Description
Ivinghoe, a small town and a parish in Buckinghamshire. The town stands on the E border of the county, on Icknield Street, under the Chiltern Hills, near the L. & N.W.R. and the Grand Junction Canal, 2 miles SSE of Cheddington Junction station, and 3 1/2 NNE from Tring; consists chiefly of two streets in the form of the letter T, and has a post and money order office under Tring; telegraph office, Cheddington; an ancient town-hall, which is used for monthly petty sessions, a church, Baptist and Wesleyan chapels, and charities worth £35 a year. The church dates from the time of Henry III., is a fine cruciform structure, with central tower and low spire, and contains a modern font in the 14th-century style enclosed in a beautiful baptistery, enriched with an oak parquet floor and a magnificent triptych representing the Incarnation. A handsome oak-carved' screen in the 14th-century style, with figures in carved oak of our Lord. and the Archangels, was added in 1894. There is a richly-carved oak pulpit, several monuments of the Duncombes, and an altar-tomb with recumbent effigies, long supposed to be for Bishop Henry de Blois, brother of King Stephen, but now believed to be for Peter de Chaceport, rector of Ivinghoe in the 13th century. A weekly market is held on Saturday; fairs are held on 6 May and 17 Oct., and the plaiting of straw is carried on. The parish contains also the hamlets of Aston, St Margaret's, and Ringshall, and parts of the hamlets Seabrook and Horton. Acreage, 5606; population, 1277. The view from the hills above the town is picturesque. A small Benedictine nunnery at St Margaret's, now traceable by only some inequalities in the ground, is commonly said to have been founded in 1160 by Bishop Henry de Blois, but appears really to have been founded by his successor, Bishop Giffard of Winchester. An old rhyming tradition says, respecting one of the Hampdens and the Black Prince "Tring, "Wing, and Ivinghoe Hampden of Hampden did forego, For striking of ye Prince a blow, And glad he might escapen so."
But neither the manor of Ivinghoe, nor that of Wing, nor that of Tring ever belonged to the Hampdens, so that the tradition is a mistake. Yet it has become memorable for furnishing to Sir Walter Scott the name " Ivanhoe " to one of the best of his novels. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Oxford; gross value, £340 with residence. Patron, Earl Brownlow. There are Wesleyan chapels in Aston and Horton.
