Contents Buckinghamshire  Nearby Places Little Horwood "The village, which is small and contains several 16th and 17th-century half-timber houses, now much altered, is built along both sides of the road to Great Horwood, and the northern portion is known as Wood End. The church stands at the Great Horwood entrance to the village, and beyond on rising ground is a resevoir. There are several outlying farms. The old Moat Farm, now demolished, was surrounded by a homestead moat. Horwood House, in the south of the parish, is a modern building recently erected by Mr. F. A. Denny, who pulled down the ancient house formerly standing on the site. The grounds, which are of considerable size, are skirted on the south by the Oxford to Bletchley branch of the London and North Western railway." [© copyright of the editors of The Victoria Histories of the Counties of England]

Bibliography

The following reference sources have been used in the construction of this page, and may be referred to for further detail. Most if not all of these volumes are available in the Reference section of the County Library in Aylesbury.

"Buckinghamshire Contributions for Ireland 1642", Wilson J., 1983.
"Buckinghamshire Returns of the Census of Religious Worship 1851", Legg E. ed., 1991, ISBN 0 901198 27 7.
"Magna Britannia: Buckinghamshire", Lysons S. and Lysons D., 1806.
"The Place-Names of Buckinghamshire", Mawer A. and Stenton F.M., 1925.
"The Victoria History of the Counties of England: Buckinghamshire", Page W. ed., 1905-1928
"War Memorials and War Graves: North Central Bucks, Volume 4", Peter Quick.

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Cemeteries

War Memorials

War memorials in Little Horwood have been transcribed by Peter Quick, and published in a booklet entitled "War Memorials and War Graves: North Central Bucks, Volume 4", available from the Buckinghamshire Genealogical Society.

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Census

In 1642 there were 46 people named in the tax returns for contributions for Ireland. Between them they were assessed at £4.1.3 of which sum Mr Henry Sandys contributed £0.10.0

In 1798 the Posse Comitatus listed 84 men between the ages of 16 and 60 in Little Horwood.

In the earliest government census of 1801, there were 339 inhabitants in 77 families living in 77 houses recorded in Little Horwood.

* = No names were recorded in census documents from 1801 to 1831.
** = Census documents from 1911 to 2001 are only available in summary form. Names are witheld under the 100 year rule.

Microfilm copies of all census enumerators' notebooks for 1841 to 1891 are held at the Local Studies Libraries at Aylesbury and Milton Keynes, as well as centrally at the PRO. A table of 19th century census headcount by parish is printed in the VCH of Bucks, Vol.2, pp 96-101.

Availability of census transcripts and indexes.

• 1851 - Full transcripts and indexes for Buckinghamshire are available on CD-ROM, hard copy and microfiche from the Buckinghamshire Family History Society.
• 1861 - Available on CD-ROM with advanced search and mapping capabilities etc. from the Buckinghamshire Genealogical Society.
• 1881
  • Available on CD-ROM from the Church of the Latter Day Saints, as part of the National 1881 Census Index.
  • Available on CD-ROM for Buckinghamshire, with advanced search and mapping capabilities etc. from Drake Software.
• 1891 - Available on CD-ROM with advanced search and mapping capabilities etc. from the Buckinghamshire Genealogical Society.

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Church History

• Vicars of the Parish Church of St Nicholas

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Church Records

The original copies of the parish registers for St Nicholas, Little Horwood have been deposited in the Buckinghamshire Record Office in Aylesbury, and they hold the following years:

Copies or indexes to the parish registers are available from societies as follows:

* = material held in a Society library is generally available for loan to all members either via post, or by collection at a meeting

An ecclesiastical census was carried out throughout England on 30 March 1851 to record the attendance at all places of worship. These returns are in the Buckinghamshire Record Office and have been published by the Buckinghamshire Record Society (vol 27). The returns for Little Horwood showed the following numbers:

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History & Descriptions

Little Horwood was described in 1806 in "Magna Britannia" as follows:

LITTLE-HARWOOD, in the hundred of Cotslow and deanery of Muresley, lies about two miles and a half to the north-east of Winslow. The manor, which had belonged to the abbot and convent of St. Alban's, was granted in 1599 to Sir John Fortescue, whose son sold it to Sir Geoge Villiers. It was purchased of the mortgagees, of Geoge Villiers, the second Duke of Buckingham (of that family), by William Lowndes esq. ancestor of the present proprietor, who has taken the name of Selby. A capital mansion at this place, which had belonged successively to the families of Pigot, Styles, Carter, and Adams, is now the property and seat of the Rev. Mr. Langston: it was purchased by his father, Sir Stephen Langston, alderman of London, who died in 1797, and lies buried in the church, where is a monument to his memory. Mr. Langston has the impropriation of the great tithes, and is patron and incumbent of the vicarage. The parish has been inclosed by an act of parliament, passed in 1766, when an allotment of land was assigned to Mr. Kidgell Sandon, then impropriator of the great tithes, and a corn-rent to the vicar.

Names, Geographical

The name Horwood derives from the old english words horh, wudu, and means 'filthy' or 'muddy wood'. The name Little being used as a distinguishing affix

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Photographs

• Buckinghamshire Church Photos by Kevin Quick.
• Buckinghamshire Village Photos by Kevin Quick.
• Buckinghamshire Records and Local Studies Service - large collection of old photos of Buckinghamshire

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Taxation

• Poll Tax 1641 Cotteslow Hundred has been published by the Buckinghamshire Family History Society

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[Last updated: 12th January 2003 - Kevin Quick]