History of Whitchurch.Pm6

THE HISTORY OF WHITCHURCH AND CHRONICLES OF WHITCHURCH BUCKS RE-PRINTED WITH ADDITIONAL MATERIAL Cover photo: Whitchurch House by Roy Garnham Elmore THE HISTORY OF WHITCHURCH AND CHRONICLES OF WHITCHURCH BUCKS RE-PRINTED WITH ADDITIONAL MATERIAL 2001 FOREWORD My copies of Joseph Holloway’s The History of Whitchurch and G. W. Wilson’s Chronicles of Whitchurch are gradually disintegrating through use and age. As they are now long out of copyright, I have re-originated them by scanning both with OCR (Optical Character Recognition) and re-formatted them to form an easily accessible record of each book. The original title and half-title pages are omitted but, with the exception of the the ‘List of Subjects’ for the History of Whitchurch which had to be slightly revised to accommodate the new page numbers and the addition of a ‘Contents’ list for the Chronicles of Whitchurch, the text content of each is complete and unaltered. Between the two titles (pages 45 - 59), I have incorporated a section containing additional information that may well be useful in understanding some of the more obscure references and help to place many of the events in their appropriate time frame. The cottage that now stands at Whittle Hole was built by my great- grandfather for his own occupancy in 1868, at a cost of £98 17s 6d., and was lived in by my parents for over 62 years! I was born there in July 1940. ROY GARNHAM ELMORE Old Timbers Bellingdon Bucks January 2001 HISTORY OF WHITCHURCH BUCKS BY JOSEPH HOLLOWAY 1889 ADVERTISEMENT These Lectures are printed by request. I have, for a considerable period, devoted my spare time in collecting scraps, facts, and information, relating to the village, and I found myself possessed of a lot of materials which I had no other object than to preserve. Some of these gleanings I read to my friends privately, and being requested to make a Lecture of the same, I asked advice of my worthy friend, the Local Historian, Mr. R Gibbs; hence the following Lectures were the result. It will be understood that the statements and facts contained herein, are derived from all sources available. Local and national histories and libraries, have been searched, and no trouble or expense has been spared to make the same correct, but in no case will the author be responsible for any mis-statement or error, should there be such. It is a pleasure to me, to think of the courtesy and help shown in looking for information and I desire to thank all my Friends far and near, for kindnesses shown, which have made my duties pleasant and easy. JOSEPH HOLLOWAY Market Hill House, Whitchurch, Bucks, March 1889 LIST OF SUBJECTS PART 1 PART 2 Introduction ..................................................... 1 Bolebec Castle ................................................ 25 Name of the Place ............................................ 1 The Market, Fair and Feasts .......................... 27 The Manor of Whitchurch ............................... 2 Old Modes of Punishment ............................ 29 Customs Of The Manor................................... 5 Westcar’s Charity............................................ 32 The Parish Church .......................................... 5 Overseers’ Accounts ...................................... 29 Monuments and Tablets .................................. 8 Westcar’s Charity............................................ 32 Churchwardens’ Accounts ............................ 11 Wesleyan Chapel ............................................ 32 Rectorial Estate and Vicarage ....................... 14 The Primitive Methodist Chapel .................. 35 Rectors ............................................................ 16 The Wesleyan Day School ............................. 36 Vicars .............................................................. 17 The Silk Factory and Lace Making ................ 37 Inclosure Act .................................................. 18 Miscellaneous facts ........................................ 38 Wells, Springs and Streams ........................... 19 Eminent Men ................................................. 40 The Parish Registers ...................................... 21 Conclusion ..................................................... 