Upper Winchendon

Prehistoric flint flakes, Roman pottery and lots of Saxon pot has been found in the field north of The Limes. It is thought that a Roman road passes through Upper Winchendon, probably on the way to the A41. Some horse bone and Saxon style shield bosses were found south-west of the village at the Limes in the 1940s, suggesting a possible cemetery here, but these finds may have been confused with those at Waddesdon, Eythrope or Upper Winchendon. A boundary charter of 1004 mentions certain landmarks along the boundary of Upper Winchendon with Waddesdon, such as a named tree (Hundrythe Treow) where there was the meeting place or moot of the Waddesdon Hundred or Merwell, a spring and a mound known as Rugan Hlaewe that may have been a burial mound but its exact location is now unknown.

Upper Winchendon (also known as Over Winchendon) is recorded in Domesday and was part of Bernwood Forest from before this time. Bernwood had been a hunting forest from the time of Edward the Confessor. It grew to its largest extent under Henry II. The whole area was not covered by woods; in the medieval period a forest was a place where deer roamed for hunting and so included open land, villages and fields. All those who lived in the forest were not allowed to hunt or even gather wood without a special licence from the king. Bernwood Forest was finally disafforested in the reign of James I in 1635, although it had been shrinking in size since the time of King John (1199-1216).

There are medieval cultivation terraces or lynchets running parallel to the Winchendon to Chearsley road and it runs into an area of ridge-and-furrow. One of the fields in that area is called Gallows Hill and may have been the site of a gallows that is mentioned in 1286. Near the Manor House are some earthworks of the larger medieval village that was deserted before 1554. There are medieval fishponds there as well, but the earthworks have all been disturbed by later quarrying. A later pond at Decoy Farm was a pond for attracting and trapping ducks and is now in Decoy Wood.

Many of the listed buildings in Upper Winchendon date to the 18^th century. Winchendon Manor was a large 17^th century house but it was demolished in 1758 and its formal gardens, which were recorded in an 18^th century painting, may have been incorporated into Waddesdon Manor grounds. It was on the site of an earlier manor house, too. The oldest standing building in Upper Winchendon is St Mary Magdalene church, which also contains a 14^th century pulpit inside.

In later centuries a little industry even came to Upper Winchendon, with a brickworks and clay pits in Brick Kiln Field near Decoy Farm and a lime kiln near the White House.