Wingrave
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Wingrave is a village in Buckinghamshire, England. It is in the Aylesbury Vale, about four miles north east of Aylesbury, three miles south west of Wing.
Wingrave is twinned with La Bouexiere in France.
[edit] Etymology
The name Wingrave is said to be based on the name of a local Saxon land owner in pre-Conquest England named Withun. In the Domesday Book the name appears as Withungraue which is interpreted as Withun's Grove where perhaps Withun owned woodland for timber, fuel, grazing or hunting.
[edit] Architecture
Around the recreation ground and in other parts of the village are many houses and cottages of varying sizes, constructed in neo-Tudor style, erected by Hannah de Rothschild in the 19th century. These houses, which display her personal cypher 'H de R' were homes for estate employees. They remained part of the Mentmore Estate until well into the 20th century and are very sought after today, commanding a very high price.
Wingrave Manor, also known as 'The Old Manor House' is a Victorian half timbered pastiche of nearby Ascott House. Like many of the village's cottages it too was built by Hannah de Rothschild in 1876. Why she built a large house barely two miles from her own home Mentmore Towers (one of the largest mansions in Buckinghamshire) can only be the subject of conjecture. The design of the house while similar to Ascott, does not have the same lightness of touch as Ascott, so is unlikely to have been designed by Ascott's architect George Devey. The Rothschild family do not appear to have ever lived at Wingrave, as the house was soon let to the Stewart-Freeman Family who enlarged it in 1885 and eventually purchased it in 1898.
[edit] Czech Connection
It was the last Stewart-Freeman daughter, Eveline, who leased the house to the exiled Czechoslovak government. They leased it for £20 a week as a residence for the employees and families of the Private Office of President Beneš (called the Chancellery). During this time the President Dr. Edvard Beneš lived at The Abbey in nearby Aston Abbotts, and his Military Intelligence of the exiled government lived at Addington House in nearby Addington, near Winslow. The offices of the Czechoslovak Government in Exile were at various locations in London.
President Beneš donated a bus shelter to the villages of Aston Abbotts and Wingrave in 1944. This is on the A418 between the two villages. Following the departure of President Beneš's officials in 1945, the Manor was leased to an order of nuns who cared for disabled children on the site for over twenty-five years. In 1988 President Václav Havel of the Czech Republic visited Wingrave to mark its Czech connections.
[edit] MacIntrye School
In 1972 the Manor was sold and today is the MacIntyre School. The school cares for children described as having complex learning difficulties and was greatly supported by Bob Monkhouse during his lifetime.
[edit] Churches
Wingrave has a parish Church of St Peter and St Paul, and a Methodist Church at Nup End. The former URC Church closed in 2005, although the Congregational churchyard remains as a memorial garden.
[edit] References
- Ken & Margaret Morley "Wingrave: A Rothschild Village in the Vale" by Ken & Margaret Morley, ISBN 1-871199-99-9, Published by the Book Castle
- Neil Rees "The Secret History of The Czech Connection - The Czechoslovak Government in Exile in London and Buckinghamshire" compiled by Neil Rees, England, 2005. ISBN 0-9550883-0-5
[edit] External links
