has added a premium onto house prices in Cholesbury (average selling price circa £950k as at 2007) and neighbouring villages compared to other areas in the rest of the South-east of England.
hillfort known as Cholesbury Camp
close to the centre of the village, which from investigations (Kimball 1933) is understood to have been constructed between 300 and 100BC, possibly on the site of an earlier settlement which is also supported by the find of a Bronze Age
axe nearby. Despite the extent of the defences trading activity rather than military purpose was the predominant use of the fort over most of its period of occupation. There is evidence of iron smelting
with several hearths and waste slag having been identified from archaeological investigations. The Roman conquest of Britain
meant that the use of the hillfort was relatively short-lived. By the 2nd century it had been largely deserted as the result of a probable organised migration of labour from the hill plateau to valley where villa settlements were being established (Branigan 1967). More recent investigations (Gover 2001) have suggested from evidence of rectangular structures that there was a subsequent period of occupation during early medieval times. There have been finds indicating earlier settlement including during the 1960s, a Palaeolithic hand axe.
In Edward the Confessor's
time the land was part of the estate of Aluric, the King’s thane and is recorded as valued at 100 shillings. Cholesbury is not mentioned in the Domesday Book
. During this period it was a small, temporary, settlement and part of the manor of Drayton Beauchamp
, and a typical Chiltern
strip parish. Magno le Breton who held the manor under a tenancy to one Helgist would have valued the hilltop area for its summer pasture supported by reliable springs feeding ponds. In 1091 the le Breton family passed the advowson
of some 150 acre (0.607029 km²) to the Knights Templar
.
Within less than 150 years a permanent hamlet had been established, still under ownership of the descendants of le Breton. Cholesbury though had become a separate manor developing into a village community with the construction, within the hillfort, of an early 12th century church dedicated to St Laurence
and believed to have been associated with the Knights Hospitaller
. This is one of two churches, both incidentally called St Lawrence, to be found within hillforts in the Chilterns. The other is at West Wycombe
.
By the reign of Henry III
around 1248 the population was large enough to warrant Cholesbury being split off as a separate manor, still controlled by the le Bretons. The church was enlarged with the adding of a porch and its importance recognised with the appointment of a resident parson by the name of Abel. Around 1330 Thomas Perot became Lord of the Manor of the estate where Parrotts Farm is today. But independence was short-lived with its association with Drayton Beauchamp being re-established in 1336 when taken control of by Mary the Dowager Countess of Norfolk
. The family granted the estate to Edward II
but in 1364 it was passed to Thomas Cheyne. Full independence from then manor of Drayton Beauchamp finally came in 1541 when Robert Cheney sold the manor to Lord Justice Baldwin.
In 1618 John Baldwin sold the manor to one Thomas Stile, one of the attorneys of the Court of King's Bench. By 1650 the rights attaching to the Lord of the Manor were transferred to the Seare family who also held the manor in neighbouring Hawridge. Until the middle of the 18th century, Cholesbury continued to be just a chapelry under the administration of the parish of Drayton Beauchamp. The establishment Cholesbury as a separate ecclesiastical parish was sanctioned by the Bishop of Lincoln
in 1756.
and the oath required in support of The Protestation
some of the causes of the dispute between Parliamentarians
and King Charles I
. As with other villages Parliamentarian troops were billeted in Cholesbury during the English Civil War
and took part in skirmishes involving Prince Rupert at Chesham and Wendover.
, passed it on his death to his nephew, the Rev. John Jeffreys, Rector of Barnes, Surrey. This also signalled a change in fortunes for the village.
Cholesbury can claim one modest contribution to the reform of Social Policy in England. From the time of Elizabeth I a levy was imposed on property owners to fund poor relief in their parish. The amount collected increased significantly during the 18th and early 19th centuries. The increasingly desperate living available off the land in this part of the Chilterns from 1812 onwards meant the Parish Vestry
was unable to raise sufficient funds to support the poor and in 1832 declared itself bankrupt. An account of the plight of the parish was recorded in the report to Parliament by the Poor Law Commission
provided by The Rev Henry Jeston. He had arrived as vicar in 1830, chaired vestry meetings and eventually raised sufficient loans to rescue the parish from its plight. He was mentioned in the subsequent debate which led to reform of the Poor Laws for which Herbert Spencer
provided an account in his most famous book The Man Versus the State. The village recognised Jeston's achievements through raising a subscription for a stained-glassed window in his honour.
over the years. By 1753 The Castle, the Maidenhead (later the Bricklayers Arms), next door to it the Queen's Head and The Slip Inn were operating for at least a period. They were able to flourish due to the boost in trade between the 18th and the early part of the 20th centuries when they were also frequented by the growing numbers of brickyard and agricultural labourers. None of these public houses has survived to the present day.
Prior to the 20th century, agriculture and woodworking had been the main employment for villagers although work was often of a casual nature, supplemented by road mending and season fruit picking when orchards were commonplace. Straw plaiting was the chief occupation of women and children during most of the nineteenth century. The plait was sent to Luton or London. Until the Second World War agriculture had been the principle industry in the area. In Chesham work could be found in mills and boot factories. The discovery of clay deposits in the surrounding area had been a source for small-scale pottery production since the 17th century. The demand for new houses after the First World War lead to the rapid expansion of brickmaking in the area and St Brown's brickworks was opened on the site of clayfields in Shire Lane. At its height it was producing between 3 – 3.5m bricks per year. In 1946 another local brickmaking company Duntons, encouraged by the Ministry of Works rented land on an adjacent site to meet the demand for post-war reconstruction and new house building.
Since the Second World War some land has been progressively taken out of agricultural use although today there is still a significant area around the village given over to arable crops and sheep-grazing. Improvement to the road networks and public transport resulted in work being sought from further afield. The arrival of the railway to Chesham during the 1880s enabled travel to London and other conurbations. Today there are no significant employers remaining in the village. More recently, the 2001 census has indicated a further change with increasing numbers of professional workers taking advantage of enhanced telecommunication through availability of broadband connectivity to work from home.
