The Millennium History of Finmere Published by: Finmere and Little Tingewick Historical Society, Finmere, Oxfordshire © Finmere and Little Tingewick Historical Society 2001 Copyright of illustrations and photographs remains with the originators and owners. Our book captures the knowledge of generations and we wish to encourage its use for further research. We permit copying of parts of this book for personal research or educational use. A fully-formatted version can also be downloaded from our website, homepage.virgin.net/finmere.history. For permission for commercial or other use, please contact the Society (email: [email protected]). Designed by Keith Rogers: [email protected] Printed by CopyTECH (UK) Limited: [email protected] ISBN 0 9533253 1 8 Contents Foreword 1 Day, Night and Sunday Schools 64 The Millennium History 3 The Thirty-Nine Teachers 64 A Millennium of Village History 3 Ashwell’s School 65 Contributors 5 Through Two Wars to Closure 70 Finmere and Little Tingewick 7 The Closure of the School 71 The Meaning of AUniqueFinmere and Boldly Revolutionaryand School Tingewick873 The Village in the Nineteenth Century 9 The New School 73 Palmer’s Finmere 9 The Pleasure of School Life 75 The 1851 Census 12 The Village Landscape 79 Palmer’s Later Years 13 The Village Pond 79 St Michael’s Church 15 The Commemorative Trees 79 Palmer’s Legacy 15 The Village Streets 82 Frederick Walker’s Rebuilding 16 Villagers and Their Houses 83 Seymour Ashwell’s Woodcarving 18 Houses of Rubble and Thatch 83 After Ashwell 20 Twentieth Century Developments 83 Church Attendance 22 Village Views 84 The Churchyard 24 Larger Houses 88 Catholics and Nonconformists 25 Finmere House 91 The Rectories 27 Origins 91 Seymour Ashwell’s’ Rectory 27 John Pollard 92 The Modern Rectory 28 The Clark Brothers 93 The Parish Land 29 The Symes-Thompsons 94 The Landowners and their Farms 31 The Flowers 95 Finmere Quarry 35 After the Flowers 95 The Roads and Railways 37 The Public Houses 97 The Stowe Road 37 The Kings Head 97 The Buckinghamshire Railway 38 The Red Lion 100 The Great Central Railway 40 Finmere at Work 103 The Bypass 42 Working the Land 103 AWell Regulated Parish 45 Trades and Crafts 104 The Vestry 45 Lacemaking and Service 105 The Parish Meetings and Council 45 Shops, Garages and Markets 106 Poor Relief 46 In Hall and Field 111 Charities for the Poor 48 Finmere’s Red Letter Day: The Fisrt Village Hall 111 Health and Medicine 53 A Prize Winning New Village Hall 113 Crime and Policing 56 The Playing Fields 114 Water and Waste 59 Making Our Own Entertainment 115 A Victorian Dowser 59 Finmere Feast 116 The Village Pumps 61 Garlands at May Day 117 My Poor People, They Be Well Instructed 63 Celebrating Royal Coronations 119 The School 63 A Golden Wedding 120 i Sports and Shows 123 Finmere Sports Club 123 The Finmere Show 125 The Horticultural Show 126 Guides and Scouts 127 Finmere Brownies 127 Finmere Guides 128 Fox Rangers 128 Finmere Cubs 128 The Women’s Institute 129 The WI Pancake Race 130 Finmere During the Second World War 131 The Evacuees from Edmonton 131 Memories of a Village at War 132 RAF Finmere 135 RAF Finmere at Play 138 Their Name Liveth for Evermore 141 The War Memorial 141 First World War Commemorations 142 Second World War Commemorations 143 Finmere at the Millennium 145 Notes and Sources 147 Index 153 ii Foreword inmere’s association with Selborne in Hampshire began with Roundell Palmer, my great-great-grandfather. He was son of William Jocelyn FPalmer, a kindly Rector who dominated village life in Finmere and Mixbury during the first half of the nineteenth century. Writing anonymously in the History of Mixbury by James Charles Blomfield, Roundell described his father as: A wise, patient and loving pastor among his people. There was not one of the young or old, whom he did not personally know well, or whose conduct of character he did not study… He kept his eye on everybody; and, when any went wrong, he watched for his opportunities to do them good; seldom, if ever, giving up even the worst… He was a good neighbour and a fast friend, and by nature sociable… [and] lived plainly and simply. After Oxford, Roundell practised law and was elected to Parliament. He was appointed Lord Chancellor and took the title Lord Selborne after his Hampshire estate in 1872 and The Earl of Selborne ten years later. As well was many good works at Blackmoor, near Selborne, Roundell maintained his links with Finmere, contributing to its charities and the church. Roundell recognised the importance of local history, and wrote a section on Roman remains for an edition of Gilbert White’s Natural History of Selborne. Blomfield quoted from this famous work in his History of Finmere, maintaining the association between Selborne and Finmere. Local history makes