Wexham

Many Palaeolithic implements have been found in Wexham parish. Lots of handaxes, flint flakes and cleavers were found at the Marble Head pit and in the pits at Langley brickworks. These were collected in the nineteenth and early twentieth century. Similar artefacts were found in a canal cutting at Langley.

Several cropmarks have been seen on aerial photographs. These include an enclosure at Rowley Farm that may date to any time between the Iron Age and the medieval period. Two enclosures near Wexham Park Lane are of an unknown date.

Some Roman artefacts have been found at All Saint’s Farm and there is thought to be a Roman road that runs from Chorleywood to the Langley Park area. A bank in Strawberry Wood, Black Park may be this Roman road or it could be the medieval parish boundary.

Other medieval remains include medieval fishponds and a moat at Trenches Farm and another fishpond in Stone’s Wood. Langley Park is first mentioned as a deer park attached to Langley Marish Manor in 1202. Recent surveys have identified some of the remains of the medieval structure of the park. There were other manors in this area, such as Groves and Southend Manors at Middle Green, recorded from the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Langley Park belonged to the crown but was given to one of its stewards, John Kederminster, in the early seventeenth century. A manor house of this date is somewhere in the grounds but was later demolished and replaced with the present mansion, designed by Stiff Leadbetter in the eighteenth century. The deer park was turned into a landscape park and many garden buildings survive, such as an orangery, aviary and dovecote. Some service buildings, like the stables, have been changed into dwellings. There was a Palladian garden temple in the garden, but this was taken down and an obelisk put up in 1865. This was then demolished in 1959 so all that remains is a concrete base.

There are a number of listed buildings in the parish, many of which are eighteenth century in date. These include Westmoor House, The Marish in Middle Green and Burnes Cottage. Elizabeth Cottage and The Lodge are slightly earlier, being sixteenth to seventeenth century in date. The oldest building is, of course, the parish church, St Mary’s. It was built in the twelfth century though has seen alterations since then.

The nineteenth century saw a lot of mineral extraction, and this is when the prehistoric artefacts were found, as mentioned above. The Slough Arm of the Grand Union Canal also runs through this parish and was opened in 1882. The British Cement Association also constructed a demonstration garden of concrete sculptures and garden features at Wexham Springs, some of which survives. The area saw a lot of activity in the Second World War, including Langley Park being used as the south-east regional headquarters of the Home Guard until 1944 and then for Polish troops preparing for D-Day. Black Park was also used as an ammunition depot and white stripes can still be seen on trees next to the lake to guide drivers who had to have very low lights during blackout. Because of all this activity there were a few anti-aircraft batteries nearby, one at Stoke Green in Wexham Street. Others were probably stationed around the parks.