Chenies History

A number of sites of Roman material have been recorded in the local area, including several villas. One villa was built at Chenies itself, to the north east of the Church. This was constructed during the last quarter of the 1st century AD, and with the addition of further rooms and a new bathhouse, reached its peak during the 4th century. The presence of late Roman mosaics highlight its sophistication at this time.

The Late Saxon settlement at Chenies was known as Isenhamstede, a name which may relate to its position on the river. The name probably derives from the ‘hamstead’ on the River ‘Isen’ – presumably the Saxon name for the Chess. The Domesday Book does not mention the settlement at Isenhamstead itself, which probably lay within the manor at Chesham.

After the Battle of Hastings King William gave the area around Chalfont to Maigno the Breton, a mercenary, who assisted him. It is probable that Chenies was included in this area, although there is no mention of it in the Domesday Survey of 1086.

The Domesday Book entry for Chesham however indicates that at the time of the Domesday Survey, it was held by Alsi, a lady in waiting to Queen Edith:

“Alsi holds 4 hides in Chesham from the King. Land for 9 ploughs; in lordship 1½ hides; 2 ploughs there. 10 villagers with 5 smallholders have 7 ploughs. 6 slaves, meadow for 2 ploughs; woodland, 800 pigs; 1 mill. The value is and was £4; before 1066, 100s. Queen Edith held this manor; she gave it to Alsi after King William’s arrival”

The first official mention of Isenhampstead is in 1165 when it was held by Alexander de Isenhampstead who held the manor for a knight’s fee.

Nothing exists of this first period of settlement, except some relics of a capital and font in the present church, St. Michaels, said to have come from an earlier church on the site.

The village was held by the Cheney family from 1180. The first of the Chenyes to own the manor was Alexander Cheyne. Upon his death, the manor passed to his son John (later Sir John).

A Medieval watermill, first documented
in the 12th century, lay to the west north west of the current manor house on the River Chess. Initially it functioned in Chenies as a ‘fulling mill’ for the cleaning of cloth, but over time it began to transition into paper making.

The church at Chenies, dedicated to St Michael, stands to the east of Chenies Manor. It is first mentioned in 1232, although elements of the current building date to the 12th century when John de Chednuit was appointed the first rector.

In 1285, with the death of Sir John Cheyne, who was Sheriff of Buckinghamshire and Bedfordshire in 1278, the manor was taken over by Edward I in lieu of a debt, and he spent time hunting here. At the time he also
held a nearby manor of King’s Langley, and Chenies became a ‘Chamber manor’ – a personal rather than an official possession. The manor was valued at £11 4s 3d at the time, and John’s widow Joan was allowed to draw a
pension from it.

Some documents survive referring to Edward’s ownership of the manor. The first of these is an order issued to the sheriffs of London to convey two tuns of wine to his royal cellar at Isenhampstead. This points to the presence of a
substantial manor house, probably built in stone, with substantial cellarage. A second document refers to a royal visit to Chenies before Easter of 1290. The Royal Court moved to Chenies from King’s Langley on the 15th of March, and accounts survive for the hiring of carts to carry the luggage, which included a cask of ale.

The manor house was given back to the Cheyne family, with Bartholemew Cheyne in possession between 1296 and 1316.

It passed to his son Alexander, who was in possession when the name of Isenhampstead Chenies is first used in 1321, probably to distinguish it from the nearby Isenhamstead Latimer.

Alexander was still holding it in 1346, but by 1350 it had passed to his son Sir John Cheyne. In 1371, Sir John, like his previous namesake, was also a Sheriff of Buckinghamshire and Bedfordshire, and a knight of the shire in 1373. He fell from grace in 1397, when he was condemned to death as a Lollard. His sentence was commuted to life imprisonment. His son John became the next owner.

John and his son Alexander conveyed the estate to one Sir Thomas Cheyne, of another branch of the family and Edward III’s shield bearer.

The present Manor House was built by Sir Thomas’s brother Sir John Cheyne in 1460. It was also known as Chenies Place.

From Cheyne to Russell

John died without issue in 1468, leaving the Manor to his widow. She died in 1498, and in her will, she left the manor at Chenies to her niece, Lady Anne Philip who took possession of the manor in 1500.

The original 12th century Church was replaced by the stone and flint building that we have today. It was built at the end of the 15th and the beginning of the 16th Century, probably by Sir David Phelip (elsewhere spelt Phillips), husband of Lady Anne. In his will he left four pounds “To fynyshe my building of the Parish Church of Chenies”.

