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Section One The
Parish of Little Marlow Historical Perspective
Archaeological evidence points to the fact that there has been habitation and trade flourishing in Little Marlow for at least 3,500 years. The River Thames, of course, was the motorway of the times and it passed through the dense forests of the Thames Valley. The evidence shows that there was Bronze Age activity nearby, occupation by the Romans and, later, the Normans.
Beech Woods The Doomsday Survey of 1086 gives Little Marlow a mention, when the total value was shown as £7 for land under the Bishop of Bayeux, and £6 under Ralph and Roger. At that time we boasted a population of 235. Although it is difficult to make direct comparisons due to boundary changes over the years, the population had grown to 728 in 1801 and to 1,898 in 1981. Before 1894 it was, of course, the Church (parochial) Parish. The area of the Civil Parish has changed twice since then. It is interesting that the Doomsday book noted the amount of arable land in Little Marlow and that it remained constant for almost 800 years. It was not until early in the 19th Century that substantial area of woodland came under the plough. Other
annals of history have not passed us by. Residents of Little Marlow served, and
died, in both World Wars. The Black Watch, a regiment currently under threat of
amalgamation with other Scottish regiments and who served so gallantly in Iraq
in 2004, were inspected by their Colonel-in-Chief, Queen Elizabeth (later to be
The Queen Mother) when she visited the village on 23rd February 1944,
prior to the regiment’s engagement on the ‘D’ Day landings. Little Marlow today
Little Marlow Parish is an area of roughly 5.2 square miles bounded to the south by the River Thames, to the north approximately by the line of the M40, to the west it lies on either side of the Marlow By-Pass (A404) and to the east it borders the rural town of Bourne End. In simple terms, Marlow Town is to the west, Bourne End and Wooburn Green to the east, the Thames to the south and Wycombe & Flackwell Heath to the north. These are the boundaries for practical purposes; in fact, in various places, the limits of the parish may just cross the limits stated – Burroughs Grove is an example to the west. (See Section 1 – Reference Map for greater detail) Little Marlow Parish is geographically complicated because within that area there are distinct locations of development – Abbotsbrook, Burroughs, Coldmoorholm, Fern, Little Marlow village, Well End, Winchbottom & Westhorpe - each with their own benefits and problems. The village of Little Marlow itself lies just to the south of the centre of the area. Abbotsbrook To
the Eastern boundary of the Parish of Little Marlow lays a secluded group of
houses arranged, where possible, around a series of water courses which
eventually lead to the River Thames, and known collectively as the Abbotsbrook.
Abbotsbrook In the twelfth century a nunnery stood on the site before Henry VIII’s dissolution of the Monasteries in the 1530’s allowed the sale of lands which in turn would lead to Abbey Farm and eventually the Abbotsbrook, or the Abbey Estate as it was known in the early 1890’s. It was through the vision of one man, Haydn Tebbs an architect and property speculator, that the estate was formed and he built Priory Ford as his own residence in one of the most picturesque corners, probably between the years 1895-97. The reasons are unclear, but by 1906 Haydn Tebbs and his dream lay shattered as his creditors pressed in on him and in July of 1907 an auction was held in Maidenhead Town Hall for the sale of the whole Abbotsbrook Estate. A passage from the sales particulars gives a flavour of the unique aspect of the Abbotsbrook, at least as described by the auctioneer’s pen! ‘On the banks of the Thames at Bourne End the village of Abbotsbrook,
ripe now from many years of artistic labour devoted to it by the founder,
possess a rare, quaint beauty that has no like in Great Britain, or, indeed, in
the world.’ One
unusual outcome of the sale was that a Trust was formed to protect the character
of the Abbotsbrook Estate, a situation that still applies and the current
Trustees, drawn from owners on the estate, continue to ensure the beauty and
tranquility is maintained. Today freehold owners pay an annual due which is used
by the Trustees to maintain the roads, streams and infrastructure.
