Denham, Buckinghamshire

Denham is a village and civil parish in the South Buckinghamshire district of Buckinghamshire, England. It is north west of Uxbridge and north of junction 1 of the M40 motorway. Denham contains the Buckinghamshire Golf Club.

Origin

The village toponym is derived from the Old English for "homestead in a valley". It was listed in the Domesday Book of 1086 as Deneham.

Buildings

The Church of England parish church of Saint Mary has a flint and stone Norman tower and Tudor monuments. The tree-lined Village Road includes several old red brick houses with giant wisterias on them, and has been used as a location in British films and television.

Denham Film Studios were near the village.

Development

Housing growth has over the years created new parts to Denham. Modern-day Denham consists of:

• Denham Village, as above; the original settlement
• Denham Garden Village, located to the north of Denham Green Lane - originally built in the 1950s, redeveloped in 2006.
• Denham Green grew up around the shops beside Denham station on Chiltern Main Line. Alexander Korda's Denham Film Studios, sited between the junction of the Rickmansworth Road (now the A412 North Orbital road) and Moor Hall Road towards Harefield, provided some employment. The site is now used as a business park (Broadwater Park), containing (amongst other companies) the UK Headquarters of the Robert Bosch Ltd, the UK subsidiary of the Robert Bosch GmbH Group, and the global headquarters of InterContinental Hotels Group.
• New Denham grew along the old Oxford Road north-west of Uxbridge, west of the Grand Union Canal
• Higher Denham was built on the site of a First World War army training and transit camp, placed to take advantage of the adjacent Denham Golf Club station. After the War, the camp land was sold off piecemeal for housing, following a similar trend all over Metro-land. Martin-Baker Aircraft Ltd, manufacturers of aircraft ejector seats, have a small factory in Higher Denham
• Tatling End, Denham is on the Oxford Road, west of the junction with the A412, at the top of the hill leading out of the Misbourne Valley

Transport

Denham railway station has direct services to London Marylebone and High Wycombe and limited services to Princes Risborough, Aylesbury and Banbury. Connecting services link to Birmingham Snow Hill, Stratford-on-Avon and Kidderminster.

The 331 bus service between Uxbridge and Ruislip stations (operated by First London for London Buses) calls at the Station Parade shops in Denham Green. The 724 Green Line bus service between Harlow and Heathrow passes through Denham Green to Uxbridge and onwards to Heathrow Airport, calling at the Bus Station at Heathrow Central before terminating at Heathrow Terminal 5. The 581 circular bus service provides a link between the various areas of Denham and Uxbridge bus station. The Saturdays-only 582 service links the various Denhams with Iver, Slough and Windsor. The R21 bus service between Uxbridge and Mount Vernon Hospital in Northwood stops twice daily at Denham Station every day except Sunday. This service is run by Red Rose Travel and forms part of a more regular service between Northwood and Maple Cross.

Economy

Denham is well known for its car boot sale which is held every Saturday from March to October. This hugely popular event attracts buyers and sellers from all over the south of England, and causes considerable traffic congestion at the Denham Roundabout. The success of this event is boosted by the village proximity to London and the motorway network.

InterContinental Hotels Group has its corporate headquarters and Europe, Middle East, and Africa offices in Denham.^[2]

Schools

Denham Village Infant School, in Cheapside Lane, was the original school for Denham, and has classes for Reception and Years 1 and 2 . The school building dates from 1832 and is listed.^[3]

Tilehouse Combined School is in Nightingale Lane. It is for children from ages 4–11 and also offers pre-school services. The school is accepts all children from the Denham area who wish to attend the school and offers a free school bus to children from the New Denham Area.^[4]

Boundaries

The current eastern boundary with the London Borough of Hillingdon is aligned with the Grand Union Canal. A Boundary Commission proposal to reassign to Hillingdon the area of Denham that lies east of the A412 and south of the A40/M40 was not implemented.

Twinning

Denham is twinned with Denham in Shark Bay, Western Australia.

Notable residents

• Raymond Baxter, BBC Television presenter, lived in Denham until 1978.
• Cilla Black, singer, entertainer and television personality has her main residence in Denham Green, bought with her late husband Bobbie in the 1970s. In a burglary in 2002 £1 million worth of gems were stolen. According to reports from local residents, she is "not well liked" in the local vicinity of her house due to issues with trees lining her property blocking out sunlight to others' gardens.^[5]
• Sir George Bowyer, 5th Baronet was born at Denham Court.
• Brian Connolly, lead singer with 1970s glam rock band Sweet, lived at Denham until his death in 1997.
• Jess Conrad, actor and singer, lived in Denham.
• Paul Daniels, magician, lived in Denham.
• Robert Lindsay, actor, lives in Denham.
• Stanley Long, film director and producer, lives in Denham.
• Sir John Mills, film actor, was a resident of the village for many years, and is commemorated by a blue plaque on his former house by the church.
• Roger Moore, actor, lived in Denham.
• Mike Oldfield, musician, lived in Tilehouse Lane, Denham 1979-86.
• Shane Ritchie, actor, who plays Alfie Moon on BBC Television's Eastenders, used to live at Baker's Wood, Denham.
• Harry Saltzman, James Bond producer, lived at Maltmas Green in Tatling End (not the school) in Gerrards Cross.

References

External links

• Tilehouse Combined School homepage