Great and Little Hampden is a

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...

Buckinghamshire Buckinghamshire (, abbreviated ''Bucks'') is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England and one of the home counties. It is bordered by Northamptonshire to the north, Bedfordshire to the north-east, Hertfordshir ...

, England, about three miles south-east of

Princes Risborough Princes Risborough () is a market town and civil parish in Buckinghamshire, England; it is located about south of Aylesbury and northwest of High Wycombe. It lies at the foot of the Chiltern Hills, at the north end of a gap or pass through ...

. It incorporates the villages of Great Hampden and Little Hampden, and the

hamlets A hamlet is a human settlement that is smaller than a town or village. This is often simply an informal description of a smaller settlement or possibly a subdivision or satellite entity to a larger settlement. Sometimes a hamlet is defined f ...

of Green Hailey and Hampden Row. Great Hampden is the ancestral home of the Hobart-Hampden family, the most famous of whom was the

English Civil War The English Civil War or Great Rebellion was a series of civil wars and political machinations between Cavaliers, Royalists and Roundhead, Parliamentarians in the Kingdom of England from 1642 to 1651. Part of the wider 1639 to 1653 Wars of th ...

protagonist

John Hampden John Hampden (24 June 1643) was an English politician from Oxfordshire, who was killed fighting for Roundhead, Parliament in the First English Civil War. An ally of Parliamentarian leader John Pym, and a cousin of Oliver Cromwell, he was one of ...

History

The villages were first mentioned in the

Domesday Book Domesday Book ( ; the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book") is a manuscript record of the Great Survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 at the behest of William the Conqueror. The manuscript was originally known by ...

of 1086, when they were jointly called ''Hamdena'' after the owners of the local manor. By the 14th century 'Hamdena' was split into the two villages, Great Hampden at the top of one hill and Little Hampden on the next hill, with the lush

arable land Arable land (from the , "able to be ploughed") is any land capable of being ploughed and used to grow crops.''Oxford English Dictionary'', "arable, ''adj''. and ''n.''" Oxford University Press (Oxford), 2013. Alternatively, for the purposes of a ...

forming the rest of the two parishes spread out in the valley between them. It was also at about this time that

Hampden House Hampden House is a country house in the village of Great Hampden, between Great Missenden and Princes Risborough in Buckinghamshire. It is named after the Hampden family. The Hampdens (later Earls of Buckinghamshire) are recorded as owning the ...

, the house belonging to the Hobart-Hampden family was rebuilt. After the death of John Hampden, a cross was erected just above the lane that leads from Hampden House to the nearby village of

Prestwood Prestwood is a village in Buckinghamshire, England. It is located in the Chiltern Hills, about half a mile west of its post town, Great Missenden. History Early history and creation of parish The village name is Anglo-Saxon in origin, and me ...

. Where the cross stands is reputed to be the spot where John Hampden stood when he first refused to pay the

Ship Money Ship money was a tax of medieval origin levied intermittently in the Kingdom of England until the middle of the 17th century. Assessed typically on the inhabitants of coastal areas of England, it was one of several taxes that English monarchs cou ...

tax in 1636. However the nearby village of

Great Kimble Great may refer to: Descriptions or measurements * Great, a relative measurement in physical space, see Size * Greatness, being divine, majestic, superior, majestic, or transcendent People * List of people known as "the Great" * Artel Great (bo ...

also claims to be the place where he refused to pay the tax. From the cross there is a view of the

Chiltern Hills The Chiltern Hills or the Chilterns are a chalk escarpment in southern England, located to the north-west of London, covering across Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire; they stretch from Goring-on-Thames in the south- ...

. Hampden himself is buried at the church in Great Hampden, in an unmarked grave. His first wife had a stone tablet in her honour erected in the

chancel In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the Choir (architecture), choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may termi ...

. In the 19th century the floor below this tablet was lifted and a body exhumed which was missing its hand and had had its shoulder dislocated. Due to the nature of Hampden's death at the

Battle of Chalgrove Field The Battle of Chalgrove Field took place on 18 June 1643, during the First English Civil War, near Chalgrove, Oxfordshire. It is now best remembered for the death of John Hampden, who was wounded in the shoulder during the battle and died six ...

near

Thame Thame is a market town and civil parish in South Oxfordshire, England, about east of the city of Oxford and southwest of Aylesbury. It derives its name from the River Thame which flows along the north side of the town and forms part of the ...

(he died as a result of an injury to his arm and shoulder) this was assumed to be the body of Hampden himself; however this assumption has since been challenged by other historians. Great Hampden church stands a mile or so from the village. Its isolation made it an attractive location for some scenes in the 1970 film

Cromwell Oliver Cromwell (25 April 15993 September 1658) was an English statesman, politician and soldier, widely regarded as one of the most important figures in British history. He came to prominence during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, initially a ...

. In more modern times Hampden House was used extensively by the

Hammer A hammer is a tool, most often a hand tool, consisting of a weighted "head" fixed to a long handle that is swung to deliver an impact to a small area of an object. This can be, for example, to drive nail (fastener), nails into wood, to sh ...

film studio A film studio (also known as movie studio or simply studio) is a major entertainment company that makes films. Today, studios are mostly financing and distribution entities. In addition, they may have their own studio facility or facilities; how ...

s as the perfect gothic backdrop for many of their films. The nave of Little Hampden Church was built in the 13th Century and a distinctive

half timbered Timber framing () and "post-and-beam" construction are traditional methods of building with heavy timbers, creating structures using squared-off and carefully fitted and joined timbers with joints secured by large wooden pegs. If the struc ...

porch was added in the 15th century. There are 13th century wall paintings of saints inside that were discovered in 1907, however they are incomplete due to a major rebuild of the chancel in 1859. Opposite the church is Manor Farm which is white plastered.

Gallery

File:Little Hampden Church.JPG, Little Hampden Church

References

External links

St Mary Magdalene's, Great Hampden

Map links

*Great Hampden *Little Hampden {{authority control Villages in Buckinghamshire Civil parishes in Buckinghamshire

History

See also

Gallery

References

External links

Map links