| Great and Little Kimble | |
Great Kimble Church |
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Great and Little Kimble
Great and Little Kimble shown within Buckinghamshire |
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| Population | 960 [1] |
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| OS grid reference | SP824065 |
| District | Wycombe |
| Shire county | Buckinghamshire |
| Region | South East |
| Country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | AYLESBURY |
| Postcode district | HP17 |
| Dialling code | 01296 |
| Police | Thames Valley |
| Fire | Buckinghamshire |
| Ambulance | South Central |
| EU Parliament | South East England |
| UK Parliament | Aylesbury |
| List of places: UK • England • Buckinghamshire | |
Great and Little Kimble is a civil parish in Wycombe district, Buckinghamshire, sitting at the foot of the Chiltern Hills. It is located to the south of Aylesbury. It incorporates the villages of Great Kimble, Little Kimble, Kimble Wick and Marsh and the hamlet of Smoky Row.
There are two main opinions as to the origin of the name Kimble. One theory is that the name Kimble comes from Cymbeline (also known as Cunobelinus), who was King of the Catuvellauni, an ancient Celtic tribe of pre-Roman Britain.[2] Written about by William Shakespeare in his tragedy of the same name, Cymbeline was able to successfully stave off the planned Roman invasion of Britain led by Emperor Caligula by supporting the fiercely anti-Roman Druids and offering refuge to exiled fighters from Romanised Gaul. However an alternative derivation has been put forward by the Oxford Dictionary of Place Names that the name is from the old English words cyne belle meaning 'Royal bell-shaped hill'.[3] This would refer to the Beacon Hill, a man-made fortification neighbouring the parish, that separates Little Kimble from the Chequers estate.
Earthworks found on Beacon Hill were the foundations of Cymbeline's Castle. Built during the reign of Cymbeline;[4] coins bearing his name have been found in archaeological digs in the area.[5] It is possibly this link that has led some authors to assume that the place is named after Cymbeline, whereas the Oxford English derivation is the more scholarly of the two.
One of the events that culminated in the outbreak of the English Civil War (1642–51) was reputed to have taken place in Saint Nicholas's church in Great Kimble. The manor of Great Kimble (along with manors at Kimble Wick and Marsh) had been possessions of the Hampden family since the 14th century.[6] John Hampden is reported to have been in a parish meeting within the church itself when he refused to pay the ship tax that had been demanded of English parishes by King Charles I. The church is still in possession of a copy of the roll listing the freeholders who met there to affirm their opposition.[7] However this claim is disputed as nearby Great Hampden has a stone cross erected on the spot where Hampden refused to pay the tax. It is possible that both claims have some element of truth as Great Kimble and Great Hampden are neighbouring parishes.
Inside the medieval All Saints' Church in Little Kimble are many original wall paintings depicting scenes from the Bible and from English history. This is unusual for churches in this part of England, as these paintings were usually covered up during the Reformation. One image that has survived very clearly on the north wall of the nave is of a knight in the Crusades bearing the St George's cross. The church is accessed just off the main A4010 road.
In total there are three churches in the parish, St Nicholas in Great Kimble, All Saints in Little Kimble, and Little Kimble Free Church.
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Ladymede School, an independent co-educational school, is located in Little Kimble.[8] It has a capacity of just over 100 day students from ages 3–11.[9]
The main A4010 road cuts straight through the middle of Little Kimble, as does the Chiltern railway line between Aylesbury and Princes Risborough. Where the main road and the railway meet there is Little Kimble railway station, which has been in operation since 1872. The same railway line also bypasses Marsh, where there is a level crossing.
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