Loosley Row is a
hamlet
''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play, with 29,551 words. Set in Denmark, the play depicts ...
in the
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 below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authorit ...
of
Lacey Green
Lacey may refer to:
People Surname A–L
* Andrew Lacey (1887–1946), Australian politician
* Bill Lacey (American football) (born 1971), American football player and coach
* Bill Lacey (footballer) (1889–1969), Irish footballer
* Bob Lacey ...
,
Buckinghamshire, England. It is located in the
Chiltern Hills to the east of the main town of Princes Risborough. In the
2011 Census, the population was recorded in the Lacey Green Parish, which included
Speen, parts of
Walter's Ash, and Lacey Green, with a combined population of 2,559.
The hamlet sits on a west-facing chalk escarpment, that stretches to north-eastwards to
Coombe Hill.
History
The hamlet name derives from the
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 settlers in the mid-5th c ...
''hlose-leah'', and means 'pigstye-clearing'. It is often said that the hamlet was named after the Loosley family but it is, in fact, the other way round - the family was named after the place.
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 manus ...
talks of the large number of
pig
The pig (''Sus domesticus''), often called swine, hog, or domestic pig when distinguishing from other members of the genus '' Sus'', is an omnivorous, domesticated, even-toed, hoofed mammal. It is variously considered a subspecies of ''Sus ...
s at (Princes) Risborough. Pigs were often found in clearings at the edges of the woods, the animals allowed to wander through sectioned areas of the woods. The row of piggeries in the lea of the woods became the start of a settlement called Loosley Row. Loosley Row stretched from Brimmer's Farm, east of Princes Risborough, round the side of the hill to the hamlet we know today. It included Wardrobes farm and Wardrobes House. The old township of Loosley Row, stretched over to
Bledlow Ridge
Bledlow Ridge is a village in the civil parish of Bledlow-cum-Saunderton in Buckinghamshire, England. In 2004 the population was 940. It is situated in the Chiltern Hills, about 4 miles SSW of Princes Risborough and on the road between the High ...
, across what is now the
A4010 road.
The underlying geology consists of
chalk
Chalk is a soft, white, porous, sedimentary carbonate rock. It is a form of limestone composed of the mineral calcite and originally formed deep under the sea by the compression of microscopic plankton that had settled to the sea floor. Ch ...
which typifies the area around Princes Risborough. Loosley Row sits as the south end of a chalk escarpment that runs south-westwards from Coombe Hill to Loosley Row and affords good views of the Vale of Aylesbury to the west.
The hamlet used to have a chapel, a school, a village store, a bakery and a post office, but these have all now been closed (the school was shut down in 1916). The hamlet also has a dried up parish well, which is situated on what is claimed to be the smallest patch of common land in the
Chilterns. A forge, which lends its name to Foundry Lane through the hamlet, still operates in Loosley Row. It has created some of the bus shelters seen on the road through Lacey Green from Princes Risborough.
Notable people
The television astronomer,
Heather Couper, lived in the hamlet.
References
Sources
*
External links
Lacey Green and Loosley Row website{{Wycombe
Hamlets in Buckinghamshire
Wycombe District