Winslow History | News / events

Heritage Open Days
Friday 12 Sep 2025	Winslow History Walk: Tudor, Stuart and Georgian Buildings Click here for full details and to book a place	*Keach's Meeting House, 11:00*
Friday 19 Sep	Winslow History Walk: Victorian Buildings Click here for full details and to book a place	*28 High Street, 14:00*
Sat 4 Oct	Buckinghamshire Local History Network: Fire! Fire! Bucks on Fire! 300th anniversary of the Great Fire of Buckingham Click here for details and tickets	University of Buckingham

News

HOW ONE MAN TRANSFORMED A TOWN:
WINSLOW 1640–1770 AND WILLIAM LOWNDES

Why does Winslow Hall dwarf the rest of the town? Why is there a vast open space in front of it? Why has Winslow got so many houses with a mixture of architectural styles from different centuries? Why are all the farmhouses hidden away in the fields?

This book tries to answer those questions, starting with Winslow in the 1640s when it was a town of small-scale farmers and craftsmen and had two visits from Oliver Cromwell. William Lowndes went off to London in 1667 and soon made enough money to start buying up land in Winslow and knocking down houses. He turned the town into a place where one family owned most of the land, and built a mansion in a style Winslow people had never seen. Meanwhile the Baptists became very influential for a time and built their own meeting house. Lowndes family money helped to create a town full of doctors and lawyers who modernised their houses, and the market and turnpike road provided business for inns and shops. The open fields were enclosed and farmers moved out into newly built farmhouses.

The book’s 386 pages also include ten detailed studies of Winslow families and 28 photos and maps. It is available from the Bucks Archaeological Society (https://bas1.org.uk/) for £11 + £3.50 p&p. If you’re in Winslow you can get it for £11 direct from David Noy (16 McLernon Way, tel.711683, d.noy@btinternet.com).

The Bucks Family History Society has published a transcription of the Winslow parish registers 1560-1901 on CD-ROM: click here to order

A transcription of the Winslow Congregational registers, with lists of members and abstracts of some minutes, is now available from the Eureka Partnership.

Winslow books for sale:

David Noy, Winslow in 1556: The Survey of the Manor (Bucks Archaeological Society, 2013): £5
David Noy, Winslow Manor Court Books 1327-1377 and 1423-1460 (2 vols, Bucks Record Society, 2011): £10 (drastically reduced price)
Alan Wigley, A Window on Winslow (Winslow, 1981): £5 - this contains many historical photos of Winslow

Please contact d.noy@btinternet.com for more information.

