History
The Amersham of Yesteryear
By local historian, the late Jean Archer (Mayor of Amersham 1984 – 1987)
All photographs courtesy of The Amersham Museum
It was not often that a family living in Old Amersham in the days prior to the last war travelled far from the old town. Even a trip ‘up on the Common’ to a small child was considered quite an outing. So it was with me, and I was filled with pleasure when my mother began to bustle about her household tasks with added impetus saying “We shall be going up on the Common this afternoon.”
‘The Common’ that she and her contemporaries referred to at the time was not some gorse covered expanse, but usually the site of the few popular shops that had sprung up around the Amersham Railway Station since its construction in 1892. The Station Hotel (re-named the Iron Horse and now the site of new flats) and the Temperance Hotel (Amersham House, formerly the offices of Amersham Town Council) were among the earliest buildings.
Hill Avenue housed Profits, the photographers; Bennett’s shoe shop; Popes, the seed merchants; Savages fish shop; a jewellers; Geary’s musical instruments, a grocers and a butchers.
Here it was also that the dentist, Mr Wege, pulled teeth, hitherto pulled by Mr Haddon in the old town and by the end of the decade the glorious Co-op had arrived.
At the top blossomed Oakfield Corner, so named after the large oak tree that stood there in the last century.
The establishments here dealt with the more serious business aspects of trade displaying the large sign of the Bucks Insurance Bureau, the Bucks School of Driving and on this corner also, Mr Tom Collins the accountant had his office.
The Bucks Library was selling and lending books and the erudite atmosphere is still prevalent.
Sycamore Road was fast becoming the last word in ultra modernity with the comparatively new Regent Cinema opening its spacious interior to glistening realms hitherto unknown.
The rather sandy world of Mr Rudolph Valentino had been shown at the Playbox, in Station Road, later the famous Playhouse Repertory Theatre.
Down in the valley, the actual town of Amersham, although unable to boast such new innovations as a cinema or theatre, was still quite a large shopping metropolis with 56 trading establishments in the length of its main thoroughfare alone.
It was not until much later that part of Amersham Common acquired the rather grand name ‘Amersham-on-the-Hill’, perhaps because it was thought the very word ‘common’ was common in another sense.
In the last century Amersham Common referred widely to anywhere upon the hill and stretched away down Woodside and White Lion Road to the Drovers’ Pond adjacent to the White Lion Public House.
An Enclosure Act of 1815 dealt with the enclosure of the old common ‘And whereas the said open and common fields, common meadows, wastes and other commonable lands are in their present state incapable of any considerable improvements…’. At the same time public highways and public and private footpaths were established beyond dispute.
Enclosure was not a popular move, as hitherto the commons were an integral part of the rural economy, for whilst villagers worked the arable fields in strips, they supplemented their livelihood by grazing cattle on the common pasture, which consisted of meadows, woodland and wasteland.
Cattle were not allowed to graze on the common meadows from Candlemas to Lammas when the meadows were cropped. In the woods the acorn and the beechnut fattened the pigs for winter killing. Therefore the common was of the utmost importance and seemed to prove a successful experiment in communal life.
But the Enclosures Act, that enclosed the large fields or commons into smaller fields each with an individual owner, caused considerable disturbance and changed the face of the countryside – and they were not the only change and upheaval the people of Amersham faced in the last century. The railway was on its way; that great monster that rampaged across the country, polluting the air, and, it was thought, even causing pregnant cows to abort in sheer terror.
George Stephenson had planned the ‘London to Birmingham’ through Hillingdon, Uxbridge, the Chalfonts and the Misbourne Valley as early as 1835 but the many landowners along the route, including Squire Drake at Shardeloes, had objected so strongly to the railway crossing their land that the planners were forced to come up with another route – one to the north of Watford that exists today. And who could blame Squire Drake with glorious Shardeloes parkland sweeping down the Misbourne and landscaped by none other than the 18th century landscape gardener, Sir Humphrey Repton.
Ebenezer West from his school ‘for the sons of gentlemen’ at Elmondesham House in the High Street conversely went as far as to raise a petition in favour of the railway. It suited him nicely, as the railway would provide the parents of his boys with easy access from London.
Great controversy and argument reigned it was felt generally by the inhabitants that the advent of the ‘line’ would bring utter ruination to Amersham, a town of great former repute and renown.
So Amersham was without a railway until later in the century when the Metropolitan Line came creeping down from London in faltering stages. The line came through in 1892, across the common and up on the hill, thus placating the Squire, and the station was built in 1894.
