NOTES

A CACHE OF BRONZE FINGER-RINGS FROM

A collection of six rings said to have been 5. Circular bezel. 12 x 12mm. found near Amersham was recently presented Bird (?dove) stands to left. In the field two parallel grooves above and two below. In the centre of the bird a to the writer. As the group is clearly of interest, compass point. Line border surrounding. it has now been given to the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford (Department of Antiquities). 6. Circular bezel with two short projections on either side and also flanking the junction of hoop and bezel—eight Although subsequent enquiries by Mike in all. 13 x 13mm. A bucranium hung with garlands(?). In the centre a Farley have confirmed that the rings were compass point. Line border surrounding. indeed found in metal detecting activities in the area, it has not proved possible to pinpoint the All the rings have plain hoops apart from exact site of the discovery or to establish its Nos. 5 and 6 which have a marked thickening at context. The fact that there are a number of the shoulder. In addition, of course, there are rings all of a somewhat unusual late Roman the spoke-like projections of No. 6. There is no type and in similar physical condition is sug- doubt that the general form of the rings with gestive of a cache, and leads this enquirer to their raised circular bezels is late Roman wonder whether it might not have contained (Henkel 1913, 245 nos. 1001-10 and 1866-8). other objects such as coins. It is evident that The beaded border of No. 1 may be compared there is a real loss to knowledge here, and this with that of the gold ring from Brentwood, note can do no more than discuss the rings Essex in the British Museum, where just such a themselves and attempt to date them on the border surrounds a Chi-Rho (Johns 1985), basis of iconography and style. In all cases the while both the beaded border and the pro- hoop is incomplete, as the drawings show. The jections of ring No. 6 are to be seen on the bezel devices are cut in intaglio, and are described as of a bronze ring from a late fourth-century they appear on the rings, rather than in impres- context in the villa on Moor Park golf course sion. The dimensions given are of the bezel. (publication forthcoming in Hertfordshire Archaeology). Indeed, the close resemblance between the bezels of the Moor Park ring and the Amersham rings, especially No. 6, found 1. Circular bezel. 12 x 12mm. within comparatively few miles of each other, The device presents two confronted male figures. may hint at a common source in Verulamium or Between them are two club-like objects one above the its region. other, with a compass point between them. There is a beaded border. With regard to iconography, that of ring No. 2. Ovoid bezel. 10 x 9mm. 1 may be compared with one from Vindonissa Male bust to left. The subject raises an arm before his (Henkel 1913, 94 no. 1009) showing two face, rather stylised with hand not clearly differentiated. soldiers, one on either side of an altar, although He has a distinctive 'crew-cut' coiffure. the device on the Swiss ring is cut in a more 3. Ovoid bezel. 9 x 8mm. regular style. Ultimately it is reminiscent of the Bust to left (sex uncertain). One arm is raised before face Gloria Exercitus coin type of the 330's depicting as last example; another appears behind head. two soldiers and a standard, which may have provided the model (Robertson 1982, 259 and 4. Circular bezel. 12 x 12mm. Eagle stands to front; head to left; wings displayed; line PI. 62, no. 7). As for No. 2, the style of the border surrounding. head brings to mind those on a gold ring from 1 2 3 4 5 Fig. 1. Bronze finger-rings from Amersham (1:1). Brancaster, Norfolk inscribed VIVAS IN DEO No. 4 is surely an eagle, the other resembles a (Henig 1978, 280 no. 790), which I have dove and might have a Christian significance recently been tempted to assign to the fifth like the bird on one of the silver Chi-Rho rings century. Even closer is the repousse bust with found in Fifehead Neville, Dorset (Henig 1978, raised hand, and a Chi-Rho in the field upon a 280 no. 795). However, the bucranium device bronze roundel from Richborough, Kent, said of ring No. 6 (if that is what it is) appertains to by Mattingly to be Magnentius, though on pagan sacrifice! highly uncertain grounds and equally rashly identified as a high cleric of c.450 by Professor This group of rings, then, belongs to the Delbruech (Bushe-Fox 1948, 140 and PI. XLII latter part of the Roman period in Britain; like no. 171). A bust with hand raised and holding a the three silver Amesbury rings (Henig 1978, globe is to be seen on bronzes of Constans 281 nos. 801-3), they bear witness to a changing (Robertson 1982, 294 and PI. 66 nos. 37 and aesthetic, a more stylised approach to repre- 39). These are dated to 348-50. Although it is senting human and animal figures than had not certain that these particular coins provided previously been the case. It is very much to be the model, it is not impossible and if so hoped that other rings of Moor Park/Amer- provides a terminus post quern of 350 for the sham type will be discovered in excavated cache. contexts.

