Everything about Wingrave totally explained
Wingrave is a
village in
Buckinghamshire,
England. It is in the
Aylesbury Vale, about four miles north east of
Aylesbury, three miles south west of
Wing.
Wingrave is twinned with
La Bouëxière in
France.
Etymology
Its name occurs in the
Domesday Book as
Withungrave and in 1163 as
Wiungraua. It comes from
Anglo-Saxon Wiwinga grāf or
Wēoinga grāf = "the
grove of the people referred to by
Wing, Buckinghamshire" or "the grove of the people of the heathen temple".
Architecture
Around the recreation ground and in other parts of the village are many houses and cottages of varying sizes, constructed in neo-
Tudor style, erected by
Hannah de Rothschild in the
19th century. These houses, which display her personal cypher 'H de R' were homes for estate employees. They remained part of the
Mentmore Estate until well into the
20th century and are very sought after today, commanding a very high price.
Wingrave Manor, also known as 'The Old Manor House' is a
Victorian half timbered pastiche of nearby
Ascott House. Like many of the village's cottages it too was built by Hannah de Rothschild in
1876. Why she built a large house barely two miles from her own home
Mentmore Towers (one of the largest mansions in
Buckinghamshire) can only be the subject of conjecture. The design of the house while similar to Ascott, doesn't have the same lightness of touch as Ascott, so is unlikely to have been designed by Ascott's architect
George Devey. The Rothschild family don't appear to have ever lived at Wingrave, as the house was soon let to the Stewart-Freeman Family who enlarged it in
1885 and eventually purchased it in
1898.
Czech Connection
It was the last Stewart-Freeman daughter, Mary Eveline, Countess of Essex, (who was divorced from the Earl of Essex) who leased the house (Wingrave manor), to the exiled Czechoslovak government. They leased it for £20 a week as a residence for the employees and families of the Private Office of President Beneš (called the Chancellery). During this time the President Dr.
Edvard Beneš lived at The
Abbey in nearby
Aston Abbotts, and his Military Intelligence of the exiled government lived at Addington House in nearby
Addington, near Winslow. The offices of the Czechoslovak Government in Exile were at various locations in London.
President Beneš donated a bus shelter to the villages of Aston Abbotts and Wingrave in 1944. This is on the A418 between the two villages. Following the departure of President Beneš's officials in
1945, the Manor was leased to an order of nuns who cared for disabled children on the site for over twenty-five years. In 1998 President
Václav Havel, the first post-communist President of the Czech Republic, visited Wingrave to mark its Czech connections.
Wingrave C of E Combined School
Wingrave C of E Combined school is the only primary school in the village, and takes children from Wingrave, Cublington, Rowsham and Aston Abbotts. The current site was built in 1974, after the old schools at Wingrave and Aston Abbotts closed. It teaches around 150 pupils from the ages of 4 to 11. The current Headteacher is Lana Dimic. The primary school has very close links to the church. Every year the school travels to the Parish Church for a Harvest festival. There is a nursery,
Bright Start, attached to the school. At the age of 11, the pupils move to either
Cottesloe School in
Wing or a selective school in
Aylesbury.
MacIntrye School
In
1972 the Manor was sold and today is the
MacIntyre School. The school cares for children described as having complex learning difficulties and was greatly supported by
Bob Monkhouse during his lifetime.
Churches
Wingrave has a parish Church of
St Peter and
St Paul,where Rev Derek Witchell is Reverand. Wingrave also has a Methodist Church at Nup End. The former URC Church closed in 2005, although the Congregational churchyard remains as a memorial garden.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Wingrave'.
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