Hambleden, Buckinghamshire

Description
Hambleden, a village and a parish in Buckinghamshire. The village stands near the river Thames, 2 miles from the boundary with Oxfordshire, and 3 1/2 NNE from Henley-on-Thames station on the G.W. R.; was once a market-town, and has a post, money order, and telegraph office. The parish comprises 6598 acres; population of the civil parish, 1557; of the ecclesiastical, 1507. The manor belonged to Earl Algar; passed to the Clares, the Badlesmeres, the Scropes, and the Claytons, and belongs now to the Murrays. The present manor house was built in 1604 by the Earl of Sunderland, and gave refuge in 1646 to Charles L, on his way to St Albans. There are several fine mansions, among which may be mentioned Greenlands, Parmoor House, Bacres, and Yewden Manor. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Oxford; gross yearly value, £880 with residence. The church is ancient and cruciform; seems to have had originally a Norman central tower; has now a western tower of 1721; includes portions of Early Decorated and Later English; was repaired in 1859, and contains a Norman font, some curious brasses of the Sheepwash family, and a fine alabaster monument of Sir Cope d'Oyley. The vicarage of Lane End is a separate benefice. Skirmett is a hamlet 2 miles to the N, where there is a small church, erected in 1886. Other adjacent hamlets are Frieth, where there is a church. Mile End, Parmoor, Pheasant Hill, where there is a Congregational chapel, and Rockwell End. St Thomas Cantilupe was a native, and the second Lord Sandes was buried in the church.