Birds such as those on nos. 4 and 5 frequently For help of various kinds I am indebted to occur on late Roman rings, for example on a Mike Farley, Jack Ogden, P. D. C. Brown, and bronze signet-ring from Cirencester (Henig above all to Pat Jacobs for providing the 1979). The theme of the Moor Park ring is, drawings. incidentally, two birds and a palm. While bird Martin Henig

BIBLIOGRAPHY

J. P. Bushe-Fox, 1948. Fourth Report on the Exca- M. Henig, 1978. A Corpus of Roman Engraved vations of the Roman Fort at Richborough, Kent, Gemstones from British Sites, Brit. Arch. Rep. 8 Soc. of Antiq. Res. Rep. (Oxford). (2nd edn, Oxford). 130 -CUM-ST LEONARDS: A MODERN PERAMBULATION OF ANCIENT BOUNDARIES

The civil parish of Cholesbury-cum-St the oldest boundaries. These four hilltop Leonards was created in 1934 by the union of villages were secondary settlements from town- the parishes of Cholesbury and with ships in the Icknield belt, the chapelry of St the hamlets of St Leonards and Buckland Leonards (Blackmere)1 having been settled Common; but the newest parish in from Aston Clinton, from inherited or acquired some of Buckland, and Cholesbury from Drayton 131 Beauchamp, while Hawridge was treated as a of the Thames Valley were probably separated detached dependency of Marsworth as late as from the Cilternscete by a wide belt of forest the Ship Money returns of 16352. with an unsubdued British population. By 672-4, however, Frithuwold was sub-king in 9 The older estates along the Ickfield Way Surrey as well as at . 'parishes al in a string)3 had appropriated adjoining strips of the high Chilterns, and The north-eastern boundary of Cholesbury- townships which failed to do so sometimes cum-St Leonards is the county boundary of succeeded in obtaining detached areas of Hertfordshire; it is probably of early 10th- woodland and waste farther down the dip-slope century origin, following one of the 'white of the Chiltern plateau. These shares in the roads up adirt the hills'10. Tring is one of the Chiltern hinterland were needed for timber, as three 'ridings' (ON pridjungr) of the triple this became scarce around the older hundred of Dacorum (genitive plural of Dacus settlements, and also for animal husbandry. 'a Dane')11 which from its name must have The limited areas of open downland on the originated when the Danelaw boundary was escarpment were grazed by sheep, and would settled; not, however, as early as the treaty of not otherwise have remained open; the nearer 886, which fixed that boundary farther east12. woodlands provided timber, the remoter ones swine pasture, and the heathlands were used for For some centuries the four hilltop villages common grazing in the summer. These have been more closely linked with each other arrangements seem to have been formalized in than with their mother parishes, and their Mercia during the 8th century. In 825 the urban centre has been rather than bishop and community of Worcester refused Aylesbury. In 1858 Cholesbury and Hawridge permission for the swangerefan (reeves in were transferred from the detached part of the charge of swineherds) to drive swine farther petty sessional division of Cottesloe to the into the wood called Scirhylte than was newly-formed Chesham division of Burnham; permitted by the ancient rights settled in 13 4 they are therefore placed by Sheahan (1862) /Ethelbald's time —thus, not later than 757, in Burnham hundred, although by that time the apparently a limit of Mercian legal memory. petty sessional divisions were losing their The legal position would have been the same 5 historic identification with the hundreds. After for their Chiltern holdings and for Icknield the abolition of the hundred courts in 1867 estates generally, but here the southern such changes could be made more readily, and boundary of the Vale parishes had the character were not regarded as changing the hundred of a frontier, separating the Cilternscete from boundaries. Middle Saxon land. The inner Chilterns, though heavily wooded, did not become a royal The county review of 1934 placed the new forest; the rights of the chase were exercised parish in , and defined by the city of London, as in Middlesex and 6 its north-western boundary as Grim's Ditch. Surrey . This ancient tribal frontier had been largely ignored during the scramble for the high This frontier between the Three Hundreds of Chilterns, and had therefore not previously Aylesbury and the Chiltern Hundreds, which is served as a parish boundary along most of its still (1985) the southern boundary of length, though there was one medieval Cholesbury-cum-St Leonards, seems to have precedent: it had been adopted as such when been established not later than the early 8th was separated from to serve century, by agreement between the rulers of as the upland holding of Weston Turville. The Mercia (overlords of the Cilternscete from pre-English origin of this earthwork was c.650)7 and the kings of Essex, who controlled recognised by its attribution to Grim, a by- London and its Chiltern hinterland8. Such an name of Woden, and probably also by the arrangement could perhaps go back to the early name Wallens Bank applied to the Ditch in 7th century, but at this stage the Middle Saxons Pitstone14; walena is an irregular genitive 132 plural of walh 'Briton, Welshman', twice we stopped and cut the cross. Afterwards