45 ADDENDA The village of Whitchurch is situated on the Turnpike road from London to Birmingham and is on the track of the old Roman road leading from Towcester on through Aylesbury to Dorchester, it is about 5 miles north of Aylesbury, and 12 miles south west from Buckingham. It stands on high ground and consists chiefly of one main street. Many of the houses denote antiquity, being built of wood frame filled up with bricks and plaster, and having overhanging storeys, good paved paths skirt the high road on either side; on the west of the main street there are bye roads, one of which leads to an open space called the Market Hill The sub-soil is of clay, loam, gravel and stone, the clay is well adapted for bricks, and has been worked at a brick kiln here for many years, good stone for building purposes is also found, many old stone buildings and walls tell us that thousands of loads of this material have been raised to supply the neighbourhood. Several of the Churches around are built of Whitchurch stone. The village itself, being on high ground, and consequently dry, is considered to be one of the healthiest in Bucks. There are 1580 aces of Land in the Parish. The assessment in 1798 was £176 19s 3d – in 1889 it is £3875 0s 0d. The population in 1801 was 646 – in 1881 it was 754. PART 1 INTRODUCTION The place of our birth is ever dear to us; whatever may be our vicissitudes in life, to whatever part of the world our avocations may call us we hold a lingering love for the spot where we first saw the light, where our happy childish days were spent, where our joys and sorrows commenced. I participate in that feeling, and as a native of Whitchurch, the son of a native, and the grandson of a late aged and long resident, I shall ever hold a feeling of great regard for my birth-place, that feeling has prompted me to exhibit an interest in the village, and tempted me to gather together all the historic facts and scraps relating to it, I possibly could, which I have strung together, and now take the liberty of placing before you in the shape of a lecture. The first item to attract the notice of an historian would as a matter of course be the — NAME OF THE PLACE he is about to describe. I confess that here I meet with a difficulty as I find the modern name and the original one strangely differ. There are I find no less than ten variations in the name given to our Village, as follows:– Wicherce, Wicherse, Whicherge, Whicherche, Witchurge, Whicherche Whitchurts, Whichchurch, Whitechurch, and Whitchurch. Referring to old documents, Dooms-day book for instance, I find that the old name of the Village and the new have no connection whatever; in that old authority and even before that book was compiled, “Whitchurch stands Wic herce. The following has been given as the meaning of the word,—Now Wic herce is Saxon or Anglo Saxon, “Wic” signifies dwelling house, habitation or village street, this last appellation well describing Whitchurch. The affix “herce or herse” represents an army station, a camp, a stronghold. Now as Whitchuroh stands on high ground, on the old Roman trackway, it is more than likely that a military station existed here. Thus we may take the old name as representing a village standing on an ancient military way. Leaving then the original we will come on to the more modern name’ and I fancy the name of Whitchurch would point to the Church and from that in some way or other derive its name, thus we find it called Which– White– Whit– and I am fortified in this by the following — In the Whitchurch (Salop) Parish Magazine for 1866, an account of that town reads thus “According to Dooms-day, Whitchurch was formerly called Weston, and it was held in Saxon times by Earl Harold. Soon after the Conqueror, a spacious Church built of white stone was erected at Weston. An event of such importance in those days was sufficient cause for changing the name of the place from Weston, to “Albuim Monasterimun,” or “Blance Minster “ afterwards the White Church or Whitchurch.” In EDMUND’S “Traces of History of the Names of Places,”—Page 312. After referring to several towns and villages, with the prefix, “Whit or White” as Whitborn, Whitfarm, (Durham) Whitbourne, (Hereford) &c, he says the prefix White or Whit generally means that the place belonged to a “Cistercian Monastery,” the monks of that order wearing a white cassock, as example St. Whites (Gloucester) belonged to the Cistercian Abbeys of Haxley and Timbertan, as did White Town, now Whitson, (Monmouth.) In the year 1398, the Rectorial Estates and all the Church Revenues of this parish were appropriated to Woburn Monastery and the Church was under the control of the monks 1 THE HISTORY OF WHITCHURCH of the Cistercian order sent here to attend to the spiritual wants of the people. “Some of these monks and friars it is reported lived in the old house now belonging to M. A. Holt, which is remarkable for its shape and size, its cellars and dungeons &c—” And at certain times they walked in procession to the Church with all the then serious disposed persons of the parish, who fell under their influence, all dressed in white, and the heads of the procession wearing their “White Cassocks,”—making a great show.—Thus I find a connection between Whit and the Church, which name is handed down to us

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