Great Missenden is an affluent village with approximately 2,000 residents in the Misbourne Valley in the

Chiltern Hills The Chiltern Hills is a chalk escarpment in England. The area, northwest of London, covers stretching from Goring-on-Thames in the southwest to Hitchin in the northeast - across Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire, and Bedfordshire. ...

Buckinghamshire Buckinghamshire (), abbreviated Bucks, is a ceremonial county in South East England that borders Greater London to the south-east, Berkshire to the south, Oxfordshire to the west, Northamptonshire to the north, Bedfordshire to the north-ea ...

, England, situated between the towns of

Amersham Amersham ( ) is a market town and civil parish within the unitary authority of Buckinghamshire, England, in the Chiltern Hills, northwest of central London, from Aylesbury and from High Wycombe. Amersham is part of the London commuter belt. ...

and

Wendover Wendover is a market town and civil parish at the foot of the Chiltern Hills in Buckinghamshire, England. It is situated at the point where the main road across the Chilterns between London and Aylesbury intersects with the once important road a ...

, with direct rail connections to London Marylebone. It closely adjoins the village of

Little Kingshill Little Kingshill is a small Chilterns village in the parish of Little Missenden in Buckinghamshire, England, with the closest amenities being in its post town of Great Missenden. It is just less than two miles south of Great Missenden, with its f ...

, and is a mile from

Little Missenden Little Missenden is a village and civil parish on the River Misbourne in Buckinghamshire, England. It is in the Chiltern Hills, about southeast of Great Missenden and west of Amersham. The village lies on the River Misbourne in the Misbourne v ...

and the larger village

Prestwood Prestwood is a village in Buckinghamshire, England. It is located in the Chiltern Hills, about two miles west of Great Missenden and six miles north of High Wycombe. History Early history and creation of parish The village name is Anglo Sax ...

. The narrow and historic High Street is bypassed by the main

A413 The A413 is a major road in England that runs between Gerrards Cross (west of London) to Towcester (northwest of Milton Keynes). It passes through or near various towns and villages including (in northbound order) Amersham, Great Missenden, ...

London to Aylesbury Road. It is located in the centre of the Chilterns

Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty An Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB; , AHNE) is an area of countryside in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland, that has been designated for conservation due to its significant landscape value. Areas are designated in recognition of thei ...

. The source of the Misbourne is to be found just north of the village, although the upper reach of the river runs only in winter and the perennial head is in

. The village is now best known as home to the late

Roald Dahl Roald Dahl (13 September 1916 – 23 November 1990) was a British novelist, short-story writer, poet, screenwriter, and wartime fighter ace of Norwegian descent. His books have sold more than 250 million copies worldwide. Dahl has be ...

, the world-famous Adult and Children's author.Lynn F. Pearso
Discovering Famous Graves
Osprey Publishing, 2008 In 2019 the village post town and postcode of HP16, which encompasses

, was revealed to be the most affluent place in England, with ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'' writing that "the least deprived neighbourhood in England is an area...near Great Missenden in Buckinghamshire, and a few kilometres to the south of the prime minister’s country residence at Chequers." ''

'' has also featured an article referring to how the village has been "prime stockbroker belt for over a century" and remarked favourably on its "grand piles tucked away in the folds of the Chilterns, all paddocks, ponies and leafy lanes, such as Dahl's, Martinsend Lane, or Nags Head Lane." The article also mentions its "ancient churches, beech woods, deep valleys, rolling Chiltern Hills, higgledy-piggledy streets. That's why Dahl chose to live here." ''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was fo ...

'', meanwhile, lists Great Missenden in its "List of Britain's richest villages." ''The Telegraph'' also ranked the village #4 in its "Best Places to Raise a Family in the UK" 2015 survey, describing it as a "gem of a town."

Etymology

The name ''Missenden'' is first attested 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 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manusc ...

as ''Missedene'', with other early attestations including the spellings ''Messedena'' and ''Musindone''.A. D. Mills, ''A Dictionary of English Place Names'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991), p. 330. The ''-den'' element probably comes from

Old English Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain, Anglo ...