evidenced in the post-Conquest Canterbury we went along the road to the corner of interpolations in the A-texl of the Chronicle the wood [Widow Croft] at Dundridge, over s.a. 607 (the E-text has walana s.a. 605)15. The the open ground and down to Three Gates, adoption of Grim's Ditch as a simple and and up Arrewig ['earwig'] Lane, which is convenient boundary entailed Lhe transfer of The Lee boundary, to Old Brun's Farm, Drayton Wood from Drayton to Cholesbury, and Councillor Angier [first chairman of but part of it called Priest Grove had anciently Council] cut the cross where been Cholesbury glebe16. we met Wendover parish. Then across to Grimsdyke on the Aston Clinton boundary, In 1974 Cholesbury-cum-St Leonards became and along the dyke to the pig farm [Leylands part of the Chiltern District, and in the same Farm] on the Buckland boundary (that is year the writer was invited by his colleague the highest point) and still along the dyke Ernest Collier, the first representative of the on the Drayton boundary into Shire Lane, parish on the new District Council, to take part and back again down the lane to Cholesbury in the decennial beating of its bounds. Of some Bottom. sixty who went round, all but three were parishioners. At the conclusion of the peram- bulation refreshments were provided in This definition of the boundary has a close Cholesbury village hall, and Councillor Collier though certainly unintended resemblance to the observed the excellent custom of recapitulation. style of a tenth-century land charter. Indeed, it His address, written down from recollection the illustrates how the boundary clause of such a same evening, was substantially as follows, charter must have been compiled from des- words in square brackets being editorial criptions by the leading inhabitants of the additions: township concerned, during or following an actual perambulation. Before we go home, it would be a good thing to go over the bounds again, for the As far as possible the description is in terms benefit of those who did not come all the of linear features (roads, lanes, valley bottoms, way. We began in Shire Lane at the top hedges, the Dyke) together with mention of of Cholesbury Bottom, and cut a cross to points where the boundary changes its charac- mark our boundary with Tring parish in ter. This is the best way to mere a parish; it is Dacorum. Then we went down along the first evidenced in our country in the Monks bottom of the common as far as the road, Risborough charter of 90317. There are sixteen and then up and across the ploughed field distinct stretches along the 12-mile perimeter, to Heath End [on the edge of the former and the description is quite adequate as an aide- Wigginton Common], from Heath End to memoire for those who know the area, though the cross-roads and down the road to John's to a stranger it might leave some points Lane where we leave Hertfordshire and meet uncertain. It has clearly been found helpful to parish, then still down the use descriptions even where minor place-names road to Nut Hazel Cross in the Vale exist for the features described. [Chesham Vale] where we cut the cross. From Nut Hazel Cross down the Vale to the Crosses were cut in the turf where the party Lonicera bush (that is the lowest point) halted, roughly each three miles. This is where we meet parish. Then up perhaps not typical; at Waddesdon, where very over the ridge [White Hawridge, or The detailed accounts of successive septennial per- Mountain] along the hedge [an ambulations are available, crosses and other ancient hedgerow, in Hawridge parish] into marks are cut much more frequently18. One the next bottom [Hawridge Dean, or White feature common to Waddesdon, Cholesbury- Hawridge Bottom], up the bottom to Ray's cum-St Leonards and many land charters is the Hill, and up the hill to Braziers End, where special attention paid to triple boundaries 133 where one neighbouring parish is succeeded by No attempt was made to follow this line on the another19. ground; instead, the party went straight 'up and across the ploughed field'. The same robust The perambulation was made clockwise, a practice has been adopted at The Lee under rule which appears to be invariable in Bucking- similar circumstances, and at Waddesdon hamshire. It did not start at a cardinal point, or where a brook has been straightened the writer at the highest point, but at a point close to has noted that the procession now follows the Cholesbury church and the village centre. The new course rather than the old one20. Except same convenient practice was followed at where parish boundaries have been redefined in Monks Risborough when the custom of a modern statutory instrument, they still rest on perambulation was revived, in spite of the ancient custom, which has been ascertained and contrary indication given by the charter. 'frozen' by the Ordnance Survey; but where physical changes have obliterated an ancient The 1974 perambulation was made without boundary, the parishioners naturally make reference to any map, and this accounts for one their own adaptation, and over the centuries departure from the official bounds. The parish minor changes will often have occurred in this and county boundary is defined between way. Cholesbury Common and Heath End by the A. H. J. Baines line of a hedge which has long been grubbed.

