Bradenham

Spotlight On Bradenham

By ‘Country Lover!

To approach Bradenham from the busy A4010 is like taking a step backwards into a bygone age.

Neat cottages cluster around three sides of the picturesque village green, whilst standing side by side, against a backcloth of beechwoods, Church and Manor house ‘preside’ over the whole scene,

Long ago Saxon settlers made their home in this secluded valley, building a Church on the current site. KL

The Village was well established at the time of the great Norman survey, for the "Manor" is recorded in the Domesday Book.

The south doorway of the present Church - the oldest church door in this county - admits the visitor into a building hallowed by 900 years of worship. The ancient timbers in the tower support two of the oldest bells in England. They bear the name of a Michael Wymbish who was making bells in Norman England and whose Company was still flourishing around 1300 when these were cast.

The first Queen Elizabeth visited Bradenham Manor in 1566 on a journey from Oxford and was entertained here in great splendour, Staying overnight at Great Hampden the Queen progressed next day to Bradenham, the only road at that time being the track from Flowers Bottom coming out at the top of Bradenham Wood. Records suggest the present Bradenham Wood road did not exist and the Queen's party went down through a gap in the woods. On the following day, with "a large party of gentlemen because of the thieves which infested these woods"; Her Majesty set out from Bradenham "passing through some of the loveliest bits of primeval forest at Walters Ash, down Downley Common, through Tinker's Wood" to High Wycombe.

The 17th century Manor House of mellowed brick is well known for it's associations with the Disraelis ~ the last years of Isaac and the youth of Benjamin, later to become Prime Minister. Isaac Disraeli lived here from 1829 until his death in 1848.

Eastwards of the Church is to be found a curious feat of nature, older by far than the village itself, In a small meadow, almost surrounded by beechwoods, lie scattered stones and boulders of various shapes and sizes, like a mini Stonehenge or Avebury Circle. These stones, however, according to the experts, are not the work of some long lost civilisation, but a deposit left behind from the days of the great ice Age.

The whole village of Bradenham enjoys the distinction, together with another Buckinghamshire village, of being under the care of the National Trust.

Bradenham Snippets:

Benjamin Disraeli describes the village of Bradenham under the name of 'Harslley' in his novel Endymion, which reflects his great love of the house as a boy.

Not every town and village possess a Youth Hostel but one can be found at Bradenhan, At an open day recently it was interesting to learn that it is one of the few hostels that accent mother, father and young children as a unit.