''denu'', meaning 'valley', but the etymology of the first element is uncertain. It is thought to occur in the name of the

River Misbourne The River Misbourne rises in a field on the outskirts of Great Missenden in Buckinghamshire, passing through Little Missenden, Old Amersham, Chalfont St Giles, Chalfont St Peter and under the Chiltern railway line and the M25 motorway to its ...

, which rises in Great Missenden, and also in the

Hertfordshire Hertfordshire ( or ; often abbreviated Herts) is one of the home counties in southern England. It borders Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire to the north, Essex to the east, Greater London to the south, and Buckinghamshire to the west. For govern ...

place-name Miswell.

Frank Stenton Sir Frank Merry Stenton, FBA (17 May 1880 – 15 September 1967) was an English historian of Anglo-Saxon England, and president of the Royal Historical Society (1937–1945). The son of Henry Stenton of Southwell, Nottinghamshire, he was edu ...

and Allen Mawer guessed that it came from a hypothetical Anglo-Saxon personal name ''Myrsa'', which they also supposed to be found in the name of

Mursley Mursley is a small village in and also a civil parish in Buckinghamshire, England. It is located about three miles east of Winslow and about seven miles south west of Central Milton Keynes. The village name is Old English in origin, and is thou ...

Eilert Ekwall Bror Oscar Eilert Ekwall (born 8 January 1877 in Vallsjö (now in Sävsjö, Jönköpings län), Sweden, died 23 November 1964 in Lund, Skåne län, Sweden), known as Eilert Ekwall, was Professor of English at Sweden's Lund University from 1909 to ...

suggested that it came from a lost Old English word related to English ''moss'', and to Danish ''mysse'' and Swedish ''missne'' (which denote plants of the genus ''

Calla ''Calla'' (bog arum, marsh calla, wild calla, squaw claw, and water-arumDickinson, T.; Metsger, D.; Bull, J.; & Dickinson, R. (2004) ROM Field Guide to Wildflowers of Ontario. Toronto:Royal Ontario Museum, p. 62.) is a genus of flowering plant i ...

'', such as water arum). Recent researchers have tentatively preferred Ekwall's guess, in which case the name ''Missenden'' would once have meant something like 'valley where water-plants/marsh-plants grow'.

History

Great Missenden lay on a major route between the Midlands and London. Several

coaching inn The coaching inn (also coaching house or staging inn) was a vital part of Europe's inland transport infrastructure until the development of the railway, providing a resting point ( layover) for people and horses. The inn served the needs of tra ...

s, particularly the Red Lion (now an estate agency) and The George (with new owners), provided rest and refreshment for travellers and their horses. The first railway line in the area was, however, routed alongside the

Grand Union Canal The Grand Union Canal in England is part of the British canal system. It is the principal navigable waterway between London and the Midlands. Starting in London, one arm runs to Leicester and another ends in Birmingham, with the latter st ...

to the east. Once the coaches stopped running Great Missenden declined in importance and prosperity, becoming an agricultural village. Following the arrival of the

Metropolitan Railway The Metropolitan Railway (also known as the Met) was a passenger and goods railway that served London from 1863 to 1933, its main line heading north-west from the capital's financial heart in the City to what were to become the Middlesex su ...

, (later the

London Underground The London Underground (also known simply as the Underground or by its nickname the Tube) is a rapid transit system serving Greater London and some parts of the adjacent ceremonial counties of England, counties of Buckinghamshire, Essex and He ...

Metropolitan line The Metropolitan line, colloquially known as the Met, is a London Underground line between in the City of London and and in Buckinghamshire, with branches to in Hertfordshire and in Hillingdon. Printed in magenta on the tube map, the line i ...

) in 1892, Great Missenden became a commuter village for London with writers, entertainers and even Prime Ministers among the resident. Great Missenden railway station is now on the

Chiltern Railways Chiltern Railways, formally The Chiltern Railway Company Limited, is a British train operating company that has operated the Chiltern Railways franchise since July 1996. Since 2009, it has been a subsidiary of Arriva UK Trains. Chiltern Railw ...

line and offers fast and reliable services running into

London Marylebone Marylebone station ( ) is a Central London railway terminus and connected London Underground station in the Marylebone area of the City of Westminster. On the National Rail network it is also known as London Marylebone and is the southern te ...

