Soulbury. A quaint village passing along the B4032. Some history from the British-history online website https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/bucks/vol3/pp414-420 : " SOULBURY Soleberie (xi cent.). Soulbury is a parish consisting of 4,226 acres, of which 855 acres are arable land, 2,948 acres permanent grass, and 77 woods and plantations. (fn. 1) The soil and subsoil are of clay. The chief crops are wheat, oats, beans, and roots. The parish is very irregular in shape. A narrow strip of it, stretching to the north-east, borders on Bedfordshire and is bounded for a short distance by Watling Street. This is the highest part of Soulbury, an elevation of 533 ft. above the ordnance datum being reached at one point. The land here is chiefly heath and woodland, including part of Bragenham Wood and Stockgroves Park. Lipscomb, writing about 1840, says that Bragenham, which was formerly a hamlet of Soulbury, 'has long since formed one large grazing farm and manor house with a single tenant,' there being no vestige of village or hamlet. (fn. 2) To the south-west of Bragenham the parish becomes very narrow and is crossed by the Ouzel, which also forms the boundary for some distance. The land in this district is from 253 ft. to 282 ft. above the ordnance datum. To the west of the river and approximately parallel with it is the Grand Junction Canal. The village of Soulbury is small and scattered. It contains a number of timber-framed cottages, most of which date probably from the 16th and 17th centuries, but all of them have been much altered and added to. Lovett's charity school, built in 1724, is of red brick with gauged dressings and wooden transomed windows. The projections over the doors are supported by carved brackets. At the Green, to the north of the village, are some 17th and 18th-century cottages, mostly refaced in brick. The manor-house of Chelmscott, the residence of Mr. F. T. Bagshawe, lies near the canal. It contains the remains of what appears to be a 14th-century chapel, which belonged to an adjoining house, the home of the Lucys, now demolished. This chapel was probably built in 1343, when Geoffrey de Lucy received a licence to have a chapel in his manorhouse of Chelmscott. (fn. 3) It was much altered, and probably adapted as a dwelling-house in the 17th century, being used as a farm-house in the middle of the 19th century. (fn. 4) The walls are of stone, with renewals or alterations in brick. Within there are remains of niches and piscinae, and some of the roof beams are ancient." Hollingdon lies in the west of the parish. There are here a few 17th-century houses, among them Hill Farm, a half-timbered building, now plastered in front, of two stories with a thatched roof; and Clayhill Farm, another half-timbered house with thatched roof. In the extreme south of the parish is Liscombe Park, which was from the 13th century the home of the Lovetts, but is now the property of Mr. E. W. Robinson. There was a capital messuage standing here as early as 1250, (fn. 5) but the present house was built in the second half of the 16th century. It was much altered in the two following centuries, particularly by Sir Jonathan Lovett in the latter part of the 18th century, (fn. 6) and has been roughcasted. Adjoining it are the remains of a 14th-century chapel, now connected with the house and used as a billiard room. The original windows remain, though much restored. A licence was granted to Robert Lovett in 1304 to found a chantry in the chapel newly built at his manor-house. (fn. 7) Service was performed in it in the 18th century, (fn. 8) and marriages were celebrated in it before the alteration of the marriage laws. (fn. 9) It was later used as a laundry and storehouse. In the park is a small moated mound. An Inclosure Act for Soulbury was passed in 177

• published: 01 Nov 2020
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