Contents Buckinghamshire  Nearby Places Lower Winchendon "Nether (or Lower) Winchendon. Old plastered cottages form a colour-washed village street enlivened with gardens in the umbrageous valley of the Thame. The lane afterwards climbs Barrack Hill to the north, between high hedges. Manor Farm, by the church (seventeenth century, with brick and timber gables), and the manor house, now Winchendon Priory (sixteenth century and later), near the Thame, are attractive buildings that have been altered a good deal, but with a careful eye for the old work and the rural surroundings. The church is in keeping." [Murray's Buckinghamshire Architectural Guide]

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.
"Murray's Buckinghamshire Architectural Guide." editors John Betjeman & John Piper, London, 1948
"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: Ashendon Hundred, Volume 5", Peter Quick and Bertrand Shrimpton.

Return to top of page

Cemeteries

War Memorials

War memorials in Lower Winchendon have been transcribed by Peter Quick and Bertrand Shrimpton, and published in a booklet entitled "War Memorials and War Graves: Ashendon Hundred, Volume 5", available from the Buckinghamshire Genealogical Society.

Return to top of page

Census

In 1642 there were 29 people named in the tax returns for contributions for Ireland. Between them they were assessed at £4.17.6 of which sum Thomas Tyringham contributed £4.17.6

In 1798 the Posse Comitatus listed 64 men between the ages of 16 and 60 in Lower Winchendon.

In the earliest government census of 1801, there were 244 inhabitants in 50 families living in 35 houses recorded in Lower Winchendon.

* = 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.

Return to top of page

Church History

• Curates of the Parish Church of St Nicholas

Return to top of page

Church Records

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

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 Lower Winchendon showed the following numbers:

Return to top of page

History & Descriptions

Lower Winchendon was described in 1806 in "Magna Britannia" as follows:

LOWER or NETHER-WINCHENDON, in the hundred of Ashendon and deanery of Waddesdon, lies about seven miles west of Aylesbury. A moiety of the manor was given to Nutley Abbey, by the founder, Walter Giffard, Earl of Buckingham. The other moiety, which had been the property of Robert Humet, constable to King Henry II. and had passed in marriage with his daughter and heir to Baldwin de Wake, was given to the same abbey in 1216. After the reformation, the site of the manor of Nether-Winchendon was granted to John Lord Russel, whose son, Francis Earl of Bedford, sold it to the Goodwins who in 1560 had a grant of the manor which had been reserved by the crown. From the Goodwins this estate passed in marriage to the Tyringhams, a younger branch of which family seated themselves here, and having survived the elder branch, became extinct in the male line, by the death of Francis Tyringham esq. in 1735, when the manor of Lower-Winchendon devolved to his sister Mary, and afterwards to his cousin Jane, who married William Beresford esq. and was many years lady of this manor, which she bequeathed to her maternal cousin german, the late Sir Francis Bernard bart. It is now the property and seat of his younger son, Scrope Bernard esq.

The Marquis of Buckingham has a manor farm in Nether-Winchendon, called the Marsh, which has been many years in the Grenville family.

The great tithes of Nether-Winchendon, which appears to have been formerly a chapel to Crendon, were given to Nutley Abbey by the founder. The parish having been inclosed in the reign of James the First, the lands have since that time been tithe free. Mr. Bernard posssesses the lay rectory, and is patron of the curacy.

Return to top of page

Names, Geographical

The name Winchendon possibly derives from the old english Winecan-dun and means 'Wineca's hill'. The name Lower being used as a distinguishing affix.

Return to top of page

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

Return to top of page

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