RISBOROUGH HUNDRED 



BLEDLOW 



HUNDRED OF RISBOROUGH 



BLEDLOW 



Bledelai (xi cent.) ; BleJelaw (xiii cent.). 



Bledlow parish lies on the western boundary of 

 Buckinghamshire. It is nearly separated from the 

 other parishes in the Three Hundreds of Aylesbury by 

 a piece of Desborough Hundred, which lies between 

 the parishes of Bledlow and Horsenden. The southern 

 end of the parish lies on the Chiltern Hills, and is 

 called Bledlow Ridge, being between 600 ft. and 

 800 ft.' above the Ordnance datum. The lower 

 Icknield Way runs parallel to the line of the high 

 ground from north-east to south-west, along the north 

 and west sides of the parish, and the village and 

 church stand back from it about half a mile on the 

 lower slopes of the hill;. Close to the east end of 

 the church is a steep wooded combe called the Lyde, 

 in which several springs break out from the chalk and 

 form a small pool. The nearness of the church to 

 th: steep banks of the combe has suggested a local 

 rhyme 



They that live and do abide 



Shall lee the church fall in the LyJc, 



but fortunately this disaster does not seem very 

 imminent. The brook running from the pool is 

 called the Lyde Brook, and is used for two paper- 

 mills, BleJiow Mill and North Mill. The western 

 boundary of the parish is formed by Cuttle Brook, 

 which run< south to the River Thame. 



The higher slopes of the hills are in parts well 

 wooded, and in one of the open spaces, on the north 

 slope of Wain Hill, is the Bledlow Cross, cut in the 

 turf, and visible for miles as a landmark.* 



The village is picturesque, its small houses, sur- 

 rounded by gardens, lying for the most part along the 

 side of the hill, but there are outlying houses in the 

 lower ground on the side roads which join the 

 Icknield Way. 



The subsoil on the hills is chalk, and in the northern 

 part of the parish Upper Greensand and Gault. 1 The 

 surface soil is partly chalk loam, and partly stiff clay. 

 The inhabitants are mainly engaged in arable farming, 

 the parish containing 2,694$- acrcs of arable land, and 

 963 acres of permanent grass.' There are several 

 poultry farms, and in the Lyde there are watercress 

 beds. The paper-mills of Mr. A. H. James provide 

 occupation for part of the population. Both the 

 Upper and Lower Icknield Ways pass across the parish, 

 and the Wycombe branch of the Great Western Rail- 

 way runs through it, with a station one mile to the 

 north of Bledlow village. There are six hamlets in 

 the parish. Of these Bledlow Ridge has been formed 

 into a separate ecclesiastical parish since 1 868. The 

 other hamlets are Pitch Green, Rout's Green, Forty 

 Green, Skittle Green, Holly Green. The whole civil 

 parish contains 4,168} acres.* 



Amongst the vicars of Bledlow the name of Ti mothy 

 Hall (1637 ?~9o) occurs. He held the livings of 

 Horsenden, Princes Risborough, and Bledlow in suc- 

 cession, being presented to the last named in 1674. 

 Three years later he became rector of Allhallows 

 Barking. He published the Royal Declaration for 

 Liberty of Conic. ence in 1687, and the next year became 

 titular Bishop of Oxford. He was consecrated, but 

 the canons of Christ Church refused to install him. 

 On the accession of William of Orange he refused to 

 take the oaths, but yielding at the last moment retained 

 his titular bishopric until his death. 4 



In the time of King Edward the 

 MANORS Confessor, Edmer Atule, one of the 

 royal thegns, held the manor of BLED- 

 LOHT, and could sell it at will. 7 William the Con- 

 queror, however, granted it to his half-brother, Robert, 

 Count of Mortain, who held it in 1086.' William 

 the son of Count Robert joined the rebellion of Robert 

 of Bellesme against Henry I, and in conscqi-ence for- 

 feited his lands in 1104.* The honour of Mortain 

 was known in Buckinghamshire and the neighbouring 

 counties as the honour of Berkhampstead, 10 but it 

 seems probable that Bledlow was separated from the 

 honour, since it was held, at least from the time of 

 Henry II, from the king in chief," and not from the 

 varijus grantees of Berkhampstead." 



The privileges attaching to the honour of Mortain 

 however still continued in Bledlow. 1 * Henry II ap- 

 pears to have granted the manor to Hugh de Gurnay 

 before 1 177," but in I 198 Hugh made an exchange " 

 with the monks of Bee Hellouin in Normandy, by 

 which the manor passed to that alien abbey, and was 

 held in frankalmoign " in chief of the king. 17 



The priory of Ogbourne was an English cell of the 

 abbey of Bee, and the prior seems to have answered 

 for its English lands, and at times was described as 

 lord of the manor. 1 * 



During the French wars of the 1 4th and I5th cen- 

 turies the lands of the alien priories were seized by 

 the king, and Ogbourne was ultimately dissolved by 

 Henry V. He granted the manor of Bledlow to his 

 brother John, Duke of Bedford, 1 * who died in I435, 10 

 when it passed to Henry VI as his nephew and heir. 

 In 1462 the king granted it to his new foundation, 

 the College of St. Mary, Eton," the provost and 

 fellows of which college are at the present day the 

 lords of the manor. 



In the 1 5th century the Hampdcns, of Great 

 Hampden, held CORHJMS M4NOR in Bledlow 

 under the provost and fellows of Eton College." 

 Thomas Hampden died seised of the manor in 1485." 

 His grandson John Hampden settled it on his younger 

 daughter and co-heiress Barbara, the wife of Sir 



1 t'.C.H. Bueki. i, Geographical map. 



See y.C.H. Buck,, i, 189. 



y.C.H. Bucki. i, Geological map. 

 4 Inf. from Bd. of Agric, (1905). 



Ord. Surv. 



Diet. Nat. Bitg. M!T, 91. 

 ' V.C.H. Buck,, i, 143*. 



Ibid. 



. HIT*, ii, 165*. 



> y.C.H. Buclu. i, 111. 



" Cf. FnJ. Aidi, i, 85, 97, 113. 



11 Ibid, i, 107-31 i y.CM. Htrtt. ii, 

 165-7. 



' FtuJ. Aidi, i, 97. 



" Pipe R. 13 Hen. II, m. 9 d. 



** Hiit. MSS. Com. Rtf. U, App. i, 

 356* ; Auize R. 63, m. 19 4. 



" TIIU dt Ntvill (Rec. Com.), 145. 



247 



'? FeuJ. Aidi, i, 85, 97, 113. 



u Ibid, i, 113; Cat. Pat. 1381-5, 



P- 354- 



" Chan. Inq. p.m. 14 Hen. VI, no. 36. 



*> Ibid. 



11 Cat. Pat. 1461-7, p. 73. 



11 Eich. Inq. p.m. bdle. 51, no. II. 



" Chan. Inq. p.m. (Ser. l), niii, no. 

 47- 



