Place:Wycombe Rural, Buckinghamshire, England

Watchers
NameWycombe Rural
TypeRural district
Coordinates51.65°N 0.78°W
Located inBuckinghamshire, England     (1894 - 1974)
See alsoWycombe, Buckinghamshire, Englanddistrict council which replaced Wycombe Rural and Wycombe Municipal Borough in 1974


the following text is based on an article in Wikipedia

Wycombe Rural District was located in the administrative county of Buckinghamshire from 1894 to 1974. The district was created by the Local Government Act 1894 as successor to the disbanded Wycombe Rural Sanitary District. The district was named after, and based in, High Wycombe (until 1946 known at least officially as Chepping Wycombe). The rural district did not include the town, however, which was a separate municipal borough.

The district consisted of a number of rural parishes surrounding High Wycombe. In 1934 it was enlarged, when a County Review Order added the area of the abolished Hambleden Rural District.

Parishes

ParishDescriptionDurationNotes
Bledlow ancient parish, civil parish 1894 - 1934 merged with Saunderton in 1934 to become Bledlow cum Saunderton
Bledlow cum Saunderton civil parish 1934 - 1974
Bradenham ancient parish, civil parish 1894 - 1974
Chepping Wycombe Rural civil parish 1894 - 1974 renamed Chepping Wycombe in 1949
Ellesborough ancient parish, civil parish 1894 - 1974
Fawley ancient parish, civil parish 1934 - 1974 transferred from Hambleden Rural District in 1934
Fingest ancient parish, civil parish 1894 - 1937 renamed Fingest and Lane End in 1937 when Lane End was transferred from Great Marlow parish
Fingest and Lane End civil parish 1937 - 1974 previously Fingest; renamed in 1937 when Lane End was transferred from Great Marlow parish
Great and Little Hampden civil parish 1894 - 1974 parishes had been merged in 1885
Great and Little Kimble civil parish 1894 - 1974 parishes had been merged in 1885
Great Marlow ancient parish, civil parish 1894 - 1974 the Town of Marlow, previously in the parish, became Marlow Urban District in 1897; Lane End was transferred to Fingest and Lane End in 1937
Hambleden ancient parish, civil parish 1934 - 1974 transferred from Hambleden Rural District in 1934
Hedsor ancient parish, civil parish 1894 - 1974
Horsenden ancient parish, civil parish 1894 - 1934 Abolished 1934 with the area split between Bledlow cum Saunderton and Princes Risborough
Hughenden ancient parish, civil parish 1894 - 1974
Ibstone ancient parish, civil parish 1894 - 1974
Ilmer ancient parish, civil parish 1894 - 1934 abolished 1934 with the formation of Longwick cum Ilmer
Lacey Green extraparochial, civil parish 1934 - 1974
Little Kimble ancient parish, civil parish 1894 - 1974
Little Marlow ancient parish, civil parish 1894 - 1974
Little Missenden ancient parish, civil parish 1894 - 1901 transferred to Amersham Rural District in 1901
Longwick civil parish 1894 - 1934 abolished 1934 with the formation of Longwick cum Ilmer
Longwick cum Ilmer civil parish 1934 - 1974 formed from Ilmer and Longwick in 1934
Medmenham ancient parish, civil parish 1934 - 1974 transferred from Hambleden Rural District in 1934
Monks Risborough ancient parish, civil parish 1894 - 1974 Abolished 1934 and split between Princes Risborough (village) and Longwick cum Ilmer (hamlets of Owlswick and Meadle)
Princes Risborough ancient parish, civil parish 1894 - 1974
Radnage ancient parish, civil parish 1894 - 1974
Saunderton ancient parish, civil parish 1894 - 1934 merged with Bledlow in 1934 to become Bledlow cum Saunderton
Stokenchurch chancelry, civil parish 1895 - 1974 transferred from Oxfordshire in 1895
Turville ancient parish, civil parish 1894 - 1974
Wendover ancient parish, civil parish 1894 - 1924
West Wycombe ancient parish, civil parish 1894 - 1934 abolished 1934 and split between Chepping Wycombe and the new civil parish of West Wycombe Rural
West Wycombe Rural civil parish 1834 - 1974 established 1934 when West Wycombe parish was abolished; absorbed section of Hughenden at same time
Wooburn ancient parish, civil parish 1894 - 1974 included village of Bourne End; reduced in size with transfers to Beaconsfield and Chepping Wycombe in 1934

Research Tips

Registration Offices

Maps

  • An outline map of the current civil parishes of Buckinghamshire (post 1974 and omitting Milton Keynes unitary authority) is provided by the Boundaries Commission.
  • Another map which gives no source, appears to have been drawn to show the county in the late 19th century and labels the parishes directly. However, the map does not show towns and villages (unless they are parishes using the same name) and some parishes have been found to be missing from this map.
  • A map provided by the Open University (a British university based in Milton Keynes) gives the locations of the old civil parishes and the new communities that make up Milton Keynes. It can be expanded to read the labels.

