Stokenchurch

"STOKENCHURCH, a parish in the hundred of Lewknor, county Oxford, 6 miles N.E of Watlington, and 7 N.W. of High Wycombe. Tetsworth is its post town. The village, which is scattered, is situated near Beacon Hill, on one of the highest slopes of the Chiltern hills. A large portion of the inhabitants are engaged in rush chair making. The shock of an earthquake was felt here in 1250. The Portway, or Icknield Street, passed through the village, on the line of which urns and other Roman antiquities were discovered in 1738. The hellebore, wood-barley, and other rare plants grow wild in the woods. The soil is of a chalky nature. The land is partly in common. The parish includes the hamlets of Beacon's Bottom and Water End. The living is a perpetual curacy in the diocese of Oxford, value £135. The church, dedicated to SS. Peter and Paul, is an ancient structure. The interior contains monuments of the Morley family, bearing date from 1401, also two brasses. It was restored by E. Lamb in 1847. The parochial charities produce about £30 per annum. There is an endowed school for boys, also a Sunday-school for both sexes. The Primitive Methodists and Independents have chapels, and the latter bas a Sunday-school. J. Brown, Esq., of Kingston, is lord of the manor." [The National Gazetteer of Great Britain and Ireland (1868) Transcribed by Colin Hinson ©2003]