Stoke Poges, Buckinghamshire

Description
Stoke Poges, a village and a parish in Bucks. The village stands 3 1/2 miles N of Slough station on the G.W.R., and has a post, money order, and telegraph office (R.S.O.). The parish contains also Ditton hamlet, and parts of Slough and Salthill. Acreage, 3437 of land and 28 of water; population, 2356. There is a parish council consisting of eleven members. The manor belonged anciently to the Poges, passed to the Molins, the Hastings, the lawyer Coke, Lord Purbeck, the Gayers, the Halseys, Lady Cobham, and the Penns, and now belongs to the Bryants. Stoke Park is a fine mansion in the Italian style, with a beautiful interior, standing in a deer-park of about 500 acres. It was formerly the seat of Lord Chief Justice Coke, and was visited by Queen Elizabeth in 1601. Ditton Park is an ancient square mansion, surrounded by a moat, and standing in a park of about 260 acres. Stoke Place, Stoke Court, and Sefton Park are chief residences. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Oxford; gross value, £600 with residence, in the gift of the Duke of Leeds. The church is an ancient and interesting building in mixed styles, from Norman to Later English, consisting of chancel with Hastings chapel on S side, nave, aisles, S porch, and an embattled tower with spire. It has some good stained windows, and many ancient brasses, tombs, and memorials. The churchyard is the scene of Gray's " Elegy written in a Country Churchyard," and contains his tomb. A monument to the memory of the poet stands in Stoke Park, opposite the church. There are an hospital for six poor persons and some small charities. Chapels of ease are at Ditton and Holly Bush Hill, and a mission hall is in the Stoke Road. Baylis House, the property of the Duke of Leeds, is now used as a Roman Catholic boarding-school.