Penn Village Around Holy Trinity Church
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Penn village around Holy Trinity Church 1. Holy Trinity Church, Penn Oldest building in the Conservation Area Set in an acre of churchyard, Holy Trinity has a late 12th century nave, built in flint with clunch and tiles incorporated. The font, consecration crosses and stone tomb are also 12th century. The south aisle and low tower are early 14th century and the clerestory and the queen-post roof are c.1400. Visitors to the Church should note the rare “Penn Doom” – one of only five surviving wooden tympanums in the country. It is a 12 foot wide painting of the” Last Judgement” on oak panels and hangs above the chancel arch. It was added in the 15th century when Penn Church was owned by Chalcombe Priory in Northamptonshire. In the Lady Chapel there is a reminder of the importance of the local medieval tiling industry where an arrangement of 14th century Penn floor tiles may be seen, as well as a collection of Tudor and Stuart brasses of the Penn family. Wall monuments mainly dedicated to the 18th and early 19th century Curzons and Howes are also on display. Penn tiles medieval doom Six grandchildren of William Penn, the Quaker and founder of Pennsylvania are buried in a family vault under the centre of the nave. Heraldic shields on the roof corbels show eight centuries of English history. The Church has had its share of colourful vicars. During the 14th century the vicar was murdered with an axe. In 1539, at the time of the Reformation, the vicar of Penn was jailed at Aylesbury by his churchwardens for “uttering certain opprobrious words”. So well positioned is this ancient church, that from the top of the church tower and on a clear day, it was claimed that 12 counties could be seen. 2. Holy Trinity Churchyard Gravestones of interest In the churchyard, the earliest marked grave is of William Penn, lord of the manor, who died in 1693. He was no relation to William Penn the Quaker, although both thought they were from the same family. There is an extension of the graveyard to the south, designed by Sir Edward Maufe on the site of a former garden, enclosed by a wall built by the vicar in 1734. Other graves to look out for are those of Donald Maclean, the Russian spy who defected in 1951 and David Blakeley who was shot in 1955 by Ruth Ellis, the last woman to be hanged in England. The children’s author Alison Uttley, of “Little Grey Rabbit” fame, is also buried here. As a local born and bred, she also wrote the County Book of Buckinghamshire, published in 1950 and giving a fascinating insight into life in the rural Bucks of the time. Dr Louisa Garrett Anderson (daughter of Elizabeth Garrett Anderson) is also buried in the churchyard. She and her friend, Dr Flora Murray, set up a French military auxiliary hospital in the Champs Elysees. It was the first-ever hospital for male patients, staffed and run by women. Louisa and Flora lived at Paul End (now Gatemore Grange). 3. The Parish Room, Pauls Hill The Parish Room was converted from a 16th century timber-framed house at right angles to the road in around 1730. It was called the Parish Pay Room and was used by the Vestry for poor relief administration and was where taxes were set, collected and disbursed. The poor rate was paid out monthly to the poor, who could represent up to a quarter of the parish after a bad harvest. Cottages for the parish poor were also built by 1744, some of them in Beacon Hill. The Parish Room was also used as a lace school and a Sunday School. At one time there was a shop and a pub at the back. In 1894, the first election for a Parish Council took place there and subsequent meetings took place by gaslight until 2002 when the building was converted into an office. In 1995, parish records dating as far back as 1804 were found in an old locked safe. 4. The Knoll Fine example of a small country house This house is at the rear of the churchyard and was built in 1671 for the newly-wed Nathaniel Curzon and his wife Sarah Penn. External brick walls support the roof, but the interior is supported by a heavy oak frame. It has original casement windows on the north side. On the south side is a tiled turret where, so local legend has it, Queen Anne sat watching her children play on the lawn at Windsor. However, this is wildly improbable and a more likely explanation for the turret is that it was built as an observatory by the Rev. Benjamin Anderson (1733-1823) who