The Lee

The Lee
The Green at The Lee
The Lee  The Lee shown within Buckinghamshire
Population	698 [1]
OS grid reference	SP900042
Civil parish	The Lee
District	Chiltern
Shire county	Buckinghamshire
Region	South East
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	CHESHAM
Postcode district	HP16
Dialling code	01494
Police	Thames Valley
Fire	Buckinghamshire
Ambulance	South Central
EU Parliament	South East England
UK Parliament	Chesham and Amersham
List of places UK England Buckinghamshire

Coordinates: 51°43′48″N 0°40′57″W / 51.7299°N 0.6825°W / 51.7299; -0.6825

The Lee (formally known as just Lee) is a village in Buckinghamshire, England. It is located in the Chiltern Hills, about 2 mi north east of Great Missenden and 3 mi south east of Wendover. The Lee is also the name of a civil parish within Chiltern District. Within the parish is the hamlet of Lee Clump, named for a small group of houses separate from the main village.

Early history

The village name is Anglo Saxon in origin and means 'woodland clearing'. In the Domesday Book of 1086 it was recorded as Lee and was, following the Norman Conquest, granted by William I to Odo, Bishop of Bayeux. Its early history is closely tied up with that of Weston Turville and a chapel-of-ease was established in this connection. It and also had associations with the Earl of Leicester who, in the early part of the 12th century, charged Ralph de Halton to oversee the lands. At the end of that century the Turville family took over this role. Soon after this Robert, Earl of Leicester granted the land to Missenden Abbey. After the dissolution of the abbey The Lee stayed in the possession of the Crown until 1547 when Edward VI granted a lease on the estate to John Russell, 1st Earl of Bedford.

The events that led to Francis Russell, 2nd Earl of Bedford initially leasing the lands at The Lee to William Plaistowe in 1635 and later selling the land to the Plaistowe family are obscure; either they were mortgaged to pay off debts or were sequestrated as a consequence of the Russells' involvement on the "wrong" side of the English Civil War. Thomas Plaistowe, who died in 1715, was the first of the family to be the outright owner of The Lee and his namesake in 1785 passed ownership to his daughter Elizabeth, who married Irishman Henry Deering. The Plaistowes once more owned the village for another 50 years.

In 1900, Arthur Lasenby Liberty bought the manor from John Plaistowe and built a new manor house on the outskirts of the village. The old manor house became three attached properties which remain so today. Outside the new manor house he sited a figurehead depicting Admiral Richard Howe taken from HMS Howe. The figurehead was moved to outside Pipers where the family moved to in 1953. The ship, which had subsequently been renamed Impregnable, was scrapped by the Royal Navy in 1919, and purchased by Liberty in 1926. He used the timbers of this ship to refurbish, in Tudor revivalist style, the interior and frontage of his famed Liberty's department store in London. The Liberty family have continued to reside at The Lee to the present day.^[2]

Churches

The 'Old Church' at The Lee

St John the Baptist Church, The Lee

The parish church in the village St John the Baptist is unusual in that it consists of two buildings: the ancient chapel of ease built in the 12th century which includes a window depicting Oliver Cromwell and John Hampden as 'champions of liberty', and the more modern Victorian construction that was built of red brick in 1867. Both sit within an oval churchyard, common in places of importance in the pre-Roman period.

There is a Methodist chapel at Lee Common, which was built in 1839 as a Primitive Methodist chapel. It is one of the oldest Methodist chapels in Bucks. There is a small churchyard attached to it. The Methodist church is part of the Amersham Methodist Circuit.

Formerly there was also a Strict Baptist chapel at Lee Clump, and Mission Halls at Swan Bottom and Potter Row.

Hamlets

Hamlets in the parish of The Lee include Lee Clump, Lee Common, Lee Gate, Hunt's Green, Potter Row and Swan Bottom.

Locations

The village has been used as the backdrop for a number of television programmes including several episodes of Midsomer Murders.

References

External links

• The village's website

Media related to Lee, Buckinghamshire at Wikimedia Commons

Chiltern District Buckinghamshire County Council elections District Council elections Chesham and Amersham Constituency Towns (component areas and hamlets) Amersham Woodrow Chesham Asheridge Vale Botley Chesham Vale Chessmount Codmore Great Hivings Hilltop Loundes Lye Green Newtown Pednormead End Pond Park Townsend Waterside Other civil parishes (component villages and hamlets) Ashley Green Ashley Green Whelpley Hill Chenies Chalfont St Giles Bottrells Close Chalfont Grove Chalfont St Giles Jordans Stratton Chase Chalfont St Peter Austenwood Chalfont Common Layters Green Chartridge Asheridge Bellingdon Chartridge Hundridge Pednor Pednor Bottom Chesham Bois Cholesbury-cum-St Leonards Buckland Common Cholesbury Hawridge St Leonards Coleshill Great Missenden Ballinger Ballinger Bottom Ballinger Common Bryant's Bottom Frith-hill Great Missenden Heath End Hotley Bottom Hyde End Little Wood Corner Mobwell Prestwood South Heath Latimer Latimer Ley Hill Orchard Leigh Tyler's Hill Little Chalfont Little Missenden Beamond End Holmer Green Hyde Heath Little Kingshill Little Missenden Mantles Green Mop End Spurlands End Penn Beacon Hill Forty Green Knotty Green Penn Penn Bottom Penn Street Winchmore Hill Seer Green The Lee Lee Clump Lee Common Lee Gate Hunt's Green Potter Row Swan Bottom The Lee Former districts and boroughs Amersham Rural District Chesham Urban District Former constituencies Buckinghamshire County Constituency Amersham Constituency List of Parliamentary constituencies in Buckinghamshire List of places in Buckinghamshire List of civil parishes in Buckinghamshire