The Whip
From Lacey Green History
Research by Joan West.
click Dick & Brenda Williams for reports in Hallmark from Dick & Brenda.
In 1823 The Whip did not exist. The land on which it was later built was part of the vast Common of Princes Risborough which covered much of Lacey Green and some land on the hilltop of Loosley Row. Click Princes Risborough Common to see two maps
The first map shows the full area of Princes Risborough Common.
The map below that shows the changes made in 1823 when the Enclosures of Princes Risborough took place.
Before 1823 there were no roads in Lacey Green village. The route from the Hughenden Valley to Princes Risborough ran through Speen, along Highwood Bottom, cut straight across the Common of Princes Risborough to the pond behind Windmill Farm. It proceeded down towards Princes Risborough joining Woodway, which was already an established route and on to the town.
After 1823 the proposed Main Road, Lacey Green was confirmed in the 1823 Enclosures of the parish of Princes Risborough.
The land on which The Whip was built had formerly been part of the vast common, known as Princes Risborough Common, that was part of the Manor of Princes Risborough. Cows from the town were brought up here to graze.
George Cheshire, miller married Sarah Steele, the former miller’s daughter in 1865. See George Cheshire & Sarah nee Steele for their life story. After his marriage he is listed at the baptisms of his children as a publican in 1866 to 1882. This public house was called “The Whip”.
1891 census at The Whip. Sarah Floyd widow - publican
1907 Sarah Floyd of The Whip in a new will calls herself 'a beerhouse keeper'. Sarah died in 1907.
1911 census at The Whip, Lacey Green :-
Susan Cheshire born 1869, married Jabez Smith in 1887. In 1911 they were living at the Whip. See Jabez & Susan Smith
1939 Register (census). Charles J Harris born 1910 licensee, Winifred M Harris, born 1911
Hallmark November 1986. Message from Dick & Brenda Williams
This November we celebrated 10 years at the Whip and feel we are just becoming "Lacey Greeners". 1986 has seen one or two changes at the Pub. The outside has been decorated and as you have probably noticed we have replaced the old tubs with wooden ones, thus we hope adding a little character to our end of the village. By Xmas the interior should have been painted.
We have had our share of sorrows this year, having lost 2 or 3 of our valued customers, who each in their own way brought some character into the pub. Bert Dell will be greatly missed especially on Xmas Day for his rendering of "Bubbles" and trying to put wood on the fire whilst Dick's back was turned. We shall be thinking of him during the festivities, as we shall Bob Morris, who many of you knew as a man with a wonderful sense of humour.
Old faces have passed and new faces have entered the scene, we now have a good bunch of youngsters who use the Whip and may we just say that though people knock the younger generation, we have never had any problems. They were all very supportive when Dick was in hospital, and even tried to push-start the car, that last was seen disappearing into the night in the direction of Saunderton and was towed back by a double-glazing van - thank you Rupert!!!
We have moved the pool table so that now can offer parties a semi-private room seating 30 people. Bookings are now coming in for our traditional Xmas Fayre, and we hope that New Years Eve will once again be successful, with Dick drinking lemonade in order to drive people home.
We do like to think of the Whip as a meeting place and are very pleased to welcome "God's Gang", led by Father Raymond, who pop in now and again for luncheon and then have to spend the rest of the day praying for Dick!!
We were sorry not to be able to do our Senior Citizens Xmas meal but I know you realised this was due to ill health, however we did offer free coffee and biscuits to all pensioners on Thursday morning, but sadly we had no takers.
As our most regular and loyal supporter Donald Lacey will be in Spain for Xmas, we will not be opening on Xmas Night.
Thank you all for your help and support during the last 10 years and may we wish each and everyone a very happy and blessed Xmas.
The officers and committee members of the Lacey Green and Loosley Row Management Committee, thank all hall users for their cooperation during 1986 and send to everyone the seasons greetings. And remind you that one of your first entries in the new diary should be March 10th, A.G.M. of the hall committee, when your support would be appreciated and your comments on Village Hall administration.
Hallmark March 1996. Well, we opened the "churn" and it must have taken 2-3 minutes for £1,179.82 to cascade out! What a sight. The event was a resounding success with another £1,220.18 raised during the afternoon – our very sincere thanks to all of those who so generously donated gifts to the auction and the raffle. We were delighted to give £600 each to BLESMA, McMillan Nurses, The PACE Home at Denton and the Ghurka Welfare Trust.
A special vote of thanks must go to Henry Cooper and his wife – what a lovely couple. Henry and Dick made a very formidable team to conduct the auction and managed to make people part with their money that would not normally have done so!
Whilst we are on the subject of thanking people, | would like to mention Bill Giles for putting Lacey Green on the National weather map – all in exchange for two pints!
At the moment we are busy laying another patio – so let's hope for a nice long hot summer where people can sit outside.
