Contents Buckinghamshire  Nearby Places Ludgershall (including Kingswood and Tetchwick) "This parish covers an area of 2732 acres, of which 2347 are permanent grass and 199 acres arable. The land rises from about 200ft. above the ordnance datum in the north to an average of 300ft. in the south of the parish. The soil is loam and clay, the subsoil clay. Two brooks, rising in Muswell Hill, across the Oxfordshire border, water the north-west of the parish. Akeman Street passes through the north of Ludgershall, forming part of the boundary. The low-lying village, which is situated in the south-east of the parish is irregular. The cottages, of which several are of 17th-century origin, are scattered along either side of the so-called High Street, which leads to a large village green. The Wesleyan chapel built here in 1844 is now disused, a new brick chapel having been opened in the High Street in 1904. To the north and east of the village are numerous outlying farms. Close to it, on the south-west, is a station called Brill and Ludgershall, on the Birmingham section of the Great 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 Returns of the Census of Religious Worship 1851", Legg E. ed., 1991, ISBN 0 901198 27 7.
"Dictionary of English Place-Names", A.D. Mills, Oxford University Press, 1997, ISBN 0 19 28131 3
"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: Ashendon Hundred, Volume 5", Peter Quick and Bertrand Shrimpton.

Return to top of page

Cemeteries

War Memorials

War memorials in Ludgershall 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 1798 the Posse Comitatus listed 106 men between the ages of 16 and 60 in Ludgershall.

In the earliest government census of 1801, the following numbers of people were recorded:

• Ludgershall - 359 inhabitants in 90 families living in 59 houses.
• Kingswood - 37 inhabitants in 21 families living in 9 houses.

* = 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

• Rectors of the Parish Church of St Mary

Details of the stained glass in the church can be found on the following web sites (the site includes many photos):

• Buckinghamshire Stained Glass

Return to top of page

Church Records

The original copies of the parish registers for St Mary, Ludgershall 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 Ludgershall showed the following numbers:

Return to top of page

History & Descriptions

Ludgershall was described in 1806 in "Magna Britannia" as follows:

LUDGERSHALL, in the hundred of Ashendon and deanery of Waddesdon, lies about six miles and a half from Bicestre, in Oxfordshire, and nearly twelve miles north-west of Aylesbury. There was formerly an alien hospital or priory at this place, subordinate to the priory of Santingfield, in Picardy. Upon the confiscation of the property of alien priories, this hospital, with its lands, was given by King Henry VI. to Trinity College, in Cambridge.

The manor of Ludgershall was anciently in the baronial family of Traylly. William de Luder, bishop of Ely, who died seised of it in 1297, held it by lease for a term of years, under the Trayllys. In 1335, it was granted by King Edward III. to Sir John Molins, and it is probable that it passed, with his other estates, to the families of Hungerford and Hastings. At a later period it was in the Borlase family, from whom it passed, by a female heir, to the Warrens. It is now the property of the Rev. Claudius Martyn, whose mother (relict of the late professor of botany, at Cambridge,) purchased it in 1784, of the present Sir John Borlase Warren K.B. Mr. Martyn is patron also of the rectory, and incumbent.

The parish of Ludgershall has been inclosed by an act of parliament, passed in 1777. An allotment was given in lieu of tithes to the rector. Two-thirds of the tithes of the parish belonged formerly to the prior and convent of Bermondsey, having been given to that monastery by Geffrey de Traylly, in 1190.

Kingswood and Tetchwick are hamlets of this parish: Kingswood maintains its own poor.

The manor of Tetchwick was in the year 1614, divided between the three coheiresses of Sir William Hawtrey. Sir Henry Croke, who married one of these coheiresses, sold his share in 1615, to Robert Jenkinson, citizen and Merchant-Taylor, whose descendant, Sir Robert Jenkinson bart. conveyed it in 1703, to Edward Mitchell: after some intermediate conveyances, it is now the property of Mr. Hollier, who gives a deputation for the manor.

[Correction/Addition at the end of Magna Britannia states "Mr. Hollier has sold his share of the manor of Tetchwick to Mr. Betts, a farmer; the other shares are the property of neighbouring farmers."]

Return to top of page

Names, Geographical

• Ludgershall - the name derives from the old english lute-gar + halh, and means 'nook with a trapping-spear'
• Kingswood - the name is self explanatory i.e. 'the king's wood'
• Tetchwick - the name derives from old english and means 'the farm or trading settlement of Tota's people'

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]