Stokenchurch

A Lower to Middle Palaeolithic handaxe has been found somewhere in Stokenchurch parish and is the oldest thing to be found there. There is more evidence of activity from the Neolithic and Bronze Age. A possible barrow is known in Banky Burrowfields, although it has been ploughed. Pottery, flint flakes and cores have been found on the ground surface. There is another possible barrow opposite Bennet End Farm. Flint artefacts from have also been found in other places, such as the Neolithic axes found near Pophley’s Wood and one blocked into a wall at Tippings school. A Bronze Age ring-ditch, the ploughed out remains of a barrow, and another stretch of ditch were found in excavation at Chequers Manor Farm in advance of golf course construction. A Late Bronze Age to Early Iron Age cremation cemetery was discovered at Mill Road in the nineteenth century.

Several Roman coins have been found around the parish and a possible Roman road also runs through the parish. More substantial remains have been found near Hartmoor Wood, where there is evidence of metal-working as well as pottery and tile. Pottery and ironstone was also found at Blue Hills, Ibstone.

There were several manors in Stokenchurch, such as Wormsley, Mallard and Abefeld/Chequers. These would have all had manor houses but none survive. The remains of several settlements have been identified in field survey, such as a farmstead north of Wormsley, and enclosure or farmstead at Pomfrey Castle and another hamlet at Dell’s Wood. Thirteenth and fourteenth century pottery has been found in Dell’s Wood and it is suggested that the historical records of Pilseditch refer to the deserted village there. The fifteenth century pottery and roof tile suggest another farmstead existed at Highfield Shaw Wood. Historical documents record a hamlet with a chapel at Kingston Lilly or Linley. Nine medieval to post-medieval former county boundary stones are known around Cadmore End Common as parts of this parish used to be in Oxfordshire.

The oldest surviving building is St Peter and St Paul church, which dates back to the twelfth century. The church of St Mary-le-Moor at Cadmore End Common is nineteenth century. The oldest secular building is Kensham Farmhouse, which has fifteenth century origins. Other listed buildings date to the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The former school, Tippings, was founded for twelve boys in the seventeenth century.

There were many chalk-pits in Stokenchurch, mainly dug in the nineteenth century. The clay deposits were also worked as there were brickworks at Kiln Farm, Stokenchurch and Kiln Cottage, Cadmore End Common. Windmills existed at Mill Road, Stokenchurch (it was blown down in 1926) and in Commonhill Wood, where the mound still survives.