an important contribution to rural life, where today new commuters rub shoulders with the established agricultural community. I am pleased to continue the link established between our parishes by my great- great grandfather by contributing this foreword. Earl of Selborne, KBE, FRS Selborne, Hampshire September 2000 1 2 The Millennium History he first History of Finmere was written by Reverend James Charles Blomfield and published in 1887. Like many of the historians of his Tday, Blomfield was a clergyman. He was the Rector of Launton and Rural Dean of Bicester. His later years were devoted to chronicling the history of his Deanery and, by his death in 1895, he had published nineteen parish histories and had begun work on four others. His History of Finmere was one of the finest volumes in the series. Much has happened in Finmere since Blomfield’s time. There were also events of his time and earlier that he did not know of, or found no interest in reporting. The idea of a new history—’to update Blomfield’—originated with Philip Willison and Anita Bilbo. They formed a Finmere Historical Society in 1986 to write a new book. After Philip’s death in 1990, the history was put on hold. The idea did not fade. During the summer of 1996, Barry Cranfield, Anita and others marshalled interest in the idea of a historical society. In August, about fifteen people met on the sunlit lawn of the Kings Head. After an evening of historical tales, we founded the Finmere and Little Tingewick Historical Society. From that date, about twenty people have been involved in the Society, helping to collect information, develop ideas and raise funds. The stated purpose of the Society is to compile this Millennium History. In the course of doing so, we have published a new edition of Blomfield’s History of Finmere, many newsletters and a web site (homepage.virgin.net/finmere.history). A Millennium of Village History rchaeological remains exposed in gravel quarrying and during the construction of the bypass have revealed that the Finmere area was settled from at least the Bronze Age, perhaps from around 4000BC. Research by Tim Killeen suggests that Finmere was A held by Robert D’Oilly at the time of the Domesday These and later farmers lived in isolated homesteads and it is unlikely that there was a recognisable village here until around 1000AD. Finmere is Survey. recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086AD, when its population would have been approximately 100 people. The population grew slowly through the medieval era, when villagers farmed narrow strips scattered across three open fields: South Field (to the south of the village), Mill Field (to the north) and Field next Fulwell (to the west). Their produce was eaten or bartered and would have provided a poor living—the more so for the vagaries of the weather and the ravages of disease. From the late twelfth century, or before, the Church of St Michael provided a focal point for worship and pastoral care. 3 The medieval way of life was swept away in the mid-seventeenth century. The land in the parish was then owned by the Temple family of Stowe and Sergeant Thomas Waller, a lawyer. They regarded the medieval strip fields as inefficient and they were certainly unprofitable for them. In 1667, the landowners ‘inclosed’ the landscape, creating a patchwork of rectangular fields and woodland. They also doubled the rents charged to tenant farmers. Agriculture was less labour-intensive following inclosure and the parish could no longer support its expanding population. Desperate measures were tried including, from 1831, sponsoring emigration to America from the parish rates. Others workers moved to the towns and the population of Finmere parish dropped from a peak of 399 in 1851 to 187 in 1931. This impoverished parish is the starting point for our Millennium History of Finmere. In the following pages, we tell the story of the village people, and their pleasures and miseries, and we describe how Finmere has retained its rural character through its transition from a poor agricultural village to a wealthier commuting community. 400 350 300 250 200 Population 150 100 50 0 1801 1811 1821 1831 1841 1851 1861 1871 1881 1891 1901 1911 1921 1931 1951 1961 1971 1981 1991 1941* 2001* 1941: No census taken due to Second World War 2001: Projected population Population of Finmere Parish 1801-2001 4 Contributors he Millennium History has been written and edited by a small team, supported by a larger group of villagers and friends of Finmere. No Tone section of the book can be described as being written or researched by one person and while Andy Boddington has taken the lead, researching and writing many chapters and editing the volume as a whole, other contributors have written part or complete chapters.