Village and civil parish in England
Hambleden
is a small village and
civil parish
in southwest
Buckinghamshire
, England. The village is around 4 miles (6.4 km) west of
Marlow
, and around 3 miles (4.8 km) northeast of
Henley-on-Thames
in
Oxfordshire
.
The civil parish also includes the villages of
Fingest
and
Frieth
, and the
hamlets
of Colstrope, Mill End,
Parmoor
, Pheasant's Hill and
Skirmett
. At the
2011 Census
, the population of the parish was 1,445.
[1]
St Mary's Hambleden SW aspect
St Mary's Ceiling Detail
History
[
edit
]
The village name is
Anglo-Saxon
in origin, and means 'crooked or irregularly-shaped hill'.
[2]
It was recorded in the
Domesday Book
of 1086 as
Hanbledene
, though previously in 1015 it was known as
Hamelan dene
. St
Thomas Cantilupe
, the
Lord Chancellor
and
Bishop of Hereford
, was born in Hambleden in 1218. In 1315 a
Royal charter
was granted to hold a
market
in the village, and a fair on
St Bartholomew's Day
(24 August) every year. The charter was reconfirmed in 1321, though appears to have not lasted much longer than this.
The village was a base for US soldiers during the buildup to
D-Day
in 1944.
Parish
[
edit
]
Hambleden was a large
ancient parish
, covering the area of the modern civil parish except for the village of Fingest. It extended over 6,598 acres (2,670 ha), stretching to Skirmett, 3 miles (4.8 km) north of the village of Hambleden, and Frieth 3 miles (4.8 km) north-east of the village.
[3]
The ancient parish became a civil parish in 1866. In 1934 a small area in the north of the parish was transferred to the parish of
Fingest and Lane End
.
[4]
In the 1980s the village of Fingest was added to the parish when the parish of Fingest and Lane End was abolished.
Village and church
[
edit
]
The brick and
flint
cottages in the centre of the village conform to a similar design and have
dormer
windows topped with red tiles. Saint Mary the Virgin's church dates from the 14th century and includes a conspicuous memorial to Cope D'Oyley (who died in 1633) and his family. The tower contains eight bells and the ceiling is quite intricately decorated in parts. The post office in the village serves also as the local shop and cafe.
Manor house
[
edit
]
The Elizabethan manor house opposite the church, formerly the home of Maria Carmela Viscountess Hambleden,
[5]
was built in 1603 of flint and brick for
Emanuel, 11th Baron Scrope
, who became
Earl of Sunderland
.
Charles I
stayed there overnight in 1646 while fleeing from Oxford. The Manor House, Hambleden is also the former home of
James Brudenell, 7th Earl of Cardigan
who led the ill-fated
Charge of the Light Brigade
. Another notable (Listed Grade II*) building is Kenricks which overlooks the cricket ground and was the previous manor house and the home of
Philadelphia Scrope
, a cousin and Lady-in-Waiting to Queen Elizabeth I. On her death in 1627 it became The Rectory and was altered in 1724 by the Rector Rev Dr
Scawen Kenrick
. It ceased to be The Rectory in 1938 and was acquired by the
3rd Viscount Hambleden
and renamed Kenricks.
Yewden villa excavation
[
edit
]
Yewden
, an archaeological site consisting of the remains of a
roman villa
, was discovered to the south of Hambleden in 1912. A contested theory was put forward by Jill Eyers from Chiltern Archaeology in 2010 that a military brothel might have formed part of the Yewden villa site, after archaeologists discovered skeletal remains of what appeared to be 97 newborn babies. The investigation features in the inaugural part of the archaeology series,
Digging for Britain
presented by Dr
Alice Roberts
.
[6]
[7]
The first part of the second series promised to resolve some of the controversy.
[8]
[9]
[10]
In 2012, an alternate theory for the presence of the infant skeletons was put forward; as the skeletons showed signs of cut marks carried out using a non-serrated blade, features consistent of
embryotomy
procedures used to remove deceased fetuses in
breech position
, it was argued that the remains may indicate that
obstetric surgeries
were carried out at Yewden.