As at 2001 93.5% of the local people were recorded as of White ethnic origin. Just under 80% declared they were Christians. Some 45% of people were in employment and 21%, a significantly higher proportion than elsewhere in the district, were self-employed and over 15% were retired which was slightly higher than in nearby areas.
Hawidge Mill (also known as Cholesbury Mill)
, as it strides the boundary between the two villages, became associated with members of two artists' groups, the Bloomsbury Group
and the lesser known London Group
around the time of the First World War. Gilbert Cannan
used the mill tower as a studio and with his wife Mary Ansell frequently invited friends to stay or to rent cottages nearby. These included Katherine Mansfield
and John Middleton Murry
who were having an affair and lodged next door at The Gables as did Mark Gertler who between 1915–16 painted Gilbert Cannan at his Mill depicting Cannan outside the Mill with his two dogs. The black and white one had belonged to J.M. Barrie and was the inspiration for Nana in the book Peter Pan Others visiting included D. H. Lawrence
, Lady Ottoline Morrell
, Compton Mackenzie
, Bertrand Russell
, the historian G. M. Trevelyan
, interior decorator Dora Carrington
, Lytton Strachey
.
The Cannans left the mill in 1916 and it was subsequently rented by the celebrated American actress of the day, Doris Keane
.
John Haden Badley
born 1865, a progressive educationalist and author who founded Bedales School now located in Steep
, Hampshire in 1893, lived in Cholesbury after retiring in 1935, having served as Headmaster for 42 years. After the death of his wife, Amy he returned to live in the grounds of the school until his death in 1967. General Robert Money
after a distinguished military career during the First and Second World War lived in the village from the 1950s until his death in 1985.
In the churchyard there are at several gravestones of interest. One commemorates David Newton who died in 1878, a Royal Marine who fought at the Battle of Trafalgar
in 1805. There are adjoining gravestones of two sisters Margaret Lowenfeld
a pioneer of child psychology and psychotherapy
who died in 1973, her sister Helena Wright known internationally for her campaigning work in birth control
and family planning
who died in 1982, and their cousin's wife Claire Loewenfeld
who wrote books on herb gardening and nutrition and died in 1974.
The Manor House
, where the Lord of the Manor
held his Court periodically between 1599 and 1607, dates back to the end of the 16th century and was once considerably larger than it is today. Many of the older houses in the village also date from around this time of expansion.
Cholesbury Camp
an Iron Age
hillfort and scheduled monument, is the dominant feature in the landscape. It almost circular in shape and the 10 hectare site is enclosed by a double rampart or vellum, broken on its southern side by houses. Originally, a palisade, requiring wood from between 10–15,000 trees, would have topped the earthworks. Today, the extent of the fort is demarcated by a magnificent stand of mature beech trees. Associated with the fort is a pond, known locally as the 'Holy’ or ‘Bury’ pond, which is fed by a spring, that is perpetual: it has never been known to run dry, even in the severest of droughts. The church of St Lawrence is within the hillfort's boundary. Cholesbury Common runs through the village either side of the road. Close to the cricket pavilion are a couple of large puddingstones
which are a geological feature of the Chilterns.
Buildings of note include Cholesbury Windmill which was first built in 1863 as a smock mill
but was rebuilt in the style of a tower mill in 1883. Cholesbury Village Hall, built in 1895 on land given by Frederick Butcher, a Banker, from Tring
and contemporary of the other banking dynasty, the Rothschild family
who also lived in the area. Butcher was a staunch supporter of the Temperance movement
and saw the importance of providing recreational facilities for working men as an alternative to the alehouses. In 1899 Henry J. Turner, J.P. bought the lordship and living at Braziers End House was the first Lord to reside in his Manor for nearly 300 years.
focusing on church affairs and its responsibilities for the village ceded to the parish council.
Cholesbury is one of four 'Hilltop Villages', the others being Hawridge, St Leonards and Buckland Common. Prior to 1934 Cholesbury had been a separate parish and part of Aylesbury Rural District
. From 1934 it came together with the other villages to form the new civil parish of Cholesbury-cum-St Leonards and was also transferred to Amersham Rural District
. As part of the 1974 Local Government reorganisation
the rural district
was succeeded by Chiltern District.
in Hawridge in 1874 education was provided in the village by a straw plaiting school also mentioned in a Select Committee report of 1819. (Hay and Hay 1994)
A private Nursery School is based at Cholesbury Village Hall. Children between the ages of 5 and 11 attend Hawridge and Cholesbury Church of England
Primary School in nearby Hawridge. The catchment area secondary schools are:- Chesham Park Community College
and Chesham Grammar School in Chesham, Dr Challoner's Grammar School
for boys in Amersham
and – Dr Challoner's High School
for girls in Little Chalfont
.
The local area with its open views, rural lanes, commons and woodland, criss-crossed by footpaths and bridleways consequently are very popular with cyclists, walkers
and horse riders
. The churches of Hawridge and Cholesbury jointly hold a Summer Fête on the August Bank Holiday
Monday, alternatively on Hawridge and Cholesbury Commons. The Vale of Aylesbury with Garth & South Berks Hunt traditionally hold a meet on Boxing Day
(26 December) which draws a large crowd from the local district. The Village Hall hosts events from the organisations, of the local villages (Horticultural Society, Local History Group, Commons Preservation Society, Thursday Club) as well as Cholesbury Teas on Sundays during Summer months.
Hertfordshire
Hertfordshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England. The county town is Hertford.The county is one of the Home Counties and lies inland, bordered by Greater London , Buckinghamshire , Bedfordshire , Cambridgeshire and...
. It is situated in the Chiltern Hills
Chiltern Hills
The Chiltern Hills form a chalk escarpment in South East England. They are known locally as "the Chilterns". A large portion of the hills was designated officially as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty in 1965.-Location:...
