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The Story of Bradenham and the Belson Family
In the year 1690, Maree's 7th Great Grandfather Joseph Belson was born in the beautiful little village of Bradenham Buckinghamshire England. This picturesque village is situated four miles north-west of High Wycombe and four and a half miles south of Princes Risborough. It lies in a valley through the Chilterns, just off the main High Wycombe to Princes Risborough road, and as you approach the village from the busy A4010, it is like taking a step backwards into a bygone age...
It was here in this village that Joseph met Anne Ellie (also born in Bradenham). On the 15th September 1718 they married in
Hughenden.
Their children were Joseph 1719, Francis 1721, and John 1723.
Both Joseph and Anne died around 1748.
Their third son John, an agricultural labourer, grew up in Bradenham where he met and married Mary Figger (also born in Bradenham) on the 28th December 1746. Their children Joseph 1748, Francis 1751, John 1754, James 1757, and William 1760 were all born in the area.
High Wycombe
The Cottages
The cottages they lived in and still stand today, are mostly constructed of brick and flint, and border the northern edge of the green. Rising gradually, the green extends eastwards. Situated at the upper or eastern end of the green was the Church and Manor House. Standing side by side in a prominent position, against a backdrop of beechwoods, they presided over the whole village.
A typical cottage
St Botolphs Church
Long ago the Saxon settlers made their homes in this corner of the Saunderton Valley, building a church on the current site. The name probably derives from 'Brada's Homestead' or "broad valley home". By the time of the great doomsday survey, the village was well established. Lewin of Newenham being the landowner.
Lewin's tenants, Suarting and Herding, it is recorded...."hold Bradenham of the King, and are taxed for two hides of land. There is land for two ploughs, and there are two, with two villians. It was always valued at twenty shillings..."
The earliest part of the present Parish Church, dedicated to St. Botolph, is the nave, dating from 1100. The southern doorway of the same date, protected by a modern porch, is reputedly the oldest church doorway in Buckinghamshire. The remainder of the building dates from the fourteenth century onwards, the north chapel being added in 1542. A new chancel was built in 1863. The western tower of two stages, with a clock to the west, has a turret on the northern side and diagonal buttresses. The building, of dressed flint and hewn blocks of 'denner hill' stone, is a fine example of the use of various local building materials.
In the medieval tower, hang two of the oldest bells in England. They bear the inscription "Michael de Wymbis me fecit". The company was producing bells in Norman england and still flourished about 1300 when these were cast. It has been suggested they were not made for local church. They are regarded as being two of the very few remaining bells by this founder.
The church contains a tablet to Isaac Disraeli and his wife, both of whom lie at rest here.
The lychgate, built by Ward and Turner of Speen, was erected in honour of those of the parish who gave their lives in the Great War, and leads from the green into the churchyard.
Near to the south east corner of the chancel, in the neatly maintained churchyard, is a tombstone dated 1746, which is a listed monument. This records two noble benefactors of the church, Edward and John Lambeth. Inside the church is an example of their patronage, the existing altar, given by Edward in 1742.
The parish registers, recording the comings and goings of the inhabitants of the village, survive from 1627. In one register the Incumbent of 1764 has recorded an event of wide interest. Such an unexpected entry is always a joy to the historian. It reads as:
" An earthquake happened at Oxford about fifteen minutes after four o'clock in the morning of Tuesday, sixth of November 1764, which providentially did not occasion much damage. It was perceived at Hamden (sic) in ye County of Bucks, and in some parts of Gloucestershire. The neighbouring towns and villages near Oxon and in various parts of Berkshire and Wiltshire shook and trembled and ye foundations of Heaven moved and shook because he was wroth".
St. Botolphs Church
The Manor House
To the south of the church stands the Manor House, with its large gardens, overlooking the cricket square on the village green. The western entrance gates are imposing, with accompanying railings and piers.
Manor House
Manor House cont.