; it is the first station on the line that does not fall into a London Zone. The village is overlooked by the

medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the Post-classical, post-classical period of World history (field), global history. It began with t ...

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britain ...

parish church, the Church of St Peter and St Paul, whereas the High Street itself is home to the Catholic Church of The Immaculate Heart of Mary, one of the largest Catholic churches in the Chiltern District. The position of the parish church away from the village centre suggests an earlier settlement around the church with a move of the village's heart to its present location in the early

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...

. In the twelfth century Great Missenden was granted a charter allowing it to hold an annual Fair in August.

Missenden Abbey Missenden Abbey (also referred to as Great Missenden Abbey) is a former Arrouasian (Augustinian) monastery, founded in 1133 in Great Missenden, Buckinghamshire, United Kingdom. The abbey was dissolved in 1538, and the abbey church demolished. I ...

, founded in 1133 as an

Augustinian Augustinian may refer to: *Augustinians, members of religious orders following the Rule of St Augustine *Augustinianism, the teachings of Augustine of Hippo and his intellectual heirs *Someone who follows Augustine of Hippo * Canons Regular of Sain ...

monastery, was ruined following the Dissolution of the Monasteries, and the remains were incorporated into a Georgian mansion which is now a conference centre.

Gipsy House Gipsy House (formerly Little Whitefield) is a house in the village of Great Missenden in the English county of Buckinghamshire. It was the home of the writer Roald Dahl and his family for several decades. The house is situated on Whitefield Lane, ...

in Great Missenden was the home of author

from 1954 until his death in 1990, and still remains in the family, and many local scenes and characters are reflected in his work. Dahl is buried at St. Peter and St. Paul's Church and children still leave toys and flowers at his grave. In June 2005 the

Roald Dahl Museum and Story Centre The Roald Dahl Museum and Story Centre is a museum in the village of Great Missenden in Buckinghamshire, England. Children's and short story writer Roald Dahl lived in the village in Gipsy House for 36 years until his death in 1990. Overview Th ...

opened in Great Missenden to honour the work of Dahl. Great Missenden, and its neighbouring village of Little Kingshill, is home to a number of celebrities and major figures in the world of finance and industry. It was home to actor

Geoffrey Palmer Geoffrey Palmer may refer to: Politicians * Sir Geoffrey Palmer, 1st Baronet (1598–1670), English lawyer and politician *Sir Geoffrey Palmer, 3rd Baronet (1655–1732), English politician, Member of Parliament (MP) for Leicestershire *Geoffrey Pa ...

, and his wife Sally still lives there. Model turned cookery show presenter

Sophie Dahl Sophie Dahl (born Sophie Holloway on 15 September 1977, later taking her mother's name for professional reasons) is an English author and former fashion model. Her first novel, ''The Man with the Dancing Eyes'', was published in 2003 followed b ...

(granddaughter of Roald Dahl) and her husband jazz musician

Jamie Cullum Jamie Cullum (born 20 August 1979) is an English jazz-pop singer, songwriter and radio presenter. Although primarily a vocalist and pianist, he also accompanies himself on other instruments, including guitar and drums. He has recorded nine stu ...

also own a property in the village.

Robert Louis Stevenson Robert Louis Stevenson (born Robert Lewis Balfour Stevenson; 13 November 1850 – 3 December 1894) was a Scottish novelist, essayist, poet and travel writer. He is best known for works such as ''Treasure Island'', ''Strange Case of Dr Jekyll a ...

, the writer of famous works such as ''

Treasure Island ''Treasure Island'' (originally titled ''The Sea Cook: A Story for Boys''Hammond, J. R. 1984. "Treasure Island." In ''A Robert Louis Stevenson Companion'', Palgrave Macmillan Literary Companions. London: Palgrave Macmillan. .) is an adventure no ...