, about 4 miles (6.4 km) east of Wendover
Wendover
Wendover is a market town that sits at the foot of the Chiltern Hills in Buckinghamshire, England. It is also a civil parish within Aylesbury Vale district...
, 5 mi (8 km) north of Chesham
Chesham
Chesham is a market town in the Chiltern Hills, Buckinghamshire, England. It is located 11 miles south-east of the county town of Aylesbury. Chesham is also a civil parish designated a town council within Chiltern district. It is situated in the Chess Valley and surrounded by farmland, as well as...
and 5 mi (8 km) from Berkhamsted
Berkhamsted
-Climate:Berkhamsted experiences an oceanic climate similar to almost all of the United Kingdom.-Castle:...
.
Cholesbury is one of four villages comprising Cholesbury-cum-St Leonards
Cholesbury-cum-St Leonards
Cholesbury-cum-St Leonards is a civil parish in the Chiltern district of the English county of Buckinghamshire. It is located in the Chiltern Hills just to the north of Chesham and forms a boundary along its length with Hertfordshire....
, a civil parish within Chiltern District
Chiltern (district)
Chiltern is one of four local government districts of Buckinghamshire in south central England. It is named after the Chiltern Hills on which the region sits.The main towns in the district are Amersham and Chesham...
. Braziers End is a hamlet which has always been closely associated with Cholesbury.
It is a rural community and most local people rely for employment on neighbouring towns, the proximity of London, the availability of broadband technology.
Geography
At 178 acre (0.72034108 km²), Cholesbury is one of the smallest villages in the County and is located within Chiltern downland landscape on the upland plateau and close to the chalk escarpment which overlooks the Aylesbury Vale. At its highest point the village is some 650 feet (198.1 m) above sea level.Geology
The geology of the area has dictated the land use. The soil comprises gravely clay, intermixed with flints, small pebbles, and öoliteOolite
Oolite is a sedimentary rock formed from ooids, spherical grains composed of concentric layers. The name derives from the Hellenic word òoion for egg. Strictly, oolites consist of ooids of diameter 0.25–2 mm; rocks composed of ooids larger than 2 mm are called pisolites...
over a chalk formation
Chalk Formation
The Chalk Group is a lithostratigraphic unit in the northwestern part of Europe. It is characterised by thick deposits of chalk, a soft porous white limestone, deposited in a marine environment during the Upper Cretaceous period.Chalk is a limestone that consists of coccolith biomicrite...
. Several examples of puddingstone
Hertfordshire puddingstone
Hertfordshire puddingstone is a conglomerate sedimentary rock composed of rounded flint pebbles cemented together by a younger matrix of silica quartz. The distinctive rock is largely confined to the English county of Hertfordshire but small amounts occur throughout the London Basin. Despite a...
s a characteristic form of this aggregate have been found locally. There are no streams in the area due to the porous chalk sub soil. In places the occurrence of clay close to the surface accounts for several natural ponds fed by springs. Until connection with mains water in the mid 20th century, the scarcity of water had necessitated the sinking of deep wells and capture of rainwater.
Land use
In contrast to nearby areas of the Chilterns more land is given over to open space, namely agricultural, both arable and pasture; paddocks; heathland and most significantly the Common on either side of which the majority of houses are arranged. Mature woodland is a feature, including a stand of beech trees which mark out the circumference of the hillfort. Some beech plantation remains formerly associated with the chair-making industry in High WycombeHigh Wycombe
High Wycombe , commonly known as Wycombe and formally called Chepping Wycombe or Chipping Wycombe until 1946,is a large town in Buckinghamshire, England. It is west-north-west of Charing Cross in London; this figure is engraved on the Corn Market building in the centre of the town...
. Both chalk and a small amount of clay have been extracted over the years. The latter as a raw material for pottery and more recently brick-making. Meanwhile in more recent times flint was dug out for road making. Both activities have left their mark in the form of small mounds and shallow depressions.
Historically, many homes had access to orchards, gardens for vegetable production and pasture for domestic animals. These have largely disappeared and over the last ten years or so the increasing popularity of horse riding has created a demand for suitable land for paddocks.
Settlement
Villages in this part of the Chilterns are often set out around Greens and Commons or strung out along ridges with which they connect often without a gap to adjacent settlements. Cholesbury is consequently more closely linked in this way with the neighbouring villages of HawridgeHawridge
Hawridge, is a small village in the Chilterns in the county of Buckinghamshire, England and bordering the county boundary with Hertfordshire. It is from Chesham, from both Tring and Berkhamsted....
, St Leonards
St Leonards, Buckinghamshire
St Leonards is a small village in the Chiltern Hills in Buckinghamshire, England. It is 3 miles east of Wendover and 4 miles south of Tring, Hertfordshire...
and Buckland Common
Buckland Common
Buckland Common is a hamlet in Buckinghamshire, England. It is located in the Chiltern Hills, east of Wendover and the same distance south of Tring in Hertfordshire with which it shares a boundary...
. The hamlet of Braziers End is closely associated with the village of Cholesbury. The name is purported to derive from braziers lit by Travellers who periodically gathered to celebrate weddings.
Until 1935 Cholesbury did not have mains water and drainage did not arrive until 1963. The road down to Chesham was frequently impassible in winter and periodic flooding has occurred even in recent years. The Second World War resulted in an influx of people escaping the London Blitz and not returning afterwards. This migration had a lasting affect with more houses built or greatly enlarged or refurbished. Transport improvements enabling daily commuting to London from the 1950s onwards also led to a further change with the growth in more affluent families which irrevocably changed the composition of the village community.
Concerns in the 1960s about uncontrolled housing development encouraged the establishment of resident's groups focused on preserving the village scene. Situated in the Chilterns AONB, and combined with national and local government planning controls there is strict enforcement of restrictions on residential building developments. This has led to a shortage in affordable and social housing. The scarcity of available property has added a premium onto house prices in Cholesbury (average selling price circa £950k as at 2007) and neighbouring villages compared to other areas in the rest of the South-east of England.
