OXLADE FAMILY HISTORY

"Dwellers in the Valley of the Oaks"

History of Downley

Today in 1998 Plomer Hill is the name of the street that goes off the A40 (West Wycombe Road)from a set of traffic lights towards Downley. It runs roughly NE in direction and yes it goes uphill after it first crosses the railway line. It's a pleasant residential area nowadays, and is about halfway between the centre of High Wycombe and West Wycombe Plomer Hill is a villanously steep ascending road, made more difficult because there are traffic lights on the main Wycombe road (A40) at the bottom, so you get no 'way' on you. The road is one thing, and the area round it were both Plomer Hill, and the very slightly flatter bit past it was Downley, and the whole area was once in West Wycombe parish. The name Downley expanded to cover the whole area, north of the main road, which is now a warren of little streets and houses stopping short in a sort of scrubby common when the slope gets really fierce. The views over the Chiltern Hills are great, to the north and west. The developers keep building more tiny houses clinging to the sides of the hills there, however. The town of High Wycombe has expanded its boundaries to include Downley.There used to be three or four farms (mostly sheep) and the labouring folk who still lived there by 1900 and worked the farms were reputed to be -well, not as sharp as those who had moved east into the town, where the big money was, in chairmaking - they were called Downley Donkeys. Then the chairmakers started moving out of the cramped town, smelling of boiling fish glue- into the rural farm areas around -which was when Downley started being built up.

William Bridgewater was a chairmaker in Wycombe -one of the earliest,in 1798 -so he was definitely not daft. The Foxs are then located a couple of miles south, so probably the move to Downley came late. There should be photos on the BGS website - and I have a book with old photos of Downley (out of print now)

Downley was formerly in the parish of West Wycombe and was then a small community perched on the small flattish top of a steep hill (Plomer Hill) north of the main Oxford Road (A40) (and nearly two miles west from the centre of High Wycombe). The road carried on to West W. and on over the hills to Oxford. Such rolling hills are called Downs -whereas they are distinctly Ups, from most angles.

Later, High Wycombe grew and incorporated the hamlet of Downley, and filled it with houses, perched awkwardly on every scrap of land on thehillside. The houses stop abruptly (at the moment) where the land fallsaway again sharply on the other side of the hill, to the north.) It used to be a favourite place for chapels etc to take the children on a cart ride out from the town, since you could picnic on the hillside. There was a booklet of pictures produced about 10 years ago, and at one time, I had a duplicate.

*Eve McLaughlin - Author of the McLaughlin Guides for Family Historians. Secretary, Bucks Genealogical Society http://www.bucksgs.org.uk/

The Early 18th Century in Downley

On the map of 1698 one can recognise some of todays buildings: William Tilbury was at Down1ey Farm and possibly also at Lower Plomer Hill Farm, certainly part of the Narrow Lane fields were his. The Oxlade family now held two farms, James at Thcmpson's along PlomerGreen Lane and Daniel at PIomer Hill.Daniel held 1and on both sides a f the hil1 including fields where Plomer Hill House would eventually be built.Plomer Green Farm was also in use and two cottages stood next to the pond,

one the old flint house still opposite the Downley Donkey and one just behind, where the Littleworth shops are. Peter's Cottage and Pant y Maes were occupied, Moor Lane Cottage, Mountjoys Retreat and two cottages nearby were all on their present sites. The Despencers Arms and an adjacent cottage were in use. There were Twenty houses in all. We know that: Moor Lane Cottage was repaired in 1723 from the date an a beam. Down at Mill End there was a cluster of buildings: a farm, a mill and associated barns and cottages, all on the Downley side of the lane (now traceable as Gilletts Lane and Nutfield Lane) Between 1702 and 1739 a new bridge was built over the river.

In West Wycombe, to which Downley formed an outlying hamlet:, Robert Tilbury was one of two Overseers of the Poor and in 1730 he made the Wil1 on the death of Daniel Oxlade, whose children he found apprenticeships for. Robert to the blacksmith and Jane for housewifery to Henry Shanks, a Tailor in West Wycombe. Some of the poor found employment carrying out the charitable work of the Overseers, for example two members o f the Harris family who dealt: with the dead and their possessions.

Joseph Pontifex lived at: Mountjoys Retreat but in 1734 as the lace dealer returned to his farm with his young son, from the market at Wycombe he was murdered by Marsh and Marshall.His son hid in the hedge and ran to get help.Both the murderers were caught: and were hanged for their crime.Twenty years1ater his widow Mary and John Lee claimed assistance when their stable, barn and outhouses were burned dawn. Mary had seven small children at that time so the Overseers of the Poor stepped in to help.

A great deal of the local poverty was ameliorated by the work offered by the Dashwoods in 1752 when it was agreed by Parliament that a turnpike road should be built between Westwycombe and Wycombe.This would give access to the good roads planned in West Wycombe: the London Turnpike from Easton Street eastwards to Wycombe Marsh and the Hat field to Reading section of the Bath Road. When these two roads were completed in 1772 West Wycombe was expected to have a chance to regain its position in trading with London. The unemployed made tunnels in the chalk to extract f1int: for the hardcore and also presumably for any building works. Numerous quarries and pits in the area had traditionally been used for extracting flints, for example the cut away section of Plomer Hill below Hill Cottage, but tunnelling allowed bands of'flint to be extracted more efficiently.This was followed by the building works on top of West Wycombe Hill at the new church, which was to reflect the wealth that the London merchant family of the Dashwoods had brought to the ancient estate of West Wycombe.

NOREEN TALBOT

DOWNLEY LAMENT

Black bin-bags waft listlessly past,

From shrubs and gates gently waving

To rubbish lorries on their way.

Sprinkles of plastic packaging,

Spreading on tiny lawns and beds,

As snow flakes on neat gardens lay.

A garden gate swings on its hinges.

Not for a latch can these men stay.

Paths and roads,scattered with debris,

Show the passing of "dustbin" day....... Anon