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 ...
district, south-east of
Princes Risborough
Princes Risborough () is a market town in Buckinghamshire, England, about south of Aylesbury and north west of High Wycombe. It lies at the foot of the Chiltern Hills, at the north end of a gap or pass through the Chilterns, the south end ...
, in the ceremonial county of
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. It is 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. ...
above the town.
The settlement was known as Leasy Green in the early 19th century. Hamlets within the parish include Loosley Row, Speen, Wardrobes and Parslow's Hillock.
RAF Bomber Command
RAF Bomber Command controlled the Royal Air Force's bomber forces from 1936 to 1968. Along with the United States Army Air Forces, it played the central role in the strategic bombing of Germany in World War II. From 1942 onward, the British bo ...
commandeered agricultural land for an airfield during World War II. The land has since reverted to agriculture, the school playing field and the village sports ground.
The church of St John the Evangelist was built in 1822–1825, at first as a
chapel of ease
A chapel of ease (or chapel-of-ease) is a church architecture, church building other than the parish church, built within the bounds of a parish for the attendance of those who cannot reach the parish church conveniently.
Often a chapel of ea ...
; the chancel was added in 1871 to designs of
J. P. Seddon
John Pollard Seddon FRIBA (19 September 1827 – 1 February 1906) was a British architect, working largely on churches.
His father was a cabinetmaker, and his brother Thomas Seddon (1821–1856) a landscape painter. Born in London, he was educat ...
, with coloured brick to the interior. The parish is within the area of the Risborough team ministry.
Primitive Methodists
The Primitive Methodist Church is a Methodist Christian denomination with the holiness movement. It began in England in the early 19th century, with the influence of American evangelist Lorenzo Dow (1777–1834).
In the United States, the Primiti ...
built a chapel on the main road around 1842, which remained in use until 2001.
The village has a shop, sports club, village hall and a primary school. There are three pubs: the Black Horse in the village, the Whip Inn at Loosley and the Pink and Lily at Parslow's Hillock. It is twinned with
Hambye
Hambye () is a commune in the Manche department in north-western France. Its inhabitants are called ''Hambion(ne)s'' or ''Hambyon(ne)s'' in French.Heston Blumenthal, whose parents used to own amusement arcades in the area.
Lacey Green windmill
Dated to 1650 by leading authority Stanley Freese, Lacey Green windmill is the oldest surviving smock mill in England and was restored in the 1970s, from a state of almost total collapse, by volunteers under the auspices of the Chiltern Society. The octagonal structure has a brick base carrying a weatherboarded timber frame; the sails are modern but the machinery is largely original. The windmill was designated as
Grade II* listed
In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...
in 1985.
Though it is widely believed that the mill was originally sited in nearby Chesham and moved to Lacey Green in 1821, no primary sources have been found to substantiate this and the Chiltern Society has been unable to trace the story beyond 1932. A somewhat speculative theory to perhaps explain the story's origin has been advanced by Michael Highfield, author of the Chiltern Society's guide to the mill. He recounts a conversation with a 96-year-old lady who had lived in the area all her life and remembered being chased away from "Cheshums Mill" as a child. The Mill had been in the Cheshire family since the 1860s and was sometimes referred to locally as Cheshire's mill, applying the Buckinghamshire dialect possessive suffix 'ums', Cheshire's becomes Cheshums.