Origins and the first settlement
The village name is Anglo Saxon in origin, and means 'Cealwald's burh’ (or plateau camp). This name refers to the Iron AgeIron Age
The Iron Age is the archaeological period generally occurring after the Bronze Age, marked by the prevalent use of iron. The early period of the age is characterized by the widespread use of iron or steel. The adoption of such material coincided with other changes in society, including differing...
hillfort known as Cholesbury Camp
Cholesbury Camp
Cholesbury Camp is a large and well-preserved Iron Age hill fort on the northern edge of the village of Cholesbury in Buckinghamshire, England. It is roughly oval-shaped, covers an area of , and measures approximately north-east to south-west by north-west to south-east. The interior is a fairly...
close to the centre of the village, which from investigations (Kimball 1933) is understood to have been constructed between 300 and 100BC, possibly on the site of an earlier settlement which is also supported by the find of a Bronze Age
Bronze Age
The Bronze Age is a period characterized by the use of copper and its alloy bronze as the chief hard materials in the manufacture of some implements and weapons. Chronologically, it stands between the Stone Age and Iron Age...
axe nearby. Despite the extent of the defences trading activity rather than military purpose was the predominant use of the fort over most of its period of occupation. There is evidence of iron smelting
Smelting
Smelting is a form of extractive metallurgy; its main use is to produce a metal from its ore. This includes iron extraction from iron ore, and copper extraction and other base metals from their ores...
with several hearths and waste slag having been identified from archaeological investigations. The Roman conquest of Britain
Roman conquest of Britain
The Roman conquest of Britain was a gradual process, beginning effectively in AD 43 under Emperor Claudius, whose general Aulus Plautius served as first governor of Britannia. Great Britain had already frequently been the target of invasions, planned and actual, by forces of the Roman Republic and...
meant that the use of the hillfort was relatively short-lived. By the 2nd century it had been largely deserted as the result of a probable organised migration of labour from the hill plateau to valley where villa settlements were being established (Branigan 1967). More recent investigations (Gover 2001) have suggested from evidence of rectangular structures that there was a subsequent period of occupation during early medieval times. There have been finds indicating earlier settlement including during the 1960s, a Palaeolithic hand axe.
Development of the manor and village
Edward the Confessor
Edward the Confessor also known as St. Edward the Confessor , son of Æthelred the Unready and Emma of Normandy, was one of the last Anglo-Saxon kings of England and is usually regarded as the last king of the House of Wessex, ruling from 1042 to 1066....
time the land was part of the estate of Aluric, the King’s thane and is recorded as valued at 100 shillings. Cholesbury is not mentioned in the Domesday Book
Domesday Book
Domesday Book , now held at The National Archives, Kew, Richmond upon Thames in South West London, is the record of the great survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086...
. During this period it was a small, temporary, settlement and part of the manor of Drayton Beauchamp
Drayton Beauchamp
Drayton Beauchamp is a village and civil parish within Aylesbury Vale district in Buckinghamshire, England. It is in the east of the county, near the border boundary Hertfordshire, about six miles from Aylesbury and two miles from Tring.-History:...
, and a typical Chiltern
Chiltern
Chiltern can refer to the following places:In England:* Chiltern Hills, an area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, known locally as "the Chilterns"** Chiltern , a local government district in Buckinghamshire named after the hills...
strip parish. Magno le Breton who held the manor under a tenancy to one Helgist would have valued the hilltop area for its summer pasture supported by reliable springs feeding ponds. In 1091 the le Breton family passed the advowson
Advowson
Advowson is the right in English law of a patron to present or appoint a nominee to a vacant ecclesiastical benefice or church living, a process known as presentation. In effect this means the right to nominate a person to hold a church office in a parish...
of some 150 acre (0.607029 km²) to the Knights Templar
Knights Templar
The Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon , commonly known as the Knights Templar, the Order of the Temple or simply as Templars, were among the most famous of the Western Christian military orders...
.
Within less than 150 years a permanent hamlet had been established, still under ownership of the descendants of le Breton. Cholesbury though had become a separate manor developing into a village community with the construction, within the hillfort, of an early 12th century church dedicated to St Laurence
Saint Lawrence
Lawrence of Rome was one of the seven deacons of ancient Rome who were martyred during the persecution of Valerian in 258.- Holy Chalice :...
and believed to have been associated with the Knights Hospitaller
Knights Hospitaller
The Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of Saint John of Jerusalem of Rhodes and of Malta , also known as the Sovereign Military Order of Malta , Order of Malta or Knights of Malta, is a Roman Catholic lay religious order, traditionally of military, chivalrous, noble nature. It is the world's...
. This is one of two churches, both incidentally called St Lawrence, to be found within hillforts in the Chilterns. The other is at West Wycombe
West Wycombe
West Wycombe is a small village situated along the A40 road, due three miles west of High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, England.The historic village is largely a National Trust property and receives a large annual influx of tourists - being the site of West Wycombe Park, West Wycombe Caves and the...
.
By the reign of Henry III
Henry III of England
Henry III was the son and successor of John as King of England, reigning for 56 years from 1216 until his death. His contemporaries knew him as Henry of Winchester. He was the first child king in England since the reign of Æthelred the Unready...
around 1248 the population was large enough to warrant Cholesbury being split off as a separate manor, still controlled by the le Bretons. The church was enlarged with the adding of a porch and its importance recognised with the appointment of a resident parson by the name of Abel. Around 1330 Thomas Perot became Lord of the Manor of the estate where Parrotts Farm is today. But independence was short-lived with its association with Drayton Beauchamp being re-established in 1336 when taken control of by Mary the Dowager Countess of Norfolk
Thomas of Brotherton, 1st Earl of Norfolk
Thomas of Brotherton, 1st Earl of Norfolk, Lord Marshal of England was the son of Edward I of England and Margaret of France.-Early life:...