On the event of Anne Philip’s death in 1510, the manor passed to her granddaughter, Ann Sapcote. Her first husband, John Broughton, died in 1518, and she remarried in 1526 – to one John Russell.

John Russell and Anne chose Chenies as their main residence – it had been recently modernised and lay close to Windsor and London. Much of the surviving south wing of Chenies Manor was probably built around 1530 during his ownership. During this time the village also grew and became considerably bigger than it is today, though there are still several timber-framed cottages dating from this period.

Henry VIII first visited Chenies Manor in 1534. He stayed for a week, during which time the King received an agent sent by the King’s governor at Calais. He was probably at Chenies on the 6th of July when he heard of the execution of Sir Thomas More. The King no doubt took the opportunity whilst at Chenies to hunt in the two parks belonging to the manor. The royal party left Chenies on the 10th of July, accompanied by Sir John Russell.

John Russell was a rising star at the court of Henry VIII. By the time of his marriage to Anne, he had been knighted, fought in the war in France and undertaken diplomatic errands and secret missions on Henry’s behalf. Henry visited the manor again in 1541 this time with Kathryn Howard, and the house was cited in her trial for treason as being the location of one of her trysts with Thomas Culpepper.

In March of 1539 he was created Baron Russell of Chenies, and was one of the executors of Henry VIII’s will upon his death in 1547. He continued to serve the crown under Edward VI. In January of 1550 he was created Earl of Bedford.

Chenies Manor is mentioned in Sir John Leland’s itinerary. Leland’s visit to the house probably dates to 1544, and he describes the house at Chenies as follows:

“The old house of Cheynies is so translated by my Lord Russell that little or nothing of it in a manner remaineth untranslated: and a great deal of the house has been newly set up made of brick and timber: and fair lodgings be new erected in the garden. The house is within diverse places richly painted with antique works of white and black”

John Knox paid a visit to Chenies, preaching his non-conformist views to the village which already strongly belonged to Lollardy. He very likely stayed in the Manor House.

John Russell was succeeded as Earl of Bedford by his son Francis in 1555. Unlike his father, he supported the reformers, as a result of which he was imprisoned during the early years of Mary’s reign, and then spent time in exile in Italy. The accession of Elizabeth to the throne saw him returning to court life.

The Bedford Chapel was built by Anne Countess of Bedford, Sir John Russell’s widow, in accordance with the provisions of her late husband’s will.

Elizabeth I spent four weeks at Chenies in July and August of 1570. Records suggest that a surveyor visited to establish what work was required to bring it up to a suitable standard. This included the construction of new cupboards, repairs to doors, stairs and the woodwork, possibly including floorboards. It may have been during this time that Elizabeth lost some jewellery beneath the shade of an oak tree in the grounds of the house (now named the Elizabeth Oak).

At this time the manor was at its peak. The new south range would have been completed, and there was accommodation facing the gardens to the north, an inner and outer courtyard, extensive gardens containing a separate accommodation block and state apartments fit for Royalty.

Francis died of gangrene in 1585 and was succeeded as 3rd Earl of Bedford by his grandson, Edward Russell. Francis’ debts at the time of his death exceeded
all of the money available and as a result much was sold to pay them. An inventory was drawn up listing 9 bedrooms of consequence, 3 kitchens, a buttery, a ewery, a bolting house and woodsheds. The armoury contained sufficient weaponry to equip 50 men. There were also numerous outbuildings. After this the house went into the gradual decline.

The 3rd Earl of Bedford, Edward Russell, was involved in the Essex area rebellion against Elizabeth. As a result of this he was fined £10,000 and placed under house arrest at Chenies. His wife joined him and amongst her visitors was the poet and author John Donne.

With the accession of James I to the throne the Countess of Bedford was made Lady of the Bedchamber for Queen Anne, and had to leave for Edinburgh. This marked a change in the Russell’s fortunes and Chenies was once more occupied.

The Countess of Warwick founded the Almshouses in 1605 to house older members of the surrounding area, including from Chenies.

The “Magna Britannia”, written in 1806 states:

“Anne Countess of Warwick, founded an alms-house at Cheyneys, in 1605, and endowed it with 50 l. per annum, for the support of ten poor persons, six of whom are to be of Cheyneys, two of Northall, and two of Wotton-Under-edge, in Gloucestershire.”

It eventually grew to house seventy two!

The family quit Chenies for good in 1608. The house was occupied by a Mr Vernon, who had been an employee of the estate for some time, until his death in 1622. A female
housekeeper was employed, and allowed to make money from the gardens and orchards.