REFERENCES

1. 'capella Sancti Leonardi de Blakemere', Book of Fees 12. Engl. Hist. Docs, i (1955) 380, translating C.C.C.C. (1922) 1171, dated 1250. MS 383. 2. Carol G. Bonsey and J. G. Jenkins (eds), Ship Money 13. J. J. Sheahan, Hist, and Topog. of Buckinghamshire Papers (1965)72, 74-5, 100. (1862) 849. 3. W. Barnes, Poems of Rural Life (1844) 69. 14. Jean Davis, 'Grim's Ditch', Recs. Bucks xxiii (1981) 4. P. H. Sawyer, Anglo-Saxon Charters (1968) no. 1437 23-31, at 28. (cited asS 1437). 15. C. Plummer, Two of the Saxon Chronicles Parallel 5. S 104, 107,217, 1568. i(1892)22-3. 6. Engl. Hist. Docs, ii (1953) 946, 961. 16. Recs. Bucks xviii (1969) 295, 304 n. 33. 7. Evidenced by the Tribal Hidage (c.661). 17. S 367. 8. S 1784, dated 704-9. 18. Recs. Bucks xxi (1979) 148-9. 9. S 1165, confirmed by the king of the Mercians at 19. Cf. 'to dreo gemaere, of drim gemaerum . . .' in the Thame. Olney charter, S 834. 10. W. Barnes, op. cit., 68. 20. Cf. C. O. Moreton, Waddesdon and Over Winchendon 11. J. E. B. Gover, A. Mawer and F. M. Stenton, The (1929) 11. Place-Names of Hertfordshire (1938) 25.

THE MUSEUM

The Museum held a major exhibition of work being produced in this County. This is Buckinghamshire crafts which was then shown little appreciated owing to the small number of in the Milton Keynes Exhibition Gallery. It is outlets for selling and exhibiting crafts in Buck- the first time that the Museum has received inghamshire. There were associated demon- business sponsorship and a generous grant was strations on Saturdays during the exhibition. received from Marks & Spencer Pic through the Bucks Arts Association. Seventeen invited The Museum also received sponsorship from craftsmen and women exhibited and the idea Sotheby Parke Bernet & Co., this time directly, was to demonstrate the high quality of craft to arrange an exhibition of watercolours by 134 Thomas Uwins which was held for a month in library staff the lectures were very successful. the summer. He was an R.A. and Keeper of the National Gallery from 1847 to 1855. He pro- From May 1st 1984 under an Agency Agree- bably first came to Buckinghamshire after 1810 ment between the County Council and the to visit his brother who was a physician in Milton Keynes Development Corporation the Aylesbury. The exhibition contained figure Museum becomes responsible for the Milton studies including a number of lace makers. Keynes Archaeology Unit, which has a staff of nine. The Unit advises on the conservation of The Lunchtime Lectures, which had proved the historical landscape of Milton Keynes and such a popular part of the Museum's activities, carries out rescue excavations where necessary. were extended to Chesham. The reception was The Unit is financed by the Development warm and thanks to the co-operation of the Corporation. C.N.G.

COUNTY RECORD OFFICE Extracts from the report by the County Archivist

This was another busy year: at times The world of business was well represented. prospective visitors who wished to be sure of a The records of George Wigley and Sons, seat had to make their reservations a week or Auctioneers, Estate Agents and Surveyors, of more in advance. The availability of duplicate Winslow, relate mainly to the period 1875-1951 microfilms of many parish registers will provide and because of their completeness constitute an an improved service for family historians. important source for the social and economic history of the north Bucks area. Messrs Progress was made in making provision for Courage of Reading deposited a large quantity the archives of the Milton Keynes Development of deeds and documents for their public houses Corporation. A branch record office catering in south Bucks, most of which formerly for the New City and for North Bucks generally belonged to Wheeler's Wycombe Brewery. is under consideration. Other business records received related to a chemist at Buckingham, 1923-48; a glucose The total number of accessions was 148, the manufacturer at , 1926-47; and quantity of material received being well above a corn mill at Tingewick. the average of the past few years. Two interesting groups of family papers were Of official records, the most important relate acquired by purchase. The letters of the to the Royal Buckinghamshire Hospital, Johnson family of Olney are mostly dated founded in 1833. Material was received from between 1682 and 1696 and are largely con- nineteen ecclesiastical parishes. The records for cerned with the disastrous state of the family Buckingham include a fine series of parish finances. The other group comprises eighteenth- registers commencing in 1562. century documents relating to the Baker family of Penn and in particular to Daniel Baker's Records of voluntary organisations included tenure of the office of High Sheriff in 1722. minutes, accounts and other papers of the Thanks are due to the Buckinghamshire Record Weedon Charity, Chesham, 1627-1890, Society and the Purchase Grant Fund for together with the wooden chest which was financial assistance with these purchases. Other specially made to contain them in 1759. Some estate records received included a fine series of interesting documents relating to the Old estate maps for Chetwode, 1637-1831; Berkeley Hunt, 1862-1934, were purchased. nineteenth-century household account books 135 for Hartwell House; some additional Raper store were sorted. Otherwise little was done to family deeds and maps; and a survey of Haver- reduce the accumulated arrears of cataloguing. sham parish, 1799. It is estimated that over 40% of holdings are at best inadequately listed and several large Miscellaneous acquisitions included an collections have no list at all many years after inclosure quality book for Wendover, kindly deposit. presented by Mr M. Finnemore, whose experi- ence in reconstructing the North Marston A considerable amount of staff time had to inclosure landscape alerted him to its signifi- be devoted to cleaning the material received cance when he chanced upon it in a bookseller's from Messrs Wigley and to preparing it for stock; and a militia paylist for newly enlisted fumigation. A start was made with weeding and men, 1803. listing some of the better preserved papers and it is hoped to obtain some temporary assistance The volume of material received was such in processing the remainder. that it was not possible to keep abreast with cataloguing, though the majority of smaller The number of personal visits to the office, accessions, and some larger ones, had been 2539 for the year, is slightly higher than the dealt with by the end of the year. The court totals for the two preceding years (2412 for rolls and deeds relating to Bledlow deposited by 1982 and 2455 for 1983). Telephone statistics Mr R. White last year were catalogued follow- show 949 enquiries. 738 postal enquiries were ing repairs. Some progress was also made with received, as against 628 for the preceding year. the listing of the Drake deeds acquired in 1981, A total of 9467 (9121) items was produced of and many of the files of the former County which 1755 (1168) consisted of reels of Clerk's department held in the Judges Lodgings microfilm.

