Hide

Wexham

hide
Hide

"Wexham, the smallest parish in the hundred of Stoke, covers an area of only 748 acres, of which over two-thirds are permanent grass. The soil is loam and clay, the subsoil gravel, and the chief crops raised are oats, wheat and barley. Gravel is worked and ragstone is also found. The land rises gradually from 98 ft. above the ordnance datum in the south of Wexham to 228 ft. in the north. There is a fine view from the common extending over Berkshire and Oxfordshire to the Surrey and Hampshire hills. The village lies in the west of the parish and forms part of the estate of Wexham Park, a modern red brick house built in the Elizabethan style, the seat of Lady Pigott. To the north of the park are some farms, an old gravel-pit, and the houses known as Wexham Springs and Wexham Place. The church and rectory stand at some distance from the village in the south of the parish, with the old rectory to the east and Wexham Court, the manor-house, now a farm, to the west. A timber-framed outbuilding at Wexham Court appears to date from the 16th century and to have been originally a dwelling-house. There are three moats of irregular form." [© copyright of the editors of The Victoria Histories of the Counties of England]

Hide
topup

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.
"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: Burnham and area, Volume 13", Peter Quick.

topup

Cemeteries

War Memorials

War memorials in Wexham have been transcribed by Peter Quick, and published in a booklet entitled "War Memorials and War Graves: Burnham and area, Volume 13", available from the Buckinghamshire Genealogical Society.

topup

Census

In 1798 the Posse Comitatus listed 49 men between the ages of 16 and 60 in Wexham.

In the earliest government census of 1801, there were 172 inhabitants in 28 families living in 33 houses recorded in Wexham.

Census YearPopulation of Wexham
1801*172
1811*178
1821*154
1831*181
1841175
1851201
1861196
1871218
1881172
1891231
1901239

* = 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.
topup

Church Records

The original copies of the parish registers for St Mary, Wexham have been deposited in the Buckinghamshire Record Office in Aylesbury, and they hold the following years:

EventDates covered
Christenings1728 - 1982
Marriages1728 - 1978
Banns1754 - 1985
Burials1728 - 1984

Copies or indexes to the parish registers are available from societies as follows:

Event
Society Library*
Dates covered
Society
Christenings
1728 - 1938
Buckinghamshire Genealogical Society
Marriages
1728 - 1933
Buckinghamshire Genealogical Society
Burials
1728 - 1981
Buckinghamshire Genealogical Society

* = 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 Wexham showed the following numbers:

ChurchAttendance
Wexham, St Mary150 - Morning General Congregation
30 - Morning Sunday Scholars

150 - Afternoon General Congregation
30 - Afternoon Sunday Scholars

topup

Description & Travel

You can see pictures of Wexham which are provided by:

topup

Gazetteers

topup

History

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

WEXHAM, in the hundred of Stoke and deanery of Burnham, lies about four miles to the north-west of Colnbrook, and about a mile and a half to the north of the great road to Bath. The manor belonged to Merton Abbey in Surrey; afterwards to the Winwoods, from whom it passed by a female heir to the Duke of Montagu. It is now the property of the Right Honourable Lord Francis Godolphin Osborne, by bequest from the late Lord Godolphin. The rectory is in the gift of the crown. The advowson belonged formerly to the monastery of St. Mary Overie in Southwark. The learned Bishop Fleetwood, before his promotion to the bench, was rector of Wexham. During his residence at this place, which was from 1705 to 1708, he published his Chronicon Pretiosum. In 1708 he was made Bishop of St. Asaph.

topup

Maps

You can see maps centred on OS grid reference SU987822 (Lat/Lon: 51.530093, -0.578536), Wexham which are provided by:

topup

Names, Geographical

The derivation of the name of Wexham is not clear, it is possibly old english, being a persons name + ham, and would be a farmstead or village belonging to that person.