Stokenchurch
Parish Council

Our Village

A Brief History of Stokenchurch

Stokenchurch first appears in manorial records in the thirteenth century. In 1279 the manor of Aston Rowant included the hamlet of Stokenchurch. The name is derived from Anglo Saxon meaning 'the church made of logs', which may be a reference to a stockade around an early church to protect inhabitants from wild animals and marauding gangs of outlaws. Certainly parts of the present church date from the 12th century.

In the middle ages the area was wooded, with oak and ash trees as well as the native beech. Areas were cleared to provide fields for the cultivation of crops which were rotated with winter and spring sown crops and a fallow period.

For centuries the existence of the villagers remained unchanged. The main source of fuel in the towns and cities was wood and vast quantities of faggots - bundles of twiggy wood for burning - were shipped from the Chilterns to London.

Colliers Lane, in the valley to the north of Stokenchurch, had long been used as a drovers' road. The track was prone to flooding and, as a drier alternative, a new path over the hills through Stokenchurch developed. This became the main road to Oxford, running through the village, down what is now the bridle track to Aston Rowant at Westway Farm, and on through Church Lane to Copcourt and Tetsworth.

By the middle of the eighteenth century, Stokenchurch, at the highest part of the Chilterns became a natural place to change the horses of stage coaches after the long haul up from High Wycombe and the much steeper pitch up Aston Hill. This in turn led to the establishment of many of the pubs and inns in the village.

In 1824 the gradient of the road from Stokenchurch to Aston Rowant was made far less by diverting it's tracks to the west and following the route of what is now the A40. The presence of a road system meant that, in addition to firewood, locally built furniture could now be shipped to London. In the nineteenth century chair making and lace making were the local industries.

When the common was enclosed in 1861 under the General Inclosure Acts its use was reserved for the annual pleasure and horse fair on 10 and 11 July, to which great droves of Welsh ponies and Irish horses were formerly brought. In 1951, a far-sighted parish council was able to buy the commons outright, thus guaranteeing open space in the village in perpetuity.

At the turn of the 20th century the population of Stokenchurch and the surrounding hamlets was about 1500 souls. In the intervening years the traditional trade of chair building has largely gone. With the coming of the M40 in the 1970s, Stokenchurch suddenly became highly accessible with London and Birmingham no more than an hour away. Now, in the early years of the 21st century, housing developments in the village have pushed the population to around 5,000. Despite this growth an abundance of green spaces exists both within and around the village.