The 3rd Earl died in 1627, leaving no children, and the title
passed to his cousin Francis Russell, the 4th Earl of Bedford who was heavily involved in the growing conflict between King and Parliament. Arrested in 1629, he was also one of the main opponents to the King at the Short
Parliament held in April 1640. He died of smallpox on the 9th of May 1641.

William, the 5th Earl of Bedford, and later the 1st Duke of Bedford (1624) fought first on the side of the parliament and then on that of the king during the Civil War between 1642-1646. Chenies Manor was garrisoned by the Parliamentarian forces during which time the Medieval undercroft may have served as a prison, as some of the graffiti inscribed on its walls is thought likely to relate to this period.

The Presbyterian rector Benjamin Agar at Chenies was among the 2000 ministers ejected from the Church of England under the Act of Uniformity in 1662, aimed at restablishing the authority of the church after the tumultuous Civil War and rise of non-conformity. His name can be read in the internet archives here.

“The Mills”, as they were then known, were rented in 1665 by the widow Farrow for £25.4.0d per annum.

The 1st Duke of Bedford died in 1700, and was
succeeded by his grandson Wriothsey. He was succeeded in turn by his eldest son, another Wriothsey, in 1711. The 3rd Duke died in 1732, with no direct heirs, and the title passed to his brother, John. At this time the Church was in a poor state. The chancel roof had collapsed and the chancel was closed off.

James Newton became a Licensed Dissenting Minister and two cottages in Green Street, outside the Bedford holding, were licensed as meeting houses. James Cannon also became a Licensed Dissenting Minister at Cheynes Lodge in 1708.

The Dodd family took a 99 year lease on the mill from the Duke of Bedford between 1711 and 1736.They continued making paper there until 1851 and it became known as Dodd’s Mill.

In 1728 the west wing of the current manor house was let as a farmhouse to Mr Henry Blythe, at a rent of £23 per annum. The south wing remained largely empty and suffered from weather damage. In 1735 the family steward at Chenies reported:

“Chenies Place is a very large old house, brick built with some very large and lofty rooms, but the apartments are not very regular and of no more value than to be pulled down. There is a great deal of lead and other
materials that would be very useful to repair a small box. It joins to the churchyard ”

A letter surviving in the archives owned by Elizabeth McCleod Matthews dated to 1746 describes the difficulty caused by the window tax. The iniquity of the window tax may have played a significant part in the decision to dismantle or abandon some of the buildings within the complex.

Horace Walpole visited the house at Chenies on the 28th of September 1749. By this time much of the complex was in a sorry state of repair. He talks of the house being built around three sides of a court, falling down in places and
with some of the roofs missing, although he does comment favourably on some of the stained-glass.

In 1760 the south range was divided into five tenements for farm labourers, with new doors inserted and an extra staircase added. The steward in residence, Mr John Davis, advised that the building be pulled down, a request refused by the Duke who instead embarked upon a restoration programme.

At this time the group of non-conformists meeting in Green Street had grown to twenty one and Mr John Davis, had identified himself with it.

Mr John Davis, grew increasingly dissatisfied with the Church rector, George Jubb, and drew up a lease granting the non-conformist Church part of an orchard, subject to six months notice, for the building of their new Baptist Meeting House. This he had bought from the Duke.

William Liberty, a relative of the family of Liberty’s of Regent Street, London, was buried in a tomb on his estate of which nothing remains. His tomb can be seen adjacent to the Chess Valley footpath (Mill Farm to Latimer).

On 8 October 1778 the new Baptist Chapel built on John Davis’s land was certified to the court of Quarter Sessions as a Place for Religious Worship for Protestant Dissenters. The formal vesting of the property was delayed until May 1779 when it was transferred by John to 20 trustees. ‘Kingscote’ was included in the deed, but the adjacent cottage, the present manse, remained the property of Davis whose tenant George Cooper was still living there.

In 1798 the Posse Comitatus listed 93 men between the ages of 16 and 60 in Chenies. By 1801, there were 423 inhabitants in 105 families living in 88 houses recorded in Chenies.

Ebenezer West, the then minister at the Baptist Church started a school “for 4 or 5 young gentlemen under 12 years of age”, together with his two sons, one of whom, Charles, (later Dr Charles West), was the founder of the Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children.

In 1829 the new Rector, Lord Wriothsley Russell, set about repairing the Church. During 1835-36 it was closed for major restoration, reopening on 23rd June 1836. Substantial repairs were also carried out to the surviving elements of the manor house in c. 1830, following occupation of an unreliable tenant. These were undertaken by the architect Edward Blore (who also
worked on St James’ Palace and Buckingham Palace) for Lord Wriothesey Russell.