. The family granted the estate to Edward II
Edward II of England
Edward II , called Edward of Caernarfon, was King of England from 1307 until he was deposed by his wife Isabella in January 1327. He was the sixth Plantagenet king, in a line that began with the reign of Henry II...
but in 1364 it was passed to Thomas Cheyne. Full independence from then manor of Drayton Beauchamp finally came in 1541 when Robert Cheney sold the manor to Lord Justice Baldwin.
In 1618 John Baldwin sold the manor to one Thomas Stile, one of the attorneys of the Court of King's Bench. By 1650 the rights attaching to the Lord of the Manor were transferred to the Seare family who also held the manor in neighbouring Hawridge. Until the middle of the 18th century, Cholesbury continued to be just a chapelry under the administration of the parish of Drayton Beauchamp. The establishment Cholesbury as a separate ecclesiastical parish was sanctioned by the Bishop of Lincoln
Bishop of Lincoln
The Bishop of Lincoln is the Ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of Lincoln in the Province of Canterbury.The present diocese covers the county of Lincolnshire and the unitary authority areas of North Lincolnshire and North East Lincolnshire. The Bishop's seat is located in the Cathedral...
in 1756.
English Civil War
It is known that in common with many parts of the Chilterns there was much discontent with the levying of Ship MoneyShip money
Ship money refers to a tax that Charles I of England tried to levy without the consent of Parliament. This tax, which was only applied to coastal towns during a time of war, was intended to offset the cost of defending that part of the coast, and could be paid in actual ships or the equivalent value...
and the oath required in support of The Protestation
The Protestation
The Protestation was an attempt to avert the English Civil War. In July 1641, Parliament passed a bill requiring those over the age of 18 to sign the Protestation, an oath of allegiance to King Charles I and the Church of England it had drawn up on 3 May of that year...
some of the causes of the dispute between Parliamentarians
Roundhead
"Roundhead" was the nickname given to the supporters of the Parliament during the English Civil War. Also known as Parliamentarians, they fought against King Charles I and his supporters, the Cavaliers , who claimed absolute power and the divine right of kings...
and King Charles I
Charles I of England
Charles I was King of England, King of Scotland, and King of Ireland from 27 March 1625 until his execution in 1649. Charles engaged in a struggle for power with the Parliament of England, attempting to obtain royal revenue whilst Parliament sought to curb his Royal prerogative which Charles...
. As with other villages Parliamentarian troops were billeted in Cholesbury during the English Civil War
English Civil War
The English Civil War was a series of armed conflicts and political machinations between Parliamentarians and Royalists...
and took part in skirmishes involving Prince Rupert at Chesham and Wendover.
Impact of the Poor Laws
The Darell (Daryell) family had held sway in Cholesbury from 1748 until 1814 when Edward Darvell an absentee owner and Director of the Bank of EnglandBank of England
The Bank of England is the central bank of the United Kingdom and the model on which most modern central banks have been based. Established in 1694, it is the second oldest central bank in the world...
, passed it on his death to his nephew, the Rev. John Jeffreys, Rector of Barnes, Surrey. This also signalled a change in fortunes for the village.
Cholesbury can claim one modest contribution to the reform of Social Policy in England. From the time of Elizabeth I a levy was imposed on property owners to fund poor relief in their parish. The amount collected increased significantly during the 18th and early 19th centuries. The increasingly desperate living available off the land in this part of the Chilterns from 1812 onwards meant the Parish Vestry
Vestry
A vestry is a room in or attached to a church or synagogue in which the vestments, vessels, records, etc., are kept , and in which the clergy and choir robe or don their vestments for divine service....
was unable to raise sufficient funds to support the poor and in 1832 declared itself bankrupt. An account of the plight of the parish was recorded in the report to Parliament by the Poor Law Commission
Poor Law Commission
The Poor Law Commission was a body established to administrate poor relief after the passing of the Poor Law Amendment Act 1834. The commission was made up of three commissioners who became known as "The Bashaws of Somerset House", their secretary and nine clerks or assistant commissioners...
provided by The Rev Henry Jeston. He had arrived as vicar in 1830, chaired vestry meetings and eventually raised sufficient loans to rescue the parish from its plight. He was mentioned in the subsequent debate which led to reform of the Poor Laws for which Herbert Spencer
Herbert Spencer
Herbert Spencer was an English philosopher, biologist, sociologist, and prominent classical liberal political theorist of the Victorian era....
provided an account in his most famous book The Man Versus the State. The village recognised Jeston's achievements through raising a subscription for a stained-glassed window in his honour.
Local economy
Cholesbury stands at the crossroads of several droving routes, the Commons providing a safe place to rest their animals. In turn this regular traffic supported local trades and several alehousesPublic house
A public house, informally known as a pub, is a drinking establishment fundamental to the culture of Britain, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand. There are approximately 53,500 public houses in the United Kingdom. This number has been declining every year, so that nearly half of the smaller...
over the years. By 1753 The Castle, the Maidenhead (later the Bricklayers Arms), next door to it the Queen's Head and The Slip Inn were operating for at least a period. They were able to flourish due to the boost in trade between the 18th and the early part of the 20th centuries when they were also frequented by the growing numbers of brickyard and agricultural labourers. None of these public houses has survived to the present day.
Prior to the 20th century, agriculture and woodworking had been the main employment for villagers although work was often of a casual nature, supplemented by road mending and season fruit picking when orchards were commonplace. Straw plaiting was the chief occupation of women and children during most of the nineteenth century. The plait was sent to Luton or London. Until the Second World War agriculture had been the principle industry in the area. In Chesham work could be found in mills and boot factories. The discovery of clay deposits in the surrounding area had been a source for small-scale pottery production since the 17th century. The demand for new houses after the First World War lead to the rapid expansion of brickmaking in the area and St Brown's brickworks was opened on the site of clayfields in Shire Lane. At its height it was producing between 3 – 3.5m bricks per year. In 1946 another local brickmaking company Duntons, encouraged by the Ministry of Works rented land on an adjacent site to meet the demand for post-war reconstruction and new house building.