The present building of the Manor House is of red brick, tall sash windows, steep tiled roofs with small dormer windows and a row of slender brick chimneys, dating from the mid seventeenth century. This house is thought to include elements of an older, original building of 1540. The seventeenth century rebuilding was probably undertaken by Sir Edmund Pye and his wife Catherine, whose coat of arms appear inside the house.
Early in the sixteenth century, Bradenham was acquired by Andrew Windsor, the son of Thomas Windsor of Stanwell. Andrew was created Lord Windsor in 1529, but died in 1543 being succeeded by his son William, the second Lord Windsor. William built the original manor house, where he resided, also adding a chapel to the parish church. He died in 1558 and was buried very splendidly according to his quality at Bradenham. Under the terms of his will, the house passed to his son Edward.
Edward entertained Queen Elizabeth 1 in great splendour at Bradenham in 1566, on her return from visiting the University of Oxford. A contemporary report records the Queen staying overnight at Great Hampden, progressing next day to Bradenham.
On Edwards death in 1574, Bradenham passed to his eldest son, Frederick. Edward Windsor left instructions for Frederick to build and endow almshouses, for a master and six poor men of the Parish. Strangely this bequest was never executed.
The manor remained in the Windsor Family until 1642, when it was acquired by Sir Edmund Pye. It was Sir Edmund who probably commissioned the major refurbishment of the house. For well over a century the property continued in the Pye family, until it was finally sold in 1787 to John Hicks of Plomers Hill, Bath. On the death of John Hicks in 1825, the ownership was contested and remained for a long time in chancery. Whilst the estate was in chancery the Manor was leased to various tenants.
One of the better known of these tenants was Isaac Disraeli, the Father of Benjamin Disraeli. Isaac, the author of a number of notable works including "curiosities of literature", came to Bradenham in 1829. He is said to have enlarged and modernized the house.
Benjamin later destined to become Prime Minister and a friend of Queen Victoria, as a young man, probably spent time at Bradenham with his father. It was the pleasant countryside around the village which fostered his love of Buckinghamshire and the Chiltern Hills, a love which he retained throughout his life. How deeply Bradenham was fixed in his mind can be preceived by those who read his novel "Endymion", where he describes the village under the name of "Hurstley".
Isaac died at Bradenham in 1848 and is buried in the church. In the same year Benjamin acquired Hughenden Manor, just over the hill to the east of Bradenham, in Hughenden Valley.
Bradenham Manor was in use by a commercial company as a training college and not open to the public, but it is now available for weddings and conferences.
Bradenham Manor
Puddingstone
Some distance to the south west of the church is a house once used as the Rectory. The present building, of nineteenth century construction, marks the site of an earlier parsonage house. The former seven roomed dwelling, was described in 1607 as consisting of "five bays of timber, part thatched and part tiled".
Several cottages facing the northern edge of the green are also included. Thift Cottage, dated 1788 retains a firemark. One pair of cottages, formerly the village store and post office, bear a plaque in recognition of the family of long serving proprietors. The White house, with its granary and timbered outbuildings, has an unusual battlemented parapet to the front. This is a nineteenth century addition to an eighteenth century building. Close by, beside a small pond, is the former village school, now a youth hostel.
An eighteenth century report on Bradenham reveals the Parish contained one thousand two hundred and fifty acres. Seventy acres were under pasture with eight hundred and eighty acres being used for arable. A further three hundred acres were woodland. There were thirty six families living in the parish, the total estimated number of inhabitants being about two hundred.
The northern edge of the green is lined with lumps of "puddingstone". Pieces of this naturally occurring rock are to be found dispersed throughout the locality. Another stone typical of the Chilterns, "sarsen" sandstone, is interspersed with the pudding stones.
North eastwards of the chuch, in a small meadow beside Bradenham Woods lane, shaded by overhanging beechwoods, is an unusual feature of the landscape. Scattered across the meadow, like a minature Stonehenge of Avebury Circle, this series of stones, although far older than the village of Bradenham itself, are not the work of some long lost civilisation. Experts agree they are a curious feat of nature, produced by a deposit left behind from the days of the great Ice Age.
