Little Horwood
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Little Horwood | |
  Little Horwood shown within Buckinghamshire |
|
| OS grid reference | |
|---|---|
| District | Aylesbury Vale |
| Shire county | Buckinghamshire |
| Region | South East |
| Constituent country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | MILTON KEYNES |
| Postcode district | MK17 |
| Dialling code | 01296 |
| Police | Thames Valley |
| Fire | Buckinghamshire |
| Ambulance | South Central |
| European Parliament | South East England |
| UK Parliament | Buckingham |
| List of places: UK • England • Buckinghamshire | |
Little Horwood is a village in Buckinghamshire, England. It is located in the Aylesbury Vale, about four miles ESE of Buckingham, two miles north east of Winslow.
The village name 'Horwood' is Anglo Saxon in origin, and means 'dirty or muddy wood'. In the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle in 792 the village was recorded as Horwudu.
The parish church dedicated to St Nicholas has a perpendicular style tower built of large blocks of ashlar, the remainder of the church externally dates from the restoration of 1889 by the architect J P St Aubyn. This architect's work, today, is not always viewed kindly. His Victorian Gothicisation of so many churches and houses has been described in terms ranging from vandalism to ruthless. Little Horwood church was lucky, as the interior survived relatively unscathed; and the early 16th century wall paintings depicting the seven deadly sins survived as did the Jacobean pulpit, and the decorated style chancel arch.
The manor of Little Horwood anciently belonged to the abbot and convent of St Albans, though it was seized by the Crown in the Dissolution of the Monasteries in the mid 16th century. It was later sold to George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham who remodelled the manor house, which is now demolished.
1 mile south east of the village is Horwood House. Not to be confused with Little Horwood Manor, this mansion is again a comparatively modern house.