Since the Second World War some land has been progressively taken out of agricultural use although today there is still a significant area around the village given over to arable crops and sheep-grazing. Improvement to the road networks and public transport resulted in work being sought from further afield. The arrival of the railway to Chesham during the 1880s enabled travel to London and other conurbations. Today there are no significant employers remaining in the village. More recently, the 2001 census has indicated a further change with increasing numbers of professional workers taking advantage of enhanced telecommunication through availability of broadband connectivity to work from home.
Demographics
The census of 1801 records there were 122 inhabitants in 25 families living in 22 houses in Cholesbury. According to the subsequent censuses the population fell between 1801 and 1861 when it was 105. it remained around this level into the 20th century and in 1931 was still only 115.As at 2001 93.5% of the local people were recorded as of White ethnic origin. Just under 80% declared they were Christians. Some 45% of people were in employment and 21%, a significantly higher proportion than elsewhere in the district, were self-employed and over 15% were retired which was slightly higher than in nearby areas.
Notable people
Hawridge Windmill
Hawridge Windmill which is also known as Cholesbury Windmill is a disused tower mill in Hawridge, Buckinghamshire. The mill was constructed on the site of an earlier smock mill and became a private residence in 1913 when the first occupier, the artist Gilbert Cannan used it as a studio.-History:The...
, as it strides the boundary between the two villages, became associated with members of two artists' groups, the Bloomsbury Group
Bloomsbury Group
The Bloomsbury Group or Bloomsbury Set was a group of writers, intellectuals, philosophers and artists who held informal discussions in Bloomsbury throughout the 20th century. This English collective of friends and relatives lived, worked or studied near Bloomsbury in London during the first half...
and the lesser known London Group
London Group
The London Group is an artists' exhibiting society based in London, England, founded in 1913, when the Camden Town Group came together with the English Vorticists and other independent artists to challenge the domination of the Royal Academy, which had become unadventurous and conservative....
around the time of the First World War. Gilbert Cannan
Gilbert Cannan
Gilbert Cannan was a British novelist and dramatist.-Early life:Born in Manchester of Scottish descent, he got on badly with his family, and in 1897 he was sent to live in Oxford with the economist Edwin Cannan...
used the mill tower as a studio and with his wife Mary Ansell frequently invited friends to stay or to rent cottages nearby. These included Katherine Mansfield
Katherine Mansfield
Kathleen Mansfield Beauchamp Murry was a prominent modernist writer of short fiction who was born and brought up in colonial New Zealand and wrote under the pen name of Katherine Mansfield. Mansfield left for Great Britain in 1908 where she encountered Modernist writers such as D.H. Lawrence and...
and John Middleton Murry
John Middleton Murry
John Middleton Murry was an English writer. He was prolific, producing more than 60 books and thousands of essays and reviews on literature, social issues, politics, and religion during his lifetime...
who were having an affair and lodged next door at The Gables as did Mark Gertler who between 1915–16 painted Gilbert Cannan at his Mill depicting Cannan outside the Mill with his two dogs. The black and white one had belonged to J.M. Barrie and was the inspiration for Nana in the book Peter Pan Others visiting included D. H. Lawrence
D. H. Lawrence
David Herbert Richards Lawrence was an English novelist, poet, playwright, essayist, literary critic and painter who published as D. H. Lawrence. His collected works represent an extended reflection upon the dehumanising effects of modernity and industrialisation...
, Lady Ottoline Morrell
Lady Ottoline Morrell
The Lady Ottoline Violet Anne Morrell was an English aristocrat and society hostess. Her patronage was influential in artistic and intellectual circles, where she befriended writers such as Aldous Huxley, Siegfried Sassoon, T. S. Eliot and D. H...
, Compton Mackenzie
Compton Mackenzie
Sir Compton Mackenzie, OBE was a writer and a Scottish nationalist.-Background:Compton Mackenzie was born in West Hartlepool, England, into a theatrical family of Mackenzies, but many of whose members used Compton as their stage surname, starting with his grandfather Henry Compton, a well-known...
, Bertrand Russell
Bertrand Russell
Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell, OM, FRS was a British philosopher, logician, mathematician, historian, and social critic. At various points in his life he considered himself a liberal, a socialist, and a pacifist, but he also admitted that he had never been any of these things...
, the historian G. M. Trevelyan
G. M. Trevelyan
George Macaulay Trevelyan, OM, CBE, FRS, FBA , was a British historian. Trevelyan was the third son of Sir George Otto Trevelyan, 2nd Baronet, and great-nephew of Thomas Babington Macaulay, whose staunch liberal Whig principles he espoused in accessible works of literate narrative avoiding a...
, interior decorator Dora Carrington
Dora Carrington
Dora de Houghton Carrington , known generally as Carrington, was a British painter and decorative artist, remembered in part for her association with members of the Bloomsbury Group, especially the writer Lytton Strachey....
, Lytton Strachey
Lytton Strachey
Giles Lytton Strachey was a British writer and critic. He is best known for establishing a new form of biography in which psychological insight and sympathy are combined with irreverence and wit...
.
The Cannans left the mill in 1916 and it was subsequently rented by the celebrated American actress of the day, Doris Keane
Doris Keane
Doris Keane was an American actress.She was born in the USA but educated largely in Europe.Her first professional role was in Whitewashing Julia in 1903. This was a small role but she went on to play leading roles in The Happy Marriage in 1909 and The Lights o' London in 1911.In 1913, she played...
.