lived in the house before becoming Vicar of Penn in 1808. He was a friend of Edmund Burke (see separate profile), who described him in letters to the Home Secretary and Secretary at War in 1795 as “a Clergyman at Penn…of Learning and Merit….whose Observatory and Experimental apparatus I wished much to show you…” Mrs Frances Knollis, wife of the vicar from 1823-60 lived in the house for 20 years after her husband died. Sir George Robertson lived there from 1927-1939. He was a classical scholar who threw the discus for England in the first revived Olympic Games. The Countess Howe, divorced wife of the 5th Earl, moved to the house in 1945, followed by her son. After nearly three centuries of Curzon ownership, the house was sold in 1956. A later owner was Ernest Saunders, the convicted Chairman of Guinness. 5. The War Memorial Green Opposite The Crown The village stocks were once on this green beneath two very old elm trees. A whitebeam was planted in 1997 to replace the last stock elm (before Dutch Elm disease, elms were an intrinsic part of the landscape). The houses surrounding the green and extending down Pauls Hill are the oldest in the conservation area. The War Memorial stands as tribute to those who died in the First World War. It was erected in 1922 and dedicated by Field Marshal Sir William Robertson. The names of those killed in the Second World War were added after 1945. The red telephone box was listed in 1989. It was designed by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott in 1935. Although the houses surrounding the Green are not open to the public, the exteriors give ample clue to their history. Of interest may be the 16th – 18th century listed cottages by the roadside on Pauls Hill. Stone Cottage and Nos 1-3 Church Cottages are of flint with brick dressings which conceal earlier timber-framing. There are many old chimneys on top of the old tile roof which include an example of triple- shafted brick. Nos. 5 and 6 Church Cottages are 17th century. 6. The Crown Public house and former inn The Crown is thought to be one of two alehouses recorded in Penn in 1577. The other one is thought to have been on the site of the Red Lion, near Widmer pond. Today it is one of four public houses still open in the Conservation Area. The oldest part of the building is 16th century with late 18th and 20th century additions. The original part of the pub is built of red and grey brick with a tiled roof over. The Crown is situated at the edge of the village where Witheridge Lane (formerly Witherage) comes up from Beaconsfield. It was once an inn with five bedrooms where Penn House estate workers met for suppers and large shooting parties were hosted. During the Second World War it was the local for the Home Guard. The pub was owned by the Penn Estate with the Daurvill family as landlords for over a century from 1750. The Garlands were then landlords from 1864 until 1929, when the inn was sold. 7. The Old Vicarage Visited by royalty The house is an early 19th century Georgian villa. It was built in 1825 at the expense of the Rev. James Knollis, vicar of Penn. Legend has it that there is an underground passage from the cellar of the house to the church, which was blocked up in the 1960’s. King William and Queen Adelaide paid two visits to the house, which are recorded in letters of 1833 and 1835. General Sir Brian Robertson lived there after the Second World War. He was Military Governor and Commander in Chief for the British Occupation Zone in Germany from 1947-1949 and was succeeded by General Montgomery, who was a visitor to the house in 1945. General Robertson’s father, Field Marshal Sir William Robertson, dedicated the Penn War Memorial in 1922. In 1925 the Vicarage was sold to Mrs Ralph Heal who lived there until moving in 1932 to Tithe Cottage, now known as Penn Court and situated opposite the Old Vicarage. th th Smart dwellings of the 17 – 19 centuries 1. The houses along Church Road, Penn The ridge top of Church Road in Penn was used by both Winston Churchill and Clement Attlee when driving between London and Chequers. Many of the houses are Listed. Stonehouse is an early 19th-century refacing of a jettied medieval timber-framed house. It was inhabited by generations of the Grove family from the Middle Ages until 1952. Edmund Grove (1729-1823) is said to have been a favourite of George III, who supposedly watched him through his telescope from the Round Tower at Windsor, walking on his lawn at Stonehouse.