Ashley Green
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Ashley Green is a village in Buckinghamshire, England. It is situated on the border with Hertfordshire, about half way between Chesham and Berkhamsted.
Originally a hamlet within Chesham parish, its name is Anglo-Saxon and means Ash Field, referring to the large expanse of forest that once covered this part of the Chiltern Hills.
[edit] The Church
Ashley Green became a parish in its own right in 1876, when the church of St John the Evangelist was constructed in the village. Newspapers and coins of the time were built into the pillar adjoining the pulpit. At that time, and until 1875, the village lay within the Parish of Great Chesham. (The Church has since returned to the team ministry of Great Chesham [1]). The Church was erected and endowed by Elizabeth Dorrien of Clifton Bristol, in memory of her sisters and dedicated on 31 December 1873. The land was given by Lord Chesham. The architect was G E Street and the contractor G Cooper of Aylesbury Buckinghamshire. The total cost of the building was over £2,000 with the endowment being a further £6,000.
The Church is constructed of local knapped black flints with Bath stone dressings. There is a bell cote with two bells and a boiler house. The church was originally being heated by "Hayden's hot air apparatus", now disused. The porch is on the Northern side of the building the front of which is an oak moulded archway, the timber being framed in red bricks - herringboned. The roof is of plain clay tiles. Details of the Church Windows: [2]
Some pews have a note on them which states:
"The seats in this Church are entirely free and unappropriated. The Church Wardens look to the Congregation for the support through the offertory of the usual Church expenses"
There are two bells , one of a diameter of one foot seven and a half inches (50 cm) and one of a diameter of one foot five inches (43 cm). They were cast by John Taylor and Co in 1874 and refurbished and re-hung in the early 1990s.
[edit] Population
Today Ashley Green is a popular home for commuters and executives who travel into nearby London every day.