John Haden Badley
John Haden Badley
John Haden Badley , author, educator, and founder of Bedales School, which claims to have become the first coeducational public boarding school in England in 1893....
born 1865, a progressive educationalist and author who founded Bedales School now located in Steep
Steep
Steep is a village and civil parish in the East Hampshire district of Hampshire, England. It is north of Petersfield, just off the A3 road.The nearest railway station is Petersfield, south of the village....
, Hampshire in 1893, lived in Cholesbury after retiring in 1935, having served as Headmaster for 42 years. After the death of his wife, Amy he returned to live in the grounds of the school until his death in 1967. General Robert Money
Robert Cotton Money
Major-General Robert Cotton Money, MC, CB was a British Army officer, who commanded 15th Division during the early part of the Second World War....
after a distinguished military career during the First and Second World War lived in the village from the 1950s until his death in 1985.
In the churchyard there are at several gravestones of interest. One commemorates David Newton who died in 1878, a Royal Marine who fought at the Battle of Trafalgar
Battle of Trafalgar
The Battle of Trafalgar was a sea battle fought between the British Royal Navy and the combined fleets of the French Navy and Spanish Navy, during the War of the Third Coalition of the Napoleonic Wars ....
in 1805. There are adjoining gravestones of two sisters Margaret Lowenfeld
Margaret Lowenfeld
Margaret Frances Jane Lowenfeld was a British-born pioneer of child psychology and psychotherapy, a medical researcher in paediatric medicine, and an author of several publications and academic papers on the analysis of child development and play...
a pioneer of child psychology and psychotherapy
Psychotherapy
Psychotherapy is a general term referring to any form of therapeutic interaction or treatment contracted between a trained professional and a client or patient; family, couple or group...
who died in 1973, her sister Helena Wright known internationally for her campaigning work in birth control
Birth control
Birth control is an umbrella term for several techniques and methods used to prevent fertilization or to interrupt pregnancy at various stages. Birth control techniques and methods include contraception , contragestion and abortion...
and family planning
Family planning
Family planning is the planning of when to have children, and the use of birth control and other techniques to implement such plans. Other techniques commonly used include sexuality education, prevention and management of sexually transmitted infections, pre-conception counseling and...
who died in 1982, and their cousin's wife Claire Loewenfeld
Claire Loewenfeld
Claire Loewenfeld, born Lewisohn in Berlin, Germany was a nutritionist and herbalist who worked in England during and after the Second World War promoting the importance of good nutrition, most notably rosehips from Britain's hedgerows as a source of vitamin C...
who wrote books on herb gardening and nutrition and died in 1974.
Landmarks and buildings
Cholesbury Manor House
Cholesbury Manor House which is close to the centre of Cholesbury, Buckinghamshire is where the Lord of the Manor held his Court periodically between 1599 and 1607. The building dates back to the end of the 16th century. It is a Grade II Listed Building....
, where the Lord of the Manor
Lord of the Manor
The Lordship of a Manor is recognised today in England and Wales as a form of property and one of three elements of a manor that may exist separately or be combined and may be held in moieties...
held his Court periodically between 1599 and 1607, dates back to the end of the 16th century and was once considerably larger than it is today. Many of the older houses in the village also date from around this time of expansion.
Cholesbury Camp
Cholesbury Camp
Cholesbury Camp is a large and well-preserved Iron Age hill fort on the northern edge of the village of Cholesbury in Buckinghamshire, England. It is roughly oval-shaped, covers an area of , and measures approximately north-east to south-west by north-west to south-east. The interior is a fairly...
an Iron Age
Iron Age
The Iron Age is the archaeological period generally occurring after the Bronze Age, marked by the prevalent use of iron. The early period of the age is characterized by the widespread use of iron or steel. The adoption of such material coincided with other changes in society, including differing...
hillfort and scheduled monument, is the dominant feature in the landscape. It almost circular in shape and the 10 hectare site is enclosed by a double rampart or vellum, broken on its southern side by houses. Originally, a palisade, requiring wood from between 10–15,000 trees, would have topped the earthworks. Today, the extent of the fort is demarcated by a magnificent stand of mature beech trees. Associated with the fort is a pond, known locally as the 'Holy’ or ‘Bury’ pond, which is fed by a spring, that is perpetual: it has never been known to run dry, even in the severest of droughts. The church of St Lawrence is within the hillfort's boundary. Cholesbury Common runs through the village either side of the road. Close to the cricket pavilion are a couple of large puddingstones
Puddingstone (rock)
Puddingstone, also known as either Pudding stone or Plum-pudding stone, is a popular name applied to a conglomerate that consists of distinctly rounded pebbles whose colors contrast sharply with the color of the finer-grained, often sandy, matrix or cement surrounding them...
which are a geological feature of the Chilterns.
Buildings of note include Cholesbury Windmill which was first built in 1863 as a smock mill
Smock mill
The smock mill is a type of windmill that consists of a sloping, horizontally weatherboarded tower, usually with six or eight sides. It is topped with a roof or cap that rotates to bring the sails into the wind...
but was rebuilt in the style of a tower mill in 1883. Cholesbury Village Hall, built in 1895 on land given by Frederick Butcher, a Banker, from Tring
Tring
Tring is a small market town and also a civil parish in the Chiltern Hills in Hertfordshire, England. Situated north-west of London and linked to London by the old Roman road of Akeman Street, by the modern A41, by the Grand Union Canal and by rail lines to Euston Station, Tring is now largely a...
and contemporary of the other banking dynasty, the Rothschild family
Rothschild family
The Rothschild family , known as The House of Rothschild, or more simply as the Rothschilds, is a Jewish-German family that established European banking and finance houses starting in the late 18th century...
who also lived in the area. Butcher was a staunch supporter of the Temperance movement
Temperance movement
A temperance movement is a social movement urging reduced use of alcoholic beverages. Temperance movements may criticize excessive alcohol use, promote complete abstinence , or pressure the government to enact anti-alcohol legislation or complete prohibition of alcohol.-Temperance movement by...
and saw the importance of providing recreational facilities for working men as an alternative to the alehouses. In 1899 Henry J. Turner, J.P. bought the lordship and living at Braziers End House was the first Lord to reside in his Manor for nearly 300 years.