Tythe Barn, Abbotsbrook At
the turn of the last century, one of Tebbs’ key selling features would have
been the ‘beautiful babbling brook’ which rose from the watercress beds
where now Cressington Place and much of the A4155 now lies. Sadly, housing
pressure and The Bucks Water Order of 1965 has greatly diminished the natural
ground water source and the Abbotsbrook streams are now predominately fed by
compensation water from the pumping station in Wendover Road. Nonetheless the
streams are still there, as is the smallest working lock in England, and
continue to give the Abbotsbrook and its 97 properties a reason to be proud of
‘the rare, quaint beauty’ of the
1907 sale. Burroughs Grove and the North West Area Before
1972 and the building of the Marlow by-pass, Pump Lane was the main thoroughfare
from Little Marlow to High Wycombe and Burroughs Grove was a small hamlet at the
north western end around the area of The Three Horseshoes pub. After 1972 Pump
Lane was divided by the A404 into Pump Lane North and Pump Lane South.
Pump
Lane South The area comprises mainly farmland and woodland. There were three farms in this area: Handy Cross, Monkton and Woodbarn. Handy Cross and Monkton are tenanted from the Carrington estate, and Woodbarn was in private hands, firstly the Field, then the Barnes, and latterly, until it was sold for development, the Tillier families. The Morris family has farmed Handy Cross Farm for three generations. Monkton Farm is no longer a working farm, the buildings are let, and the nearby farmers farm the land. Woodbarn Farm and its buildings have been developed or restored into nine residential units. There
was a limekiln at the junction of Monkton Lane and Pump Lane, which supplied the
surrounding area. At that site also was the icehouse for the Manor House in
Little Marlow. Nothing remains now except for the old pit. The Three Horseshoes
pub at the top of Pump Lane North is long-established and now owned by Rebellion
Brewery, a micro brewery with its headquarters just outside the Little Marlow
boundary. A bottle recycling
facility has been placed by Wycombe District Council, without prior consultation
with Little Marlow Parish Council, at the junction of Pump Lane North and the
A4010. Despite being a dangerous
junction where more than one accident has taken place in the past. Ironically
this facility is mainly used by the inhabitants of Marlow Bottom (+
4,000) who do not have recycling facilities in the centre of their village,
whereas Little Marlow with a population of 1,100 has three! In spite of its proximity to the A404, the area has a very diverse flora and fauna. Most of the common species of bird are represented as well as some less common visitors .Red Kites are common. Muntjac and roe deer are about, as well as a very destructive and uncontrolled rabbit population. Coldmoorholme
Lane
The lane is a good example of “linear development” with houses and cottages, some dating back to the early 17th century, built along only one side of the road. There has been much debate about whether the name should be with or without the final ‘e’, to the extent that some 20 years ago each of the two name plates at the top of the lane spelled it differently. The original name for the area was Cold Moorholm so where the extra ‘e’ came from is uncertain. The route is of historic interest mainly because it provided access to Spade Oak Wharf on the riverside. In the middle ages this was an important stopping place for river traffic and, being part of the estate of the nunnery of Little Marlow, would have been run on a commercial basis by the nuns, receiving goods from London and exporting timber and country produce from the surrounding parishes. After the dissolution the wharf continued to prosper and by the end of the 17th century was shipping out large quantities of malt. Today the wharf is owned by the Thameside Preservation Trust and is a popular recreational area, although still used as a working wharf from time to time. At
the end of the 19th century the area was very popular with Londoners
travelling out of the city by train for a day out by the river, and one of the
attractions was Ye Ferry Hotel. It
was advertised in Kelly’s Directory of 1895 as “a riverside hotel for
boating, fishing and launch parties”. After
the First World War it was bought by a former gaiety girl of the Edwardian
stage, Muriel Maud Joycey who became Baroness de Satge.
She renamed it The Spade Oak, converting it into a wonderful country
hotel with a ballroom, swimming pool and children’s boating pond complete with
paddleboats. She was often to be
seen being driven into the village in her 1925 Minerva Saloon by her
gold-uniformed chauffeur. The ferry
that gave rise to the original name closed in 1956.