REVIEWS

The Wiggs of Mentmore. Gerald and Elizabeth The interest of The Wiggs of Mentmore is Elvey, pp. 72. Barracuda Press, 1984. ISBN thus wider that its title might suggest. And it 0 86023 178 X. has another claim on our interest, especially that of anyone assembling material for a family The story of the Wiggs is part of the social history: it is a model of how such things should history of —but an England personi- be done. Here one will find pointers not only to fied in identifiable individuals, not the the sources that are available but to how they abstractions that chroniclers of whole societies should be used. The key that unlocks the infor- must perforce deal with. Very dimly they can be mation concealed in the laconic and haphazard discerned through the mist within a century of notices vouchsafed by the records is a profound the Conquest—a Saxon family, free men with understanding of their historical context. Thus their own land. In the following centuries they equipped, Gerald and Betty Elvey have been emerge into clearer though still fitful light. able to extend enormously the field of They are shown ramifying widely, some sinking legitimate inference, venturing often into into obscurity, some rising to positions of conjecture but never into speculation. (The substance and influence. The Mentmore Wiggs difference—an important one for anybody became armigerous. Them we see at last falling occupying an editorial chair—is that conjecture on hard times, and a son setting forth to rebuild never loses touch with the evidence; speculation the family fortunes in the New World. is untrammeled by any such restraints.) 136 The book is the fruit of the family piety of Bowker for the Lincoln Record Society, the Mr James Lewis Kirby Jr, whose mother is records of the Court of Audience of Bishop descended from the Wiggs of South Carolina. Atwater. It shows the work of a conscientious Buckinghamshire historians are in his debt for bishop and his charitable treatment of the this enlightened essay in patronage. It is, Lollards of Amersham. incidentally, very handsomely produced. E.M.E. J.C.T. Hatchments in Britain iv: Bedfordshire, Berk- The Life and Times of Thomas Harding. shire, Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire and A. H. J Baines and Shirley A. P. Foxwell, Wiltshire. Ed. Peter Summers, pp. xvi + 167. pp. 40. The Parish Church of Chesham, Phillimore, 1983. £9.95. pamphlet, out of print. Hatchments are diamond-shaped panels More interest is now being shown in the (generally canvas stretched upon a wooden Lollards than for many years past. This pam- frame) bearing coats of arms. They were hung phlet honours the memory of Thomas Harding in front of the house during periods of mourn- of Chesham, the last Lollard martyr. It is in ing, generally for one year, and then deposited two parts. First there is a general account of in the parish church. Mr Summers and his heresy in the Middle Ages and a detailed survey friends are engaged in recording and blazoning of the Lollard Movement from the time of all examples in Great Britain and Ireland. His Wyclif to the persecution of the early sixteenth Buckinghamshire survey was undertaken in century. Then the focus shifts to Thomas 1952, with a final check thirty years later (still Harding, who is shown to have had a long within the pre-1974 boundaries). Of the 166 record of appearances in ecclesiastical courts. hatchments noted in the county at the earlier date, three have since been lost, and one, at With his wife he was condemned to severe , has been added on the death in 1953 of penances in the court of William Smyth, bishop the twelfth Duke of Bedford, though it is still of Lincoln 1496 to 1514, but these penalties stated on p. 43 that the most recent example is were almost all remitted by William Atwater, that for our Society's late President, M. R. the next bishop, in 1515. Like other 'knowne' James, Provost