Governance
The manoral rights originating from the 12th century, which have continued to be held jointly with Hawridge since 17th century no longer control village life. Hawridge and Cholesbury Commons Preservation Society manage the Commons, which is still owned by a Lord of the Manor. The church vestry has been succeeded by the parochial church councilParochial Church Council
The parochial church council , is the executive body of a Church of England parish.-Powers and duties:Two Acts of Parliament define the powers and duties of PCCs...
focusing on church affairs and its responsibilities for the village ceded to the parish council.
Cholesbury is one of four 'Hilltop Villages', the others being Hawridge, St Leonards and Buckland Common. Prior to 1934 Cholesbury had been a separate parish and part of Aylesbury Rural District
Aylesbury Rural District
Aylesbury was a rural district in the administrative county of Buckinghamshire, England from 1894 to 1974. It was named after but did not include Aylesbury, which was a separate municipal borough...
. From 1934 it came together with the other villages to form the new civil parish of Cholesbury-cum-St Leonards and was also transferred to Amersham Rural District
Amersham Rural District
Amersham was a rural district in the administrative county of Buckinghamshire, England from 1894 to 1974. The rural district took over the responsibilities of the disbanded Amersham Rural Sanitary District. It entirely surrounded but did not include Chesham...
. As part of the 1974 Local Government reorganisation
Local Government Act 1972
The Local Government Act 1972 is an Act of Parliament in the United Kingdom that reformed local government in England and Wales on 1 April 1974....
the rural district
Rural district
Rural districts were a type of local government area – now superseded – established at the end of the 19th century in England, Wales, and Ireland for the administration of predominantly rural areas at a level lower than that of the administrative counties.-England and Wales:In England...
was succeeded by Chiltern District.
Education
Until the opening of the National SchoolNational school (England and Wales)
A national school was a school founded in 19th century England and Wales by the National Society for Promoting Religious Education.These schools provided elementary education, in accordance with the teaching of the Church of England, to the children of the poor.Together with the less numerous...
in Hawridge in 1874 education was provided in the village by a straw plaiting school also mentioned in a Select Committee report of 1819. (Hay and Hay 1994)
A private Nursery School is based at Cholesbury Village Hall. Children between the ages of 5 and 11 attend Hawridge and Cholesbury Church of England
Church of England
The Church of England is the officially established Christian church in England and the Mother Church of the worldwide Anglican Communion. The church considers itself within the tradition of Western Christianity and dates its formal establishment principally to the mission to England by St...
Primary School in nearby Hawridge. The catchment area secondary schools are:- Chesham Park Community College
Chesham Park Community College
Chiltern Hills Academy is a co-educational Academy School in Chesham, Buckinghamshire. It is a Church Of England school, which takes children from the age of 11 through to the age of 18. The school has approximately 700 students...
and Chesham Grammar School in Chesham, Dr Challoner's Grammar School
Dr Challoner's Grammar School
Dr Challoner's Grammar School, often abbreviated to DCGS, is an Academy Grammar School of approximately 1,300 boys located in Amersham, Buckinghamshire, England....
for boys in Amersham
Amersham
Amersham is a market town and civil parish within Chiltern district in Buckinghamshire, England, 27 miles north west of London, in the Chiltern Hills. It is part of the London commuter belt....
and – Dr Challoner's High School
Dr Challoner's High School
Dr Challoner's High School, abbreviated to DCHS, is a grammar school for girls between the ages of 11 and 18, located in Buckinghamshire, England. In August 2011 the school became an Academy....
for girls in Little Chalfont
Little Chalfont
Little Chalfont is a village and civil parish in Chiltern district in south east Buckinghamshire, England. It is situated in a small group of villages called The Chalfonts which also consists of Chalfont St Giles and Chalfont St Peter...
.
Transport
Almost 95% of local residents have access to a car. Over the years the provision of buses has decreased significantly. Today a bus service runs once each way on alternative days connecting to Chesham, Tring and local villages. School buses are a valuable facility transporting children to Secondary Schools in Chesham and Amersham.Sport and recreation
The cricket club was founded in 1885 with permission from the Lord of the Manor to use the Common and continues to thrive today with the First XI playing in the Premier Division of the Morrant Chiltern League.The local area with its open views, rural lanes, commons and woodland, criss-crossed by footpaths and bridleways consequently are very popular with cyclists, walkers
Pedestrian
A pedestrian is a person traveling on foot, whether walking or running. In some communities, those traveling using roller skates or skateboards are also considered to be pedestrians. In modern times, the term mostly refers to someone walking on a road or footpath, but this was not the case...
and horse riders
Equestrianism
Equestrianism more often known as riding, horseback riding or horse riding refers to the skill of riding, driving, or vaulting with horses...
. The churches of Hawridge and Cholesbury jointly hold a Summer Fête on the August Bank Holiday
Bank Holiday
A bank holiday is a public holiday in the United Kingdom or a colloquialism for public holiday in Ireland. There is no automatic right to time off on these days, although the majority of the population is granted time off work or extra pay for working on these days, depending on their contract...
Monday, alternatively on Hawridge and Cholesbury Commons. The Vale of Aylesbury with Garth & South Berks Hunt traditionally hold a meet on Boxing Day
Boxing Day
Boxing Day is a bank or public holiday that occurs on 26 December, or the first or second weekday after Christmas Day, depending on national or regional laws. It is observed in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and some other Commonwealth nations. In Ireland, it is recognized as...
(26 December) which draws a large crowd from the local district. The Village Hall hosts events from the organisations, of the local villages (Horticultural Society, Local History Group, Commons Preservation Society, Thursday Club) as well as Cholesbury Teas on Sundays during Summer months.