You are here:
Great Missenden
Great Missenden photos
Displaying the first of 12 old photos of Great Missenden. View all Great Missenden photos
Great Missenden maps
Historic maps of Great Missenden and the local area, hand-drawn by Ordnance Survey and Samuel Lewis. View all Great Missenden maps
Great Missenden area books
Displaying 1 of 7 books about Great Missenden and the local area. View all books for this area
You can read extracts and browse photos from these books.
Memories of Great Missenden
No memories of Great Missenden have been shared yet - be the first!
Add your memory of Great Missenden
or of a photo of Great Missenden.
Buckinghamshire memories
The Chequers
At the age of 16 I remember picking cherries on the trees (still existing in the photo and just shown to the left of the picture) while being too embarrassed/shy to acknowledge the presence of my first "girlfriend", Valery, on her bike below.
The Chequers was my fathers local from the mid twenties until the mid eighties. He hardly missed an evening's visit during the whole of that time, so the Chequers became a rather "looming" object throughout my childhood, rather like a third (naughty) parent. But it did provide the odd Vimto and packet of Smith's crisps in the late forties/early fifties.
Prestwood Village
I was 12 and lived in Prestwood for about 6 months, Oct 41 to March 42. Lived at Delsyde, Hockley Road with my parents in the house of the Adams family including Isabel aged about 10 and Leslie about2, Mr Adams had a business in Wycombe in the tyre trade.
The landlord at The Chequers was a widow, cannot remember her name but she had a son at RGS Wycombe and I cycled to school with him a few times. At that time there was a brickworks in Prestwood and I went with Isabel Adams to watch bricks made by hand, that works was later used as a storage for war surplus. Great excitement when the greengrocer got a crate of oranges. There was a baker on the road to Missenden, bread made on the premises, he had a gas engine to mix the dough, speed control was by a 'hit and miss' governor. Someone must remember it. ... Read more
Childhood
My memory of Little Kingshill: I went to live with my aunty and uncle Mr and Mrs Kitchener in Ashwell Farm Cottage. My uncle worked up on Ashwell Farm. I used to sit out in my pram eating a bowl of veg. I went to Little Kingshill Schol, I loved it. Also I remember Daphne Heather in Heather's store. I remember Mrs Busswell, head of the school, also giving myself the best black eye ever by walking into a door at school. I would love to hear from anyone with more memories. EILEEN NEWTON
Two Weddings
My parents were married at Great Hampden church in July 1929, they were Neater Ruth Groom of Prestwood, and Harold Aubrey Hall of Beenham in Berkshire. January 4th 1956 Barbara Hall, their only child, was married to Reginald Frank Ridgley, also of Prestwood. My mother died in April 1994, the wild cherry blossom and bluebells were adorning the Glade as we followed her coffin up to the church, we walked that way so often in the years gone by. Dad followed her in Feb 1995, it was cold and grey, but there were a lot of people, sharing the memories of lives spent in this lovely area, and Rev Phillip Hill who conducted our wedding, and the dear old Vicar who was there in my childhood, walking round his Parish, visiting, always happy to talk.
As A Kid
My parents were from the area, Dad from Bryants Botom, Mum from Gt Hamden. They shifted to New Zealand straight after they were married, leaving all friends and family behind. Mum always talks about Chequers. As kids, me and my two sisters were lucky enough to visit and school for a while, me at Kingshill, Sally at Hamden School, and I'm not sure where Jane went. I remember it was a drought year and also lots of snow, sounds crazy, we had days off school because of the snow, the woods around Hampden were white. Dad worked at his brother's mushroom farm, we would play in the woods behind Dad's mum's place in Bryants Bottom, looking back it was the most awesome time for me as a 9 or 10 year old. We went back to New Zealand whre we live, I have lots of family in Prestwood, Speen, and around the area.
Pednor Riding Stables
I learned to ride at Pednor stables, run by Hilary with help from her husband. They had a motley but extremely well cared-for string of horses, which grew all the time. My favourite was a 4-yr-old exmoore called Kerry, who was sold and kept on ther in livery. Bubbles was cream with wall eyes...anyone remember the others?
Hilary has always been an inspiration and although I have not followed in her footsetps, latish in life I have begun to work with horses
Dunsmore People And Happenings Remembered
PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION
In 1995, when the first edition of this history was published, it seemed incredibly optimistic to have had three hundred copies printed for a market which was likely to be composed in the main of the residents of about forty properties. Ten years later the stock has run out and the opportunity arises to correct some of the errors which have become very obvious and to carry out a modicum of up-dating.
It came as something of a pleasant surprise to receive reactions from different parts of the world, from relatives of people who featured in the booklet and from others. Some of the photographs used in the original book are no longer available and of those informants who provided contributions to the original a number have died, reinforcing the view that the history of the common man must be collected sooner rather than later if it is not to be lost forever.
July 2009
DUNSMORE
PEOPLE AND HAPPENINGS REMEMBERED