of Eton (d. 1936). For com- men, Harding was investigated during bishop parison, there are or lately were 75 hatchments Longland's campaign agianst the Amersham in Bedfordshire, 55 in Berkshire, 97 in Oxford- Lollards in 1521. Nevertheless he was able to shire and 150 in Wiltshire. All but twenty of the retire to Chesham, where he lived quietly for Bucks hatchments have been dated with many years. sufficient precision to support the following distribution by quarter centuries. In 1532 he was detected reading forbidden books in a wood near his home. Dr Baines 1700-24 4 1850-74 21 explains what the books were and why it was so 1725-49 6 1875-99 8 dangerous to be found with them. He goes on 1750-74 I I 1900-24 2 to deal with proceedings in the bishop's courl, 1775-99 19 1925-49 1 leading to the condemnation of Harding as a 1800-24 33 1950-74 1 relapsed heretic and his death at the stake in 1825-49 41 1975- nil May 1532. We are fortunate to have such a One unidentified hatchment at Stoke Poges clear account of his last days, based on a (formerly in the Hastings almshouses) is transcript of the registers, and both amplifying probably of seventeenth-century date; several and correcting Foxe's account. armorial boards elsewhere have not been listed, because they bear inscriptions showing that The two authors have consulted a long list of they were intended as memorials. Such quasi- books, to which should be added An Episcopal or proto-hatchments will be included in a final Court Book, 1514 to 1520, edited by Margaret volume when the county series is completed. 137 139 of our hatchments are in parish churches from this valuable series to the Ockenden (including 10 in the Russell chapel at Chenies), Venture. and two now lost were formerly so; 20 are at A.H.J.B. Wycombe Abbey, probably from the parish church; two are at Eton College, two inaccess- ibly at Chequers, one in the County Museum, Now in the Library and one, over a pool in West Wycombe caves, has perished. The History of St Margaret's Church, Tylers Green. Miles Green, pp. 32. Penn & Tylers A few hatchments may not be original: some Green Jubilee Committee, 1984. of those at Chenies have been replaced or repainted, and one has an heraldic error. All An attractively written and carefully blazons are noted exactly as they appear, not as researched account of one episode in the great they ought to be. church-building drive by which, in the mid- nineteenth century, the Church of England It was fairly common for the family motto to strove to catch up with the demographic be replaced by a pious sentiment. In Bucks we changes of the previous hundred years. Useful have Resurgam 28 times, with Resurgemus insights into social attitudes and assumptions. once; there are 17 instances of In coelo quies and 12 of Mors janua vitae, with single Buckinghamshire: Maps and History. Valerie examples of Dulce et decorum est pro patria Scott and Eve MacLaughlin, pp. 32. Quiller mori, Memento mori, Non omnis moriar and Press, London, 1984. Board, £4.95. ISBN Requiescat in pace. In English we have 'Be ye 0 90762 1309. also ready' and 'Regard the end' (twice each), while a Mayor of Wycombe, identified as such Handsomely produced book consisting of a by mace and fasces, chose Jehovah jireh, 'The sort of history primer accompanied by—but Lord will provide' (cf. Olney Hymns i.7). not linked to—reproductions of pre-Ordnance Survey county maps. The history is unreliable The editor of the survey offers to advise and the maps uninformative: either they lack incumbents and other custodians of these topographical detail or the scale of repro- heraldic records how to have them satisfactorily duction renders the detail unreadable. The repaired at minimal cost. His cottage at North decorative quality of the cartographers' work is Stoke, Oxon, is adorned with a duchess's clearly brought out, however. hatchment, and he has assigned all his royalties