In 1831 the first iteration of the current Chenies School was first held in Lord Wriothesley Russell’s kitchen in the Rectory from 1831 to 1846. Lord Wriothesley also started an orphanage for boys in what are now the Platt Cottages and opened the new burial ground opposite the Church overcoming some opposition by promising that was where he and his wife would be buried when the time came.

In 1840 an old Tudor building attached to the west wing of the manor was taken down and replaced with a new structure. Two bay windows were added to the west of the house in 1860 and the brewhouse was demolished.

In 1845 The Duke of Bedford instructed an Infant School to be built, this was what is now known as No 49 Chenies (Field Cottage), it carries a Bedford crown and the date 1845.

1846 The oldest part of the present school building was built on the instruction of Anna Maria, the wife of the 7th Duke of Bedford and there is a plan of this building in the minute book when formal records began with the formation of the School Board in 1887. It was built to educate the children on the estate.

After George Dodd’s death his widow Sarah continued to work the mill as a flour mill, and at her death the lease passed to her nephew John Boughton, a farm tenant at Chenies Manor.

In the period 1861–87 the flint facing on the Church was reworked, the porch to south door, the battlements, turret and flagstaff were all added. In 1886-87 the roof was raised and the present handsome hammer beam roof was installed.

The first mention of Cricket in Chenies was in 1878, with regular games and records kept. Chenies later joined with Latimer in 1909 thus establishing the Chenies and Latimer Cricket Club which continues on til this day. Initially playing in a field alongside Chenies Church (the Pightle), it later moved to it’s present location after the second world war.

A very special event celebrated in the school one Sunday afternoon was the presentation of a special frame made with wood from St. George’s Chapel, Windsor, with paintings of local scenes and the signatures of all the residents, to Lord Wriothesley Russell, on his Jubilee as pastor. Of the school it was written:

“Chenies has been called a model village, and certainly this was a model school. In these days of education, when every parish is trying to hold its own in learning, and aiming to perfect its machinery, how apt we are to forget the efforts of those who began this good work!“

The richly coloured windows of St Michael’s Church and the Bedford Chapel were made and installed by C.E. Kempe & Co.

Flour milling at Dodd’s Mill ceased in 1915, but the mill continued to grind animal foodstuffs until 1933. Rose Maling remembers:

“In 1926 my parents and family moved to the Mill House … By now it was used only for grinding corn for animal feeding. The house and the garden were very dirty and neglected … It was like stepping back in time as we had to use oil lamps once more and all cooking on a kitchen range (no gas). There was however a tap indoors and a drain from the sink. Also the wash house was outside with the copper”

During the 1930s, the school roll had dropped to just 10 pupils, making Chenies the smallest in Buckinghamshire and placing it under threat of closure. Chenies acquired 24 new children from Latimer, which subsequently rose to 50 by the outbreak of war in 1939, allowing the school to take on a second teacher to look after the class of infants.

World War II brought challenges to the village school, with the evacuation of children from London to the safer environment of Buckinghamshire. Emilie remembers:

‘Then came the war and evacuees and London (LCC) teachers. In one week, our numbers rose to 175 and the staff to six. In a room for 40 we packed 120 children, three in a desk, with two of us to instruct same. From September till May we struggled under those conditions. Perforce we had to take many combined lessons. Heretofore, the singing of my children had been rather weak and colourless. What a change when the LCC children joined in! Believe me everyone in Bucks could have known what we did to the drunken sailor!! No longer did any mistake in my accompaniment sound to high heaven….’ Emilie Life – retirement speech (edited transcript)

Mrs Emilie Life retired as Headteacher of Chenies School, moving out of the schoolhouse and building a new home – The Pightle – which was christened with bricks signed by pupils and staff.

When the 12th Duke of Bedford’s estate was split up and sold for auction in 1954 after he was accidentally shot in a hunting accident in October 1953, much of it was purchased by a property developer who hoped to be allowed to build more housing. However this was not allowed, and many of the properties were then resold to those who rented them. In this way some of the farms continued as they had been previously run.

There has been however a gradual ‘Gentrification’ of the farms, with many of the large farmhouses being converted to private residences, and old farm workers cottages and outhouses changed to housing. In this way the character of the village and its farms has changed dramatically.

Chenies Village Society formed in 1956, following the auction sale of the village by the Bedford Estate in 1954. The inaugural meeting took place on Tuesday 6th March 1956 in St Michaels Church.

1954 brought the closure of the village shop

The removal of nine elm stumps from village green was necessary due to Dutch Elm disease.