[11]
Notable residents
[
edit
]
Saint
Thomas Cantilupe
was born in the old Manor House (now Kenricks) in 1218. He became
Chancellor of Oxford University
, Bishop of Hereford and Lord Chancellor of England. He was canonised by
Pope John XXII
in 1320 and was the last Englishman to be canonised before the
Reformation
.
Thomas D'Oylie
(died 1603), physician and linguist, was the
uncle of Sir Cope D'Oylie, whose memorial can be seen in St. Mary's Church. The Hambleden Estate was held by the Scrope family from 1365 to 1627.
Philadelphia Carey, Lady Scrope
was a granddaughter of
Mary Boleyn
, the sister of Queen
Anne Boleyn
who was executed by
Henry VIII
in 1536. The Estate was acquired in 1925 by
Frederick Smith, 2nd Viscount Hambleden
, who owned the adjoining Greenlands Estate. The Smith family sold the western part of the Estate in 2008 to the Swiss financier
Urs Schwarzenbach
.
Major General
Miles Fitzalan-Howard, 17th Duke of Norfolk
, lived in the parish until his death in 2002 and his widow
Anne
continued to live there.
Lord Cardigan
, famous for his role in leading the ill-fated
Charge of the Light Brigade
, was born in the Manor House in 1797. The sea chest that he took to the
Crimea
can be seen in the church.
Roger Marquis, 2nd Earl of Woolton
lived at Kenricks in the 1960s. Musician
Jon Lord
, of
Deep Purple
, is buried in Saint Mary the Virgin's churchyard.
Phil Vickery
, Rugby Union London Wasps player and England 2003 World Cup Winner, lived in Hambleden
[12]
Localities
[
edit
]
Mill End
[
edit
]
Mill End
is the southern small hamlet in the
civil parish
on the main
A4155 road
between
Henley-on-Thames
and
Marlow
, by the
River Thames
. Mill End consists of 32 houses, some on the river bank and others on the northern side of the main road. The largest historic home is at the heart of its cluster of buildings, Yewden Manor, listed grade II for architecture.
[13]
The name clearly comes from the mill that is situated near the lock, on the fast-flowing, narrow, high-sided Hambleden Bourne, which discharges here. Mill End Farm, which has been run by the Bowden family since at least 1965, is opposite the lock and has farmed most of the land in and around the southern Hambleden area. This part of the Thames is characterised by
willow trees
and a large
biodiversity
of wildlife including swans, grebes, ducks, herons, terns and
kingfishers
. The footpath next to
Hambleden Lock
, the public towpath, provides a significant amenity to Mill End.
Anne Petrie, daughter of the famous Egyptian archaeologist
Flinders Petrie
lived in Mill End; she is buried in Hambleden church-yard.
Landmarks
[
edit
]
In the Mill End part of the village are a watermill, lock and villa. Adjacent to the converted barns and the ordinary home named Mill House, which had served for centuries as home to the moderately wealthy miller of the district,
[14]
is the much larger, often-photographed
Hambleden Mill
,
[15]
which has been converted into flats; this is downstream of a pedestrianised weir from
Hambleden Lock
.
The site of an unusually immediately Thameside
Roman villa
[16]
adjoins the east of the development.
In Ridge Wood atop the hill opposite the village is a large avenue of giant sequoia and tall pine trees.
Nearby by the Thames
[
edit
]
Henley Management College
lies 0.6 miles (0.97 km) west and is also on the
Thames
.
Danesfield House
, a hotel and spa is 2.4 miles (3.9 km) east of the village on a hillside of the same relatively steep bank.
In popular culture
[
edit
]
Hambleden Lock is mentioned in Jerome K. Jerome's novel
Three Men In A Boat
.
[17]
Filming location
[
edit
]
The village has only one shop-cum-Post Office, and other properties have facades that are more in keeping with a traditional country village. This has long made it a popular shooting location for films, including
The Captive Heart
(1946),
The Witches
(1966),
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
(1968),
Death on the Nile
(1978),
The Legacy
(1979),
The Black Cat
(1981),
Dance with a Stranger
(1985),
101 Dalmatians
(1996),
Into The Woods
(2014) and
Disenchanted
(2022). It was also used in the opening scenes of the remake of
The Avengers
(1998).