Additions to website

7 Sep 2025	Will and obituary of Henry John Russell, mechanical engineer, 1893 (proved 1901): blacksmith and bicycle dealer at 3 High Street Will of Sarah Grace, widow, 1896 (proved 1901): widow of John Grace the schoolmaster, and a member of the Neal family of The Bell Will of Elizabeth Anne King, 1899 (proved 1900): lived at 10 High Street, widow of James King the auctioneer
5 Sep	Board of Guardians: outdoor relief and refractory Workhouse inmates, 1847-49
31 Aug	The Bell: article from the Sunday Express, 1966
10 Aug	Register of electors, 1884: over 140 names under the Third Reform Act, nearly trebling the number of voters in Winslow
2 Aug	Wills & administrations added for 1900-01 Will of Eli Goodger, brewer, 1898 (proved 1899): lived at 110 High Street Will of Joseph Turney, labourer, 1899: lived in Tinkers End Will of Saley Lamburn, widow, 1883 (proved 1899): lived at 33 Station Road Will of William Jones, innkeeper, 1865 (proved 1899): landlord of The Bull for 34 years Will of Thomas Hogg late of Nash, farmer, 1891 (proved 1897)
25 July	8 High Street: now has a full record of ownership and occupation from 1780s-1920s Winslow Hall: fete in 1940 to raise funds for the Service Comforts Fund and the "Dunkirk men"
14-15 July	Register of electors, 1841 Additions to 8 High Street
10 July	Administration of Selina Walker, spinster, 1896: a straw plaiter who left an incorrectly drawn-up will Will of Thomas Foster, labourer, formerly of North Marston, 1896
5-6 July	Will of John Grace, carpenter, 1888 (proved 1895): cousin of John Grace the schoolmaster, owned property in the High Street Will of Susannah Mitchell, spinster, 1891 (proved 1895): her money was in the Buckingham Savings Bank Wills and administrations 1897-1899
27 June	Victory Day celebrations, 1946: full report of the procession, crowning of the Victory Queen, etc.
19 June	Tinkers End brickyard: new information added
31 May	Stereoview photo of The George and 14 Market Square, c.1865 Winslow Hall: arrival of Brigadier McCorquodale and family in 1938 Station Brickyard: page amended and 1897 plan added
28 May	Will of Elizabeth Goodger, spinster, 1881 (proved 1894): had her own shoemaking business Will of Leah Walker, spinster, 1893
19 May	1846 additions to Board of Guardians and Workhouse Summarised will of Mary Gibbs Morecraft (1892)
14-15 May	Board of Guardians: outdoor relief and workhouse misbehaviour, 1846-47 Will of William Keys, gentleman, 1890 (proved 1891): retired coal merchant at 85 High Street Will of William White, retired huntsman, 1885 (proved 1891)
2 May	Court of King's Bench: Peter Stutsbery & Richard Phipps v George Norris, 1676
23 April	14 Market Square: valuation of fittings, 1882
15-16 April	The George: valuation of fixtures, 1876 Station Brickyard: valuation, 1882
11 April	28 High Street: valuation after the death of George Maydon, 1876
4 April	15 Market Square: valuation of household furniture, 1876 Henry Watts v Thomas Tomlyn, Thomas Illing and others, 1527-35: his opponents in court included Anne Boleyn and her servant Edmund Barton of Little Horwood John Boston v Henry Watts in a dispute about the tithes, 1531: Henry took cartloads of wheat and barley, presumably from the tithe barn
3 April	Richard Mandeville, active c.1400-1450: an early Winslow businessman who has come to light through newly indexed material at the National Archives John Boston (d.1558): numerous Court of Common Pleas cases involving him
30 March	Will of Thomas Ridgway, grocer, 1888 Biggin: new information about 16th-century occupants
25 March	Will of George Verney, labourer, 1887 (proved 1889): lived at 29 Sheep Street Will of Maria Ray, widow, 1882 (proved 1888): lived at 31 Station Road
21-22 March	Crooked Billet: valuation (1876) of all the contents down to the last glass Grace's School: new document showing his partnership with Mr Bond began in 1826
12 March	Guardians: outdoor relief and refractory Workhouse inmates, 1845
9-10 March	News from 1910 about Market Square (menagerie on display), Baptist Tabernacle, Old Post Office, Norden House, Night School, end of the Choral Society Opening of miniature rifle range in Park Road Telegraph posts in Great Horwood Road Redfield: cricket match v. Winslow Liberal meetings in the Oddfellows' Hall and Centenary Hall
7 March	Will of Edmund Edwin, gentleman, 1882 (proved 1887): tenant of Yew Tree Cottage
6 March	News from 1910 about 14 High Street, former Station Brickyard Railway: death of William Odell the porter Oddfellows' Hall: formation of British Women's Temperance Association branch Oddfellows' centenary celebrations Retirement of George Verney, Winslow & Fulbrook postman
4 March	News from 1910 about Don Slate Club, The Plough, The Rose & Crown, Board of Guardians, Brook Hall, The Bull, Keach's Meeting House, Winslow United F.C., Sheep Fair Article about the Gibbs family by A.J. Clear, 1910
1 March	Valuation of the goods of Charles Chaplin, 4-6 Buckingham Road, 1876

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