On the common at that time were quite a few houses and farms of former repute, one of the oldest and most historical being Raans (now Raans Farm). Possibly rebuilt about 1540, it was extended in the 17th century by the Proby family, whose arms are to be seen above the entrance doorway. A most important local manor, it was granted to the de Mandevilles and tenanted by Jordan de Rane. This family acquired the Lordship which later passed by marriage to the Groves. In the 15th century it became the seat of the distinguished Brudenell family who held it until 1760. One Edmund Brudenell was Clerk to the parliament in the reign of Edward III, Attorney to Richard II and Coroner of England. He died in 1425. Another Edmund Brudenell, Knight of the Shire of Bucks, had a son, Dru, who served in the office of the High Sheriff of Bucks, and Robert Brudenell was appointed Kings Sergeant in 1505, then raised to the judicial seat in the Kings Bench and in 1521 was appointed Chief Justice of the Common Pleas.
After the occupation of the Proby family, the house was eventually purchased by the Duke of Bedford in the 18th century, and later sold to Lord George Cavendish passing to Lord Chesham.
Woodside Farm, thought by some to be the site of the old House of the Manor of Woodside was during the 17th century, the home of Mary Pennington , wife of the fearless Quaker, Isaac Pennington, and mother-in-law to William Penn, the founder of Pennsylvania. She and Isaac had previously lived at Bury Farm at the foot of Gore Hill, the road to Coleshill, and it was there that Penn courted her daughter Gulielma, but during one of Isaac’s many sojourns in Aylesbury Gaol, Mary was forced to leave those premises and purchased Woodside, which was in a very dilapidated condition, Mary spent a great deal of money on it and it is now the site of the thriving Amersham Community Centre in Chiltern Avenue. The Weller family were prosperous brewers in Amersham during the 18th and 19th centuries, ending up with 142 licensed properties (pubs) within a radius of 35 miles of Amersham and employing over half the population of the town. The prosperous George Weller built a mansion on Amersham Common called The Plantation (hence the name Plantation Road). This was eventually divided into flats and renamed Park Place and even later, was demolished and the modern flats built on the site by the local council bear the same name. The Weller dynasty ended in 1929.
Amersham was once a Borough, returning two members to Parliament until the Parliamentary Reform Act of 1832 when it was disenfranchised, Up until that time those returned were mostly members of the Drake family (Lords of the Manor) although Edmund Waller, the Poet, was returned for Amersham more than once in the 17th century, and the return of Algernon Sidney in 1656 caused a great stir, not to mention alarm. He later was beheaded for the part he was supposed to have played in the Rye House Plot.
E.K. Fowler, whose grandfather was landlord of the Crown, was present at one of the Amersham elections, and was highly delighted with the fun and frolic. It was the custom for the eligible females of the parish to assemble at the local hostelries awaiting the return of the successful candidates who rushed in and kissed them all. This ritual became even more robust when the young men of the parish were allowed in afterwards to follow the same practice amid great shrieks and protestations.
The candidates at the last election in 1832 were Squire Drake, and Colonel Drake (who had fought in the ‘Blues’ at Waterloo).
Two very large unhewn stones stood outside ‘the Market House in the public street where they were proposed’ and after the usual nomination, in very brief speeches, these two gentlemen returned thanks for their election. They then entered their carriages, each drawn by four horses which perambulated through the town, followed by a crowd of men, women and children cheering, shouting and dancing around.
No small wonder the loss of former status was lamented and such was the sadness felt at the coming of the railway that a threnody was published, edged in black and headed:
“In Memorium – Amersham
In loving memory of this old town, which departed this life virtually in 1832,
when it lost the distinction of being a borough.”
With countless verses it went on to bewail past glory and then:
“O Amersham! What voice is this that…
Wakes you up so rudely,
The line is coming through thy midst ere long
The Metropolitan Extension Railway
O turn aside, do not this cruel wrong”.
It did turn aside, just as far as the top of the hill, running along the crest, and leaving Old Amersham to bask and Amersham Common to grow and develop into the next century.
Amersham has received many famous visitors, one of the most noted being John Knox (1505 – 1572), the Scottish Reformer, who was sent on a preaching tour of Bucks during the nine days that Lady Jane Grey was on the throne. Amersham Church was his last stop on that tour and on 10th July 1553 he preached in the Church against Mary Tudor and in favour of Lady Jane. On 3rd August Mary Tudor was proclaimed Queen and Knox had to leave the country in a hurry.
Approximately a century later, Richard Baxter (1615 – 1691) the eminent ecclesiastical Divine, whilst being quartered at Amersham with Cromwell’s army, also preached at Amersham Church and had a dispute with various non-conformists. In his autobiography he mentions that the war of words went on until well into the night. He felt compelled to re-visit Amersham in 1673 when he became more than a little alarmed at the continued growth of Quakerism in the Amersham area and decided it was time for the people ‘to hear what was to be said for their recovery.’