We had some very pleasing news this week – we have been nominated for a "Good Food" award by the Accolade for Catering Excellence – even if we don't receive it, it has given us a boost as it's a National award for small country Inns.
On a more personal note, we would all like to wish Helen every success as she goes off to Hendon to join the Met at the end of May. We just pray that they never arm the Met. Helen running round London with a gun is just too horrendous to visualise!!
We look forward to welcoming old and new faces to The Whip Inn over the Summer months – Christmas seems a long way off, but we have just taken our first booking for December!!
Hallmark June 1996.
A few weeks ago Clive from The Pink and I were discussing pub life in general.
I told him that we rarely took holidays and never a whole day off. He thought us totally mad and said no one is indispensable! I informed him if I was not in the kitchen ‘The Whip? would not function!
How wrong can you be? I apologise to Clive unreservedly. For the last 3-4 weeks I have had my leg in plaster due to a silly accident – perhaps not enough water with it! Did The Whip close? Did the customers stay away’? NO! Backed by an excellent team our son Michael took over the whole running of the kitchen – which for a 15 year old lad we think is quite remarkable. Our very grateful thanks to him and the staff
As you have probably heard we have applied for planning permission – contrary to rumours we will not be taking in lodgers – it is to enable my elderly Mother to live with us.
What a lovely summer it is, but a nightmare trying to keep all the plants alive. You may have noticed that we have built a flower bed at the side of The Whip which we feel is a big improvement and a very pleasant place to sit and watch the traffic speed by!
We now have the garden, the patio and the tables at the front for people to enjoy either a quiet drink or a meal.
Just a little reminder that we do offer a take-away service and will plate up anything from fish and chips to a three course meal for a dinner party – If you want you can even bring everything back dirty – that's fine by us, all part of the service.
The next time of writing I suspect Christmas will be upon us so let's make the most of the remaining summer months.
Hallmark August 1996. A few weeks ago Clive from The Pink and I were discussing pub life in general. I told him that we rarely took holidays and never a whole day off. He thought us totally mad and said no one is indispensable! I informed him if I was not in the kitchen ‘The Whip? would not function!
How wrong can you be? I apologise to Clive unreservedly. For the last 3-4 weeks I have had my leg in plaster due to a silly accident – perhaps not enough water with it! Did The Whip close? Did the customers stay away’? NO! Backed by an excellent team our son Michael took over the whole running of the kitchen – which for a 15 year old lad we think is quite remarkable. Our very grateful thanks to him and the staff
As you have probably heard we have applied for planning permission – contrary to rumours we will not be taking in lodgers – it is to enable my elderly Mother to live with us.
What a lovely summer it is, but a nightmare trying to keep all the plants alive. You may have noticed that we have built a flower bed at the side of The Whip which we feel is a big improvement and a very pleasant place to sit and watch the traffic speed by!
We now have the garden, the patio and the tables at the front for people to enjoy either a quiet drink or a meal. Just a little reminder that we do offer a take-away service and will plate up anything from fish and chips to a three course meal for a dinner party – If you want you can even bring everything back dirty – that's fine by us, all part of the service.
The next time of writing I suspect Christmas will be upon us so let's make the most of the remaining summer months.
Hallmark May 1999 The Whip Inn
We opened the Charity Churn in April and Dick and Brenda kindly came along to attend to the ceremonial emptying procedure. All customers in the pub, regular or otherwise then helped with the counting of the contents which came to a grand total of £819.75p. John Hedgeland and Dick (along with a little bit of help from us) have generously offered to make it up to £1,000 and a king-size cheque for this will shortly be presented to PACE. Thank you everyone for your generosity and the Charity Churn now needs refilling for next year!
As you will have seen, the pub has been given a total facelift on the outside, courtesy of local decorator Richard Harmer, and what a good job he and his team have done. Our only problem was preventing him from painting our signboard white and inscribing on it “R D Harmer, Painter & Decorator”!
Our Quizzes continue to be well attended and the new formula of getting the winners to set the questions for the next Quiz seems to work well. It ensures that the same team cannot win twice running and also produces a good variety of questions. Please keep coming, – we enjoy them as much as everyone else.
There is a trip to the evening horse racing at Windsor which we hope will be well attended. If you miss that one try the next in August which should prove to be even better – if for no other reason than we shall be there!
At the end of May and continuing into June we are proposing to hold a Quiz competition between the local pubs over a four-week period. We already know that our customers are the best looking, most charming and witty people in the district. Now help us to prove what we have always maintained – our regulars are also the most intelligent, knowledgeable, and best informed!
We aim to start a Golf Society this year, with a game once every month at different venues. Anyone interested, please let us know so that we can compile a list and make arrangements.
We will be holding a variety of events throughout the summer so remember to watch our “A” board for details.
Richard & Karen