THE SOCIETY

Membership resignation of Mrs Brenda Easterbrook, After election of new members by Council in Council appointed Don Miller to fill the January 1985 and deletions for non-payment of vacancy until the A.G.M. in 1985. Late in the subscriptions, membership was 646 adults year, Council co-optees Mrs Yvonne Parminter (counting each of 117 family memberships as and Stan Cauvain resigned, as Publications two), 14 juniors (exclusive of juniors in family Officer and Membership Secretary respectively. membership), and 16 affiliated societies. The Hon. Librarian, Mrs Lorna Head, now doubles as Publications Officer. County Council Council nominees on Council were Mrs E. M. As usual, Council met five times, the Chair- Arkell and Mrs F. Shand Kydd. man being Dr Arnold Baines. Following the Council wrote to the Secretary of State for 138 the Environment urging that the budget Historic Buildings Trust for Buckinghamshire proposal to levy V.A.T. on buildings restora- The President continues as a member of the tion should be modified to exempt Listed governing board. Buildings and buildings in Conservation Areas. The Trust bought one of the oldest houses in As a result of many protests, work on Listed Amersham, 49 High Street, as a holding action Buildings has been so exempted, but this does while the Amersham Society raised the not extend to buildings in Conservation Areas. purchase price. Late in the year, the Society was A gift of £100 from Mrs T. E. Vernon, able to take over the property from the Trust. toward the purchase of old documents, was The appeal for funds toward restoration and gratefully accepted by Council which awaits a equipment as a museum continues. Council suitable occasion to utilize this gift. intends to give a grant toward restoration. Mindful of the Society's interest in Natural History, Council made a grant to the Bucking- County Museum Archaeological Group hamshire Bird Club toward the preparation of The Group has received a letter from the its Atlas of Breeding Birds in Buckinghamshire. County Council, through the Library & Museum Sub-Committee, formally recording Bucks County Council appreciation of the Group's contribution Library & Museum Sub-Committee during its first ten years to the Museum and to Society representatives were Mrs Easter- Buckinghamshire archaeology. brook, Max Davies and the Hon. Secretary. Members assisted as the County Archaeo- In estimates presented to the Education logists' third season of excavation of the Committee, provision was made for museum Romano-British site on the line of the projected space in the projected new library at High Amersham by-pass and continue, very actively, Wycombe and in the planned extension of the with post-excavation work relating to these and library in Milton Keynes. other excavations of recent years, as well as with other projects. A Group paper with a County Archaeological gazetteer of Buckinghamshire Windmills was Advisory Committee published in Records of Buckinghamshire Society representative: the Hon. Secretary. Volume 24 (1982). At the instance of the Committee, the County Council wrote to Lord Montagu, Chairman of the new Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission for England (short Milton Keynes Archaeological Unit The first of a series of monographs to be title English Heritage) seeking assistancce in published under the imprint of the Society, speeding up the process of scheduling monu- is in typescript and ments and drawing attention to the backlog of Roman Milton Keynes, should be published in the first half of 1986. unactioned requests for scheduling specific monuments in the County. The reply stressed that better and quicker selection of monuments Cicely Baker Prize for Historical Research for scheduling was regarded as important and For the second biennial competition, with that more inspectors were being recruited to entries due at the end of 1984, six eligible speed this and other tasks. papers were received. The prize was awarded to a group effort from Wendover. The Committee has also written to the local branches of the Country Landowners Associa- Meetings tion and the National Union of Farmers The Society in conjunction with the Oxford regarding the protection of buried archaeo- University Department for External Studies logical sites from treasure-hunters. sponsored a dayschool on 31 March on 'Recent Liberty Trust Work in Buckinghamshire History' at the A grant of £500 from the Trust toward the Green Park Centre, Aston Clinton. The three publication of Records of Buckinghamshire excellent lectures were much appreciated by Volume 24 (1982) was gratefully received. some seventy people. 139 After a lapse of many years, Council decided 13 October. Church crawl. Wingrave, Wing, to organize a series of lectures, on Saturday Stewkley, Soulbury, Leighton Buzzard, afternoons in the County Museum, to be Edlesborough, Ivinghoe, Pitstone and addressed by local experts on topics specific to Drayton Beauchamp. the County. Both lectures falling within the period of this report were well supported. On Listed Buildings 17 November, Mr Dennis Parkhouse gave an The Society acts as agent in Bucks for the illustrated talk on 'Chiltern Canals and Water Council for British Archaeology which is one of Supply', and on 15 December Dr Michael Reed the national bodies that must by statute be noti- summarized his recent research into 'Restora- fied by the appropriate Planning Authority of tion Bucks: Social and Occupational Struc- any application to demolish a Listed Building. tures'. Thanks are due to Mrs Joan Taylor and During the eight months of 1984 since the Ted Bull for help with organization. A.G.M., the Hon. Secretary dealt with some thirty applications, ranging from an application Outings to demolish mid-18th century Loakes House at Six outings were arranged by the President (refused by Wycombe D.C.) to and all were enjoyed by good attendances. one for part-demolition and subsequent recon- stitution of a wichert wall in Haddenham 19 May. Oxfordshire. Kingston Bagpuize House (approved, I hope, by A.V.D.C.). (Lady Tweedsmuir). Kingstone Lisle House (Mrs Leopold Lonsdale), Uffington church. 16 June. Cambridgeshire. Elton Hall (Mr Publications Records of Buckinghamshire Volume 23 William Proby). Buckden palace and church. (1981) was distributed around the turn of Anglesey Abbey (N. Trust). 1983/4 and Volume 24 (1982) in August. A 15 July. Leicestershire & Lincolnshire. Belvoir Spring and Autumn Newsletter were produced, Castle (Duke of Rutland). Doddington Hall edited by Ted Bull as since the inception of (Mr Anthony Jarvis). Newsletters nine years ago. For distribution of 11 August. Perambulation of the bounds of the great majority of copies, we continue to rely Granborough. Led by Dr Baines. on the volunteers of the 'Corps of Deliverers'. 8 September. Wiltshire. Wilton House (Earl of With the continual rise of postal charges, the Pembroke). Salisbury: city, cathedral and efforts of the 'Corps' become ever more museum. valuable and our appreciation all the greater.