Ye Ferry Hotel “The Old Thatch” next to the pub attracts a good deal of interest for between 1929 and 1938 it was the home of Enid Blyton who, whilst living there, wrote 16 children’s books known as the Old Thatch Series. Several centuries ago this attractive cottage was a pub called The Rose and Crown. The
Coldmoorholm Residents Association was formed in 1974 to resist proposals to
widen and straighten the lane in connection with a planning application to
greatly enlarge the Spade Oak Hotel. Since
then, various attempts to change the character of the lane have been
successfully opposed, and it remains an attractive access to the Thames enjoyed
by locals and visitors alike. Fern A
small hamlet of little more than two-dozen dwellings lying just off the A4155 on
the lane that leads to Little Marlow cemetery. Fern, or Fearn, was originally
part of the wasteland of the Parish. In 1781 a workhouse was built at Fern (now
Fern House). In 1862 this became “a manufactory for the working of
satin-stitch and embroidery and other needlework” employing “above 200
females and a few males”. In the early 1900s Fern House was converted to a
private dwelling. The cottages were built in the early nineteenth century and
the cemetery consecrated in 1900. Fern Cottage was built for a game-keeper and
the other houses came after land was released for development by the sale of
Fern House in 1957. There is little scope for further development as the whole
area is surrounded by farmland. Several families have been in the lane
for 30-40 years. The gravel pit, currently a wasteland, was started at the end
of the nineteenth century and is now designated a site of special scientific
interest (SSSI) because of the interesting geology. Well End On the eastern side of the parish lies the settlement of Well End, which includes The Abbotsbrook, known in the Middle Ages as Fontibus de Merlow (Marlow Fountain). Old maps of the area, drawn up before the advent of the railways, show Well End to be a larger settlement than Bourne End which, in those maps, was called Bone End. The Black Lion public house still exists, the Blacksmiths Arms is now The Old Forge and Ye Ferry Hotel is now The Spade Oak (see under Coldmoorholme Lane) Over the centuries the village has been variously associated with lace-making (as a cottage industry), paper-making, farming, market gardening, ( including the production of water-cress on a scale sufficient to supply the London market) and the haulage of goods, including locally ground flour, coal and bricks from Kiln Lane, all moved by barge on the river Thames, which forms the southerly boundary of the parish. In the 18th century barges were drawn by manpower and work on, or associated with, the barges were a significant local activity. At about that time it is recorded that over 30 local men were working on the barges themselves and a number of others worked as wharfingers, many at Spade Oak wharf, at the southerly end of Coldmoorholme Lane. Evidence of the wharf’s more active commercial past still exists in the shallows. As the 19th century dawned teams of horses supplanted manpower on the towpath and their supply, provisioning, upkeep and stabling became a profitable local industry. Farming remained a staple of local activity and employment, a prominent example of which is Well End Farm, with its Georgian farmhouse, still in operation. In the past forty years the parish has seen an upsurge in the extraction of gravel in the area between Little Marlow and Coldmoorholme Lane, particularly in the 1960s. It is ironical to note that at that time a proposal to turn much of the former gravel pits area into a County Recreation Park failed for lack of public support. The village now consists of a number of 17th, 18th, and 19th century dwellings in Coldmoorholme Lane and along the Marlow/Bourne End highway, accompanied by a large number of modern houses built in the inter-war and post-war years. These latter testify to a fundamental change in the character of this part of the parish. Whereas in the past most of those who lived here worked in the vicinity, now, in common with the experience of many such settlements in the southeast, most working-age residents work elsewhere. The
success of The Parish Plan will depend on how we can reconcile the differing
needs of the diverse areas of the parish and produce a plan that truly reflects
the aspirations of all the residents in the area. Business in Little
Marlow
As one would expect in such a rural area the main enterprises were agricultural and forestry based but that has changed particularly in the last 5 years. The timber industry has been replaced with imports and small farms are no longer viable so landowners have had to seek alternative incomes, some seeking other employment and others re-using the land and buildings. The
larger companies left now include Lafarge digging gravel and making concrete,
Thames Water’s treatment plant and the head office for Lexmark office
supplies.
Lafarge Gravel
extraction workings There
are also an unusually high proportion of people running their own small business
from home, which gives the community a generally independent view usually seen
in one of the many hostelries. The
recently renovated Farm Shop in Little Marlow sells local produce ranging from
milk, eggs, seasonal vegetables, bread and meat within a 10 mile radius as well
as specialities from further afield.
Emmett’s
Farm Shop Summary - Introduction - Section 1 - Section 2 - Section 3 - Section 4 - Section 5 - Section 6 - Section 7
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03/07/2007 WebWork by Jonathan |