Television
[
edit
]
Hambleden was used in the
HBO
mini-series
Band of Brothers
to depict
Easy Company's
training in
England
. Also, the
Tim Burton
film
Sleepy Hollow
, starring
Johnny Depp
and
Christina Ricci
, included a month-long location shoot at Lime Tree Valley, in Hambleden. In 1979 Hambleden church was the setting for a programme featuring
Harry Secombe
called
Cross on the Donkey's Back
. It was an Easter programme by Thames Television and also featured a group of school children from Hambleden C of E School.
The 2010 film
Nanny McPhee Returns
also used parts of the village in some of their scenes. The church was also used in the
Agatha Christie's Poirot
episode
Sad Cypress
.
[18]
In 2017, Hambleden was the location for the fictional village of Bramford in the fourth episode of
series 4
of the ITV detective drama
Endeavour
. Hambleden played the role of Tadfield, home of the Anti-Christ and his friends, in the 2019 mini-series
Good Omens
.
[19]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
a
b
UK Census
(2011).
"Local Area Report ? Hambleden Parish (E04001601)"
.
Nomis
.
Office for National Statistics
. Retrieved
21 November
2021
.
- ^
Hambleden
Archived
8 May 2011 at the
Wayback Machine
, GENUKI, 4 January 2003
- ^
Page, William
, ed. (1925).
"Parishes: Hambleden"
.
A History of the County of Buckingham: Volume 3
.
Victoria County History
. pp. 45?54
. Retrieved
24 September
2020
.
- ^
Great Britain Historical GIS
/ University of Portsmouth,
Hambleden AP/CP
. Retrieved {{{accessdate}}}.
- ^
"Viscount Hambleden dies in US, aged 82"
Archived
21 August 2014 at the
Wayback Machine
,
Henley Standard
, 13 August 2012
- ^
BBC
Baby deaths link to Roman 'brothel' in Buckinghamshire
25 June 2010
- ^
"Video Transcript: Digging for Britain. Britannia"
.
TVO.org
. Retrieved
25 June
2019
.
- ^
Hogan, Michael (13 August 2010).
"Digging for history... but it's not Time Team"
.
Daily Telegraph
. Retrieved
25 June
2019
.
- ^
P. Natasha (4 November 2018).
"Archaeologist Discovered Mass Baby Grave under Roman bathhouse in Ashkelon"
. Histecho
. Retrieved
26 June
2019
.
- ^
Louise Ord Assistant Producer, Digging For Britain (9 August 2011).
"Roman dead baby 'brothel' mystery deepens"
.
BBC News
. Retrieved
26 June
2019
.
- ^
Mays, S.; Robson-Brown, K.; Vincent, S.; Eyers, J.; King, H.; Roberts, A. (27 February 2012).
"An Infant Femur Bearing Cut Marks from Roman Hambleden, England: Cut-Marked Infant Femur"
.
International Journal of Osteoarchaeology
.
24
(1): 111?115.
doi
:
10.1002/oa.2232
.
- ^
Index
[
permanent dead link
]
- ^
Historic England
.
"Yewden Manor (1125694)"
.
National Heritage List for England
. Retrieved
8 June
2013
.
- ^
Historic England
.
"Mill House (Grade II) (1332087)"
.
National Heritage List for England
. Retrieved
8 June
2013
.
- ^
Historic England
.
"1-10, Hambleden Mill (1310707)"
.
National Heritage List for England
. Retrieved
8 June
2013
.
- ^
Historic England
.
"Roman villa at Mill End (1014601)"
.
National Heritage List for England
. Retrieved
8 June
2013
.
- ^
Jerome, Jerome K (1889).
Three men in a boat
(1964 ed.). London: Folio Society. p. 136.
- ^
"Poirot Locations - Sad Cypress"
.
- ^
Geddo, Benedetta (13 June 2019).
"See where Good Omens was filmed with an Armageddon-inspired trip"
.
Lonely Planet
. Retrieved
25 June
2019
.
External links
[
edit
]
Wikimedia Commons has media related to
Hambleden
.
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