Registration Offices

Birth, marriage and death certificates can now be ordered online from Buckinghamshire County Council. The full postal address is Buckinghamshire Register Office, County Hall, Walton Street, Aylesbury, HP20 1YU.

The Centre for Buckinghamshire Studies (County Hall, Walton Street, Aylesbury, HP20 1UU) holds

  • Church of England and Nonconformist churches including registers of baptism, marriage and burial.
  • Around 35,000 wills proved by the Archdeaconry of Buckingham.
  • County and District Councils (lists of councillors, minutes of meetings, etc).
  • Quarter and Petty Session courts.
  • Landed estates of families including the Aubrey-Fletchers, Hampdens, Carringtons and Fremantles.
  • Historic maps including OS, tithe and inclosure maps
  • A wide range of local history books, some for loan.
  • Pamphlets and articles of local history interest.
  • Local newspapers
  • Computers for access to family history resources like Ancestry and FreeBMD.
  • Published material is listed in the Library Catalogue.
  • Catalogues to some of our manuscript material is available through Access to Archives, part of The National Archives (TNA). Their database contains catalogues describing archives held locally in England and Wales and dating from the eighth century to the present day.

In Buckinghamshire, as with other counties in England and Wales, the location of offices where Births, Marriages and Deaths were registered has altered with other changes in local government. A list of the location of Registration Offices since civil registration began in 1837 has been prepared by GENUKI (Genealogy: United Kingdom and Ireland). The table also gives details of when each Registration Office was in existence. In the case of Buckinghamshire, the same registration offices were used for the censuses since 1851. Buckinghamshire now only has a central registration office at County Hall in Aylesbury, but there are facilities for registering births, marriages and deaths in specific libraries around the county.

Nineteenth Century Local Administration

English Jurisdictions is a webpage provided by FamilySearch which analyses every ecclesiastical parish in England at the year 1851. It provides, with the aid of outline maps, the date at which parish records and bishops transcripts begin, non-conformist denominations with a chapel within the parish, the names of the jurisdictions in charge: county, civil registration district, probate court, diocese, rural deanery, poor law union, hundred, church province; and links to FamilySearch historical records, FamilySearch Catalog and the FamilySearch Wiki. Two limitations: only England, and at the year 1851.

During the 19th century two bodies, the Poor Law Union and the Sanitary District, had responsibility for governmental functions at a level immediately above that covered by the civil parish. In 1894 these were replace by Rural and Urban Districts. These were elected bodies, responsible for setting local property assessments and taxes as well as for carrying out their specified duties. Thses districts continued in operation until 1974. Urban districts for larger municipalities were called "Municipal Boroughs" and had additional powers and obligations.

Poor Law Unions, established nationally in 1834, combined parishes together for the purpose of providing relief for the needy who had no family support. This led to the building of '"union poorhouses" or "workhouses" funded by all the parishes in the union. The geographical boundaries established for the individual Poor Law Unions were employed again when Registration Districts were formed three years later. In 1875 Sanitary Districts were formed to provide services such as clean water supply, sewage systems, street cleaning, and the clearance of slum housing. These also tended to follow the same geographical boundaries, although there were local alterations caused by changes in population distribution.

Online Historical References

  • GENUKI for Buckinghamshire provides a lot of material on the county history from a variety of aspects. The maps of the hundreds are reproduced from 19th century publications and show the topology as well as the locations of the various parishes. There is also a schematic map covering the whole county. GENUKI does not contain much information about the 20th century and beyond.
  • Local History Online provides a list of local historical organizations. Each of these societies and organizations has its own website.
  • The FamilySearch Wiki on Buckinghamshire explains the jurisdictions relating to civil affairs, parishes and probate (wills and testaments) for each parish in the county and also outlines when these jurisdictions were in existence. The data does not cover the post-1974 period.
This page uses content from the English Wikipedia. The original content was at Wycombe Rural District. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with WeRelate, the content of Wikipedia is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.