Puddingstone
Chiltern Hills
The reason that Bradenham remains genuinely unspoiled, is probably due largely to the fact that much of the village including the surrounding woodland is cared for by the National Trust.
The one thousand one hundred and eleven acres estate, was acquired in 1956, under the will of the late Ernest E Cook Esq. It included the Manor House, the Red Lion, farmland and three hundred and eighty acres of woodland. Currently there are about six hundred acres of farmland, mostly arable, forming around two thirds of the estate.
The national trust has carried out an archaeological survey of the area, the results of which give a fascinating glimpse into Bradenhams past.
Long straight boundary ditches are to be found within the woodlands. These suggest that two thousand years BC, the hilltops may have been treeless.
In arable land to the north of the village are Bronze Age barrows. These now only show as crop markings.
There is evidence of late Iron Age, early Roman field systems, indicated by step like features. Iron slag, a by product of iron smelting has been found, proving there was industry here in Roman times. Some woodlands have not been disturbed for two thousand years and field boundaries still survive.
Chiltern Hills
The Belson line cont...
Now the Belson line continued on in the Bradenham area when Francis Belson the second son of John and Mary married Elizabeth Trott (born Aug 1751 in West Wycombe) on the 28th December 1778. Their children were Francis born 28 Mar 1779, and Joseph born 19 January 1783.
Their first born, Francis, a farmer, married Elizabeth Mason (born 26 January 1777, Chalgrove Oxfordshire) on 17th July 1808 in Chalgrove and their children were Joseph 1803, Lizzy 1806, Phoebe 1808, Richard 1811, Susannah 1814, and Samuel born 1818.
Samuel carried on as an agricultural labourer and married Priscilla Keane on the 9th July 1837, in Newington Oxfordshire.
She was born on 14th January 1816 in Oxfordshire and died on 4th February 1880 in Chalgrove.
Their children Maryann 1838, James 1839, Richard 1844, Ann 1849, Emma 1852, Frederick 1853, Jessie 1857 and Harriott 1859 were all born in Chalgrove, Oxfordshire.
On 27th May 1868 in Oxfordshire, Ann married Thomas Lawrence who was born 4 January 1846 in Brightwell Oxfordshire.
The 1861 England Census lists Thomas Lawrence aged 15, living with his mother Ann (widow) aged 52 at White House Farm Brightwell Oxfordshire. Their occupations listed as agricultural labourers.
St. Mary the Virgin Church in Chalgrove
Thomas & Ann Lawrence
In 1874, Thomas, Ann and their children Thursa Jane 1868, James 1870, and Ada 1872, made the decision to emigrate to Australia.
Before leaving England, they were met by Ann's parents Samuel and Priscilla Belson. Samuel and Priscilla pleaded with them not to leave by kneeling before them at the Railway station, but they were determined to have a new life in Australia.
They arrived in Brisbane on the 11th April on the ship "Alexandra" in 1874.
Once settled in their new country, they went on to produce Thomas 1874, Ellen Augusta 1876, Frederick William 1880, Louisa 1881, Emma 1882, Alice Clara 1884, Henry 1885 and William John 1887.
Thomas was a Methodist Minister, and is buried in Ipswich Cemetery.
Ann died on 17 September 1932, in Short Street Ipswich at the age of 83 years 5 months.
Their eighth child, Emma, married Harold Richard Stokes on 12 March 1902 in St Johns Church Harrisville Qld Australia.
Their children were Mabel Beatrice born 6 October 1902, Phyllis Marion born 5 January 1905, and Harold Leslie born 21 February 1909.
On the 14th October 1920 in St Pauls Church, Ipswich Queensland Australia, my grandmother Mabel Beatrice Stokes married
Stanley Roy Neumann.
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