NATURAL HISTORY SECTION

As in previous years, a programme of field the Central Electricity Generating Board visits and indoor lectures was arranged for Reserve at . 1984. We are grateful for the use of the 10th March: We had the pleasure of a visit Education Room at the County Museum for from a world authority on lichens, Mr Peter our lectures. A brief summary of all the James of the British Museum of Natural meetings is given below. History. What might seem to be a subject of limited interest was given life by Mr James, 7th January. A BBONT film show arranged whose work takes him to many countries. by Mrs Susan Cowdy, M.B.E., and Mr Arthur Mount was held at Aylesbury Grammar 7th April: After the Section's Annual School. General Meeting Miss Jill Royston, B.Sc., gave 11th February: On a warm February a very interesting talk on the subject of Gardens afternoon Mrs Cowdy led a party which visited as Nature Reserves. 140 19th May. The Rev. Peter Bugg, a BBONT 6th October-. Our annual fungus foray was warden, conducted the party on a visit to Rush- led by Mr Victor Scott and took place at beds Wood and explained the management of Common Wood, Tylers Green. Among the this reserve. thirty-five species found were: Boletus edulis, 30th June: Pitstone Fen is part of the old Amanita rubescens, Amanita muscaria, workings of the cement works and the resulting Amanita fulva, Amanita citrina, and Lactarius conditions produce a wonderful showing of deliciosus. orchids. We are grateful to Mr Graham Atkins, 10th November: Members brought along the warden, for explaining how he looks after their own slides and an enjoyable afternoon the reserve. was spent looking at various aspects of natural 21st July. Mr Missin of Milton Keynes history in the West of Ireland, Brittany, Spain, Development Corporation described the Kenya, Western Australia and China, as well as recreational activities and wildlife conservation in our own locality. measures being undertaken at Willen Lake. 8th December: Dr Peter Bond entertained a Among various water birds seen was a young large gathering with an excellent lecture about snow goose. painting and photographing butterflies. 5th August: Mr Aubrey Woodward was the leader on a warm, sunny afternoon which brought out many butterflies, sixteen species The Hon. Recording Secretary, Mr A. being noted: White Admiral, Large Skipper, Woodward, mentions the following as being Hedge Brown, Ringlet, Wall Brown, Small among the most important of the year: the Tortoiseshell, Small White, Small Copper, appearance of a Sea Eagle that took up resi- Green Veined White, Purple Hairstreak, dence for some weeks early in the year near Marbled White, Small Skipper, Meadow Brill; this attracted bird watchers from all over Brown, Common Blue, Peacock, and Large the country. It was a good year for butterflies, White. especially Holly Blues; and there were many 15th September: Miss Jill Royston and a reports of the large Elephant Hawk Moth party of thirteen members had a particularly larvae in the Stone area. interesting and enjoyable outing looking at life in a section of the Wendover Branch Canal.

141 OFFICERS OF THE SOCIETY (as at 31st December 1984)

President ELLIOTT VINEY, F.S.A.

Vice-Presidents LADY BARLOW T. A. HUME, C.B.E., F.S.A., F.M.A. LORD COTTESLOE, G.B.E., T.D. PROFESSOR W. R. MEAD MAX DAVIES E. CLIVE ROUSE, M.B.E., F.S.A. G. R. ELVEY, F.S.A. REX WAILES, O.B.E., F.S.A. SIR FRANK FRANCIS, K.C.B., F.S.A., F.M.A. SIR DENIS WRIGHT, G.C.M.G. MAJOR J. D. YOUNG, LORD LIEUTENANT AND CUSTOS ROTULORUM

Council MRS E. M. ARKELL (CC) DR R. P. HAGERTY R. J. AYERS MRS B. HURMAN DR A.H.J. BAINES (Chairman) HAROLD HUSSEY E.J. BULL MRS F. SHAND KYDD (CC) H. BRADBURN MRS JOAN TAYLOR MRS S.GILL DRI.L. TOPLIS C. N. GOWING, F.M.A. E. R. THROSSELL, R.I.B.A. P. M. GULLAND (CC: Nominated by the County Council)

Hon. Secretary Hon. Treasurer DR R. P. HAGERTY E. J. DEUNG, I.P.F.A.

Hon. Editor Hon. Archivist J. G. CHENEVIX TRENCH MRS E. M. ELVEY

Hon. Librarian Hon. Secretary (Natural History Section) MRS L.M. HEAD MRS H.M.KENT

Society's Representatives on the County Library & Museum Sub-Committee MAX DAVIES MRS B. D. EASTERBROOK DR R. P. HAGERTY

Headquarters THE COUNTY MUSEUM, CHURCH STREET, AYLESBURY HP20 2QP

142 Copyright Bucks Archaeological Society 1986

Typeset by AMARANTHUS, 36 Vicarage Street, Warminster, Wilts. Printed by ANTONY ROWE Ltd, Chippenham, Wilts.