Winslow History | News / events

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

23 April 2025	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
28 Feb	Letter sent to Rebecca Wyatt in 1839
23 Feb	Station Brickyard: valuation and accounts, 1877-83
20 Feb	Will of Richard Coxill, cooper, 1877 (proved 1879) Will of John Woodward of Shipton, farmer, 1875 (proved 1880): tenant of Red Hall Farm
17 Feb	Will of Emily Minter, matron of Winslow Union, 1883 (proved 1886) Will of Joanna Chaplin, widow, 1880: owner of 4-6 Buckingham Road Wills and administrations 1887-1890
9 Feb	Letter of Henry Wigley to Poor Law Board in support of W.H. Lomath, 1865 Workhouse: inspector's report, Dec 1865
4 Feb	Will of Mildred Anne Maydon, wife of George Maydon, 1868 (proved 1885): she was left £1,000 by an uncle which enabled her to make a will before the Married Women's Property Act Will of Charles Elley, baker, 1879 (proved 1880)
31 Jan	Will of Ann Badley Dudley, spinster, 1864 (proved 1885): from the Dudley family of drapers Will of Rebecca Foxley of Padbury, widow, 1900 (proved 1901): proprietor of the Station Brickyard
26-27 Jan	Guardians: Daniel Grace in trouble with the Poor Law Board, 1864 Workhouse: inspector's report, 1865
19 Jan 2025	Workhouse: discussion of inmates' bedtime and inspector's report, Nov 1851
15 Jan	Workhouse: resignation of schoolmistress and schoolmaster, 1851
13 Jan	Will of Richard Gibbs, builder, 1878 Will of William Matthews, builder, 1862 (proved 1878)
3 Jan	Workhouse: inspector's report, 1851
31 Dec 2024	New page: Station Brickyard: operated c.1865-1906; site now designated for housing but not yet built on
19 Dec	Will of William Keys, gardener, 1867 Will of William Stevens, stud groom, 1875
12 Dec	Workhouse: more correspondence with Charles Maffey, who is told to pay up
7 Dec	Will of Sarah Harris, spinster, 1874 (proved 1875): lived at 2 Church Street Will of Thomas Sheppard, farmer, 1872 (proved 1874): lived at 186 High Street
29 Nov	Workhouse: Charles Maffey's version of the James Spicer scandal
26 Nov	Memorial window for Dorothy Lambton, 1957 Will of George Yeulet, carrier and dealer in coal, 1862 (proved 1865): landlord of the Black Horse Will of Kitty Staniford, spinster, 1863 (proved 1864): left everything to her daughter Report on poor housing, 1865, quoted by Karl Marx: Winslow has its own paragraph in Das Kapital
22-23 Nov	Will of George Roads, carpenter, 1865: he left his property to his housekeeper Administration of Fanny Bynes otherwise Couché, 1862: a wealthy 17-year-old, probably at school in Winslow Will of Elizabeth Todd, spinster, 1857 (proved 1858): proprietor of Brook Hall School
19 Nov	Guardians: case of Alfred Toms, thrown out by his stepfather, 1851
18 Nov	Will of Ann Jones (formerly Bowler, née Hazzard), widow, 1875 (proved 1877) Will of Catherine Holt, widow, 1866 (proved 1871) Will of Charles Chaplin, gentleman, 1868 (proved 1876): a retired footman who seems to have come into money
5 Nov	Church: fund-raising for two new bells, 1955
3 Nov	Wills and administrations 1883-1886
1 Nov	Will of Ann Green, widow, 1866 (proved 1867): owner of a house and cottage in Horn Street Will of Reverend Charles Kerr, 1869