Chepping Wycombe

This parish is south-east of High Wycombe. The oldest thing found in the parish was an Upper Palaeolithic handaxe found in the garden at Sedgemoor Cottages. The woods seem to be productive for prehistoric artefacts. Gomm’s Wood turned up 24 Neolithic to Bronze Age flint flakes, King’s Wood just one and Little Gomm’s Wood 97 flakes, three flint scrapers, a flint core and some Bronze and Iron Age pottery. Roman and medieval pottery has also been found at these sites. Little Gomm’s Wood is possibly the site of a medieval pottery and tile kiln. A possible Roman road passes through this parish, so it is likely that the Roman tile, coins and fragments of mill stone found at the former Hazlemere Turnpike represent a Roman building. A little Saxon material has been found, such as a metal stud in Little Gomm’s Wood. Saxon pots were found at Baytree Cottage in the early twentieth century. There were also three inhumations and one cremation burial.

As well as the possible medieval pottery kiln in Little Gomm’s Wood, there are records of other medieval industries in Chepping Wycombe, many of the watermills along the River Wye. These include thirteenth to sixteenth century records of Loudwater Mill and thirteenth to nineteenth century records of Robyn/Hochedes or Hedge Mill. The present buildings are slightly later at both these sites. There are thirteenth century records of Ashwells Manor, which was separate to that of Chepping Wycombe. A possible medieval bank and ditch and hollow-way were found in a survey of King’s Wood in Totteridge. A fourteenth century floor tile was found on Totteridge Common.

Several other mills were established in the eighteenth century, such as New/Bryants/Kings Mill, Overshot or Treadway Mill and Snakely Mill. This period became even more industrial and there are several mineral extraction sites in Chepping Wycombe, near Gorse Glade House, for instance, or on Flackwell Heath. A lime kiln was established in Magpie Wood in the nineteenth century and another kiln was recorded at a house called Straight Bit on a nineteenth century map. Another big change in the nineteenth century was the Bourne End-Wycombe railway, which brought a station to  Loudwater and a crossing to Juniper Lane and a bridge on Treadaway Hill.

There are two churches in Chepping Wycombe, St Margaret’s at Tyler’s Green and St Peter's in Loudwater. They date to the nineteenth and eighteenth centuries respectively. Many of the listed buildings in the parish are of a similar date, such as Tyler Cottage and the Crooked Billet. The Lodge on Rayners Lane was built in the nineteenth century as a lodge to Rayners, a nearby country house. One of the most exciting discoveries in the parish was a cannon, found in the entrance to Totteridge House.