Recently I have become more and more interested in local history, in particular that of my hometown, High Wycombe. Fortunately Waterstone’s stock several books on the subject.

The book I’ve got is ‘Images of England-High Wycombe Revisited’ by Colin J. Seabright. It is a brilliant collection of photographs of Wycombe and the surrounding area from the past century and a bit. The accompanying text is a great read as well. Here’s part I of the brief history of Wycombe- from the towns beginnings to the foundation of Wycombe borough.

The valley of the river Wye has been occupied since the Stone Age and the hilltops since the Bronze and Iron Ages. Desborough Castle, later giving its name to the suburb of Wycombe and one of the Buckinghamshire hundreds was one of these settlements. The Romans later settled beside the river and built an extensive villa, as a certain commenter to this site keeps reminding us!

Like many (if not most) of the larger settlements in England, it all started because of water. In this case, the river Wye, for it could be used for two important things- power to drive the mills and a useful transport route to the Thames at Bourne End.

Our town was first recorded in 970 as Wicumun. Not quite Wycombe yet, but this was still the Saxon Age. A clue to the town’s Saxon roots remained in the town’s name until 1946- the word ‘Chepping’, which meant that a market was held there. ‘Chepping’ and the more common ‘Chipping’ town prefixes can still be found in England; the most famous is probably Chipping Sodbury. It is not entirely lost in Wycombe though, as Chepping Wycombe nowadays forms a civil parish to the east of the town.

Wycombe was on the rise; six mills were recorded on the Wye in the Domesday Book of 1086. The Norman’s built a church too, although the current church we see today was built in 1273 and heightened in the fourteenth century. In 1226, the town was created a borough and the market town of High Wycombe was born!

To be continued...

III © MMIX