'' and the ''

Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde ''Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde'' is a 1886 Gothic novella by Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson. It follows Gabriel John Utterson, a London-based legal practitioner who investigates a series of strange occurrences between his old ...

'', stayed a night at The Red Lion, now 62 High Street, in Great Missenden in October 1874, which he wrote in an essay called "An Autumn Effect". The espionage novelist David Cornwell, who wrote as

John le Carré David John Moore Cornwell (19 October 193112 December 2020), better known by his pen name John le Carré ( ), was a British and Irish author, best known for his espionage novels, many of which were successfully adapted for film or television. ...

, noted in a posthumously published introduction to a 2021 reissue of his first novel,

Call for the Dead ''Call for the Dead'' is John le Carré's first novel, published in 1961. It introduces George Smiley, the most famous of le Carré's recurring characters, in a story about East German spies inside Great Britain. It also introduces a fiction ...

, that "I lived in Great Missenden in those days and commuted to Marylebone station". The village is home to the private Gateway School, Great Missenden Combined School and The Misbourne

secondary school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' secondary education, lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) ...

. Many children attend the local grammar schools in nearby Amersham, Chesham, Little Chalfont and High Wycombe, as well as leading local preparatory schools such as Chesham Prep, which consistently makes The Tatler list of Best Prep Schools in the UK. Given its quaint and historic high street, the village has been used extensively as a filming location for TV drama ''

Midsomer Murders ''Midsomer Murders'' is a British crime drama television series, adapted by Anthony Horowitz and Douglas Watkinson from the novels in the '' Chief Inspector Barnaby'' book series (created by Caroline Graham), and broadcast on two channels of I ...

''. During 1980,

Hammer Film Productions Hammer Film Productions Ltd. is a British film production company based in London. Founded in 1934, the company is best known for a series of Gothic horror and fantasy films made from the mid-1950s until the 1970s. Many of these involve clas ...

filmed a small series of horror films for television, many of them filmed in and around Great Missenden. Of note is the episode " Rude Awakening" starring

Denholm Elliott Denholm Mitchell Elliott, (31 May 1922 – 6 October 1992) was an English actor, with more than 125 film and television credits. His well-known roles include the abortionist in ''Alfie'' (1966), Marcus Brody in ''Raiders of the Lost Ark'' (1981 ...

who plays an Estate Agent trapped in a recurring nightmare. The location of the premises used as the Estate Agent's office is located in the centre of the village. Nowadays the property is a

barbers A barber is a person whose occupation is mainly to cut, dress, groom, style and shave men's and boys' hair or beards. A barber's place of work is known as a "barbershop" or a "barber's". Barbershops are also places of social interaction and publi ...

Demography

At the 2001 UK census, the Great Missenden

electoral ward A ward is a local authority area, typically used for electoral purposes. In some countries, wards are usually named after neighbourhoods, thoroughfares, parishes, landmarks, geographical features and in some cases historical figures connected to t ...

had a population of 2,192. The ethnicity was 98.1% white, 0.7% mixed race, 0.5% Asian, 0.5% black and 0.2% other. The place of birth of residents was 90.6% United Kingdom, 1.5% Republic of Ireland, 2.8% other Western European countries, and 5.1% elsewhere. Religion was recorded as 77.7% Christian, 0% Buddhist, 0.2% Hindu, 0.1% Sikh, 0% Jewish, and 0.1% Muslim. 14.2% were recorded as having no religion, 0.3% had an alternative religion and 7.4% did not state their religion. The economic activity of residents aged 16–74 was 35.7% in full-time employment, 11.3% in part-time employment, 14.9% self-employed, 1.9% unemployed, 1.9% students with jobs, 3.8% students without jobs, 19% retired, 8% looking after home or family, 2% permanently sick or disabled and 1.6% economically inactive for other reasons. The industry of employment of residents was 13.3% retail, 11.6% manufacturing, 5.5% construction, 24.1% real estate, 9.7% health and social work, 8.8% education, 4.7% transport and communications, 3.6% public administration, 4.2% hotels and restaurants, 4.3% finance, 1.9% agriculture and 8.3% other. Compared with national figures, the ward had a relatively high proportion of workers in agriculture and real estate. There were a relatively low proportion in public administration, transport and communications. Of the ward's residents aged 16–74, 35.8% had a higher education qualification or the equivalent, compared with 19.9% nationwide. The Roald Dahl Museum and Story Centre - geograph

