Wendover, Buckinghamshire

Description
Wendover, formerly an incorporated borough, now a small market-town and parish, in Bucks. The town stands at the terminus of a branch of the Grand Junction Canal, under the Chiltern Hills, 5 miles SE by S of Aylesbury, and 3 W from Little Kimble station on the Aylesbury branch of the G.W.R. There is a station at the town on the Metropolitan Extension railway. It sent two members to Parliament in the times of Edward I. and Edward VII., and from the time of James II. till disfranchised by the Reform Act of 1832. Flints are found here in considerable quantities, straw-plait is manufactured, and there is a coal wharf on the canal. The town has a post, money order, and telegraph office under Tring, a county police station, and a literary institution with library and reading-room. Fairs are held on 13 May and 2 October. Since the opening of the Metropolitan railway the town and neighbourhood have become quite a health resort. The parish comprises 5788 acres; population, 2036. There is a parish council consisting of eleven members. A reservoir of about 50 acres is here, and supplies water-power to Weston Turville and Aylesbury mills. Buccombe Hill, Boddington Hill, and Coombe Hill, command extensive and charming views. There are several good residences in the parish and neighbourhood. The manor was held by the Fiennes, passed to the Molins, the Hollands, the Knollys, the Hampdens, and the Verneys, and belongs now to the Smith family. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Oxford; net value, £190 with residence. Patron, the Lord Chancellor. The church, which was restored in 1869 under the direction of the late G. E. Street, R.A., at a cost of about £5000, is a building of flint chiefly in the Decorated style, consisting of chancel, nave, aisles, N and S porches, and an embattled western tower. There are Baptist and Congregational chapels, and a mission hall.