The earliest recorded social services in Chenies was the establishment of the Countess of Warwick’s Almshouses in 1603. The Countess of Warwick was a daughter of the 2nd Earl of Bedford, and she often stayed at Chenies after her husband died. The almshouses were built to house old people from three Parishes, four men and six women. The places were allocated as follows:
Two men and two women from Chenies, and the remaining six from the Countess’ estates at Wotton Underwood ) Gloucestershire) and Northaw and Cuffley (Hertfordshire)
An annual grant of £50 per annum levied from her estate, was payable to the trustees for the maintenance of the buildings and the old people. In 1638 the last remaining trustee conveyed the annuities, by indenture, to the Earl of Bedford, and others.
Instructions were given that “The honest and godly poor should be principally respected, and only chosen” and “that all to be admitted into the almshouses should be single persons, and not under the age of 50”, and “That none of the said ten poor should wander abroad to beg, nor keep an tippling within the said house, but that every one of then (having ability of body) should work and labour, within door, or without, as should be most fitting for them”.
However, in time the old people from Gloucester and Northaw decided that they did not like being transported so far away from their homes and friends, and they sub-let their places in the almshouses not once, but many times, so that by 1830, 72 people were living in the almshouses, the four from Chenies, (according to the rules), and 68 others, taking up the rooms only intended for 6! The trust was thrown into Chancery, and left to be dealt with by the Charity Commissioners, and in 1887 a new scheme was drawn up, so that the money was paid direct to the parishes concerned for distribution.
The almshouses were brought by the Duke of Bedford, the money going to the trust. He intended to convert them into cottages, “but the Duke having received some abusive anonymous letters about taking possession of the almshouses buildings, ordered that the whole of the buildings should be pulled down” this was about the year 1888, The fields in which they stood, opposite Little Greenstreet farm on the A404 remains. The Charity was taken over by the Parish Council in 1895, and is still paid to the people of Chenies.