The Roald Dahl Museum and Story Centre - geograph

Parish

* Ballinger, located northeast of Great Missenden, between

Lee Common The Lee (formally known as just Lee) is a village in Buckinghamshire, England. It is located in the Chiltern Hills, about 2 mi north east of Great Missenden and 3 mi south east of Wendover. The Lee is also the name of a civil parish wi ...

and Ballinger Common * Ballinger Bottom, located northeast of Great Missenden, near South Heath *

Ballinger Common Ballinger is a hamlet and common in the parish of Great Missenden (where at the 2011 Census the population was included), in Buckinghamshire, England. It is situated in the nearby Chiltern Hills, close to the border with the parish of Chesham ...

, located northeast of Great Missenden, near Ballinger * Bryant's Bottom, located west of Prestwood, near Speen * Frith-hill, located east of Great Missenden * Heath End, located near the border with

Hughenden Hughenden may refer to: *Hughenden, Queensland, a town in Australia *Hughenden, Alberta, a village in central Alberta, Canada *Hughenden Valley Hughenden Valley (formerly called Hughenden or Hitchendon) is an extensive village and civil parish in ...

parish, near

Great Kingshill Great Kingshill is a small village in the parish of Hughenden in Buckinghamshire, England. It is located in the Chiltern Hills, about five miles west of Amersham and two and a half miles south of Great Missenden. The village name 'Kingshill' ...

* Hotley Bottom, located north of Prestwood *

Hyde End Hyde End is a small hamlet, in the civil parish of Great Missenden. it is located between the hamlets of Hyde Heath and South Heath along the B485 road between Chesham and Great Missenden Great Missenden is an affluent village with approximatel ...

, located between South Heath and Hyde Heath *

Hyde Heath Hyde Heath is a village in the civil parish of Little Missenden, in the Buckinghamshire district of the ceremonial county of Buckinghamshire, England. It is located in the Chiltern Hills, around northeast of the village of Little Missenden a ...

, located near

* Little Wood Corner, located south of South Heath * Mobwell, located in Great Missenden *

, large village west of Great Missenden * South Heath, located northeast of Great Missenden

Governance

Great Missenden civil parish is split between three South Bucks District Council wards: Prestwood and Heath End, Great Missenden, and Ballinger, South Heath and Chartridge; and two Buckinghamshire County Council divisions: Great Missenden and Chiltern Ridges. It is wholly within the Chesham and Amersham parliamentary constituency, represented since 2020 by Sarah Green, (Liberal Democrat).

Notable residents

Clement Attlee Clement Richard Attlee, 1st Earl Attlee, (3 January 18838 October 1967) was a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1945 to 1951 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1935 to 1955. He was Deputy Prime Mini ...

, former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom *David Cornwell (

John le Carre John is a common English name and surname: * John (given name) * John (surname) John may also refer to: New Testament Works * Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John * First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John * Second ...

), English novelist *

, English musician *

, British novelist *

, English author *

Patricia Neal Patricia Neal (born Patsy Louise Neal, January 20, 1926 – August 8, 2010) was an American actress of stage and screen. A major star of the 1950s and 1960s, she was the recipient of an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, a Tony Award, and two ...

, American actress *

, English actor *

, Scottish novelist *

Harold Wilson James Harold Wilson, Baron Wilson of Rievaulx, (11 March 1916 – 24 May 1995) was a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from October 1964 to June 1970, and again from March 1974 to April 1976. He ...

, former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

References

External links

Malt The Brewery - Micro Brewery in Prestwood making real ales, websiteGreat Missenden Parish Church websiteGreat Missenden CofE Combined School websiteRoald Dahl Museum official siteThe Misbourne School websiteAFC Lightning football club website
{{authority control Villages in Buckinghamshire Civil parishes in Buckinghamshire Chiltern District