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d ir e c t o r y . ]

B UCK IN G H A M SH IR E .

STOKE P O G E S .

191

Eldridge Brothers, blacksmiths
rurssell Feter, farmer, Brook
Arnold Christopher Edward, assessor Goodchild Ernest, farmer
Remnant Sarah (Mrs.), Bull P.H
& collector of taxes, Moat Farm Hedges Alfred V. farmer, Stoke Seaton Tom, farmer, Moat farm
New house
House farm
Smith Edwin, wheelwright
Brill Fred, farmer, Stoke farm & Longrigg Thomas, farm bailiff to Tapping William, farmer
Bells farm
Harry Midgley Kirkham esq
Tomkins William John, farmer, Oak
Brown Ebenezer, farmer, Swallow Orchard Alfred, farmer, Timms farm Tree farm
Lane farm
Pargeter Albert, shopkeeper
Ward Charles, Woolpack P.H
Brown Edward, dairyman
Pearce Ivor, farmeT, Hall End farm Wooster Arthur, Bell P.H
Bunce William, shopkeeper
C O M M E R C IA L .

STOKE POGES is a parish and village, including
Ditton, 3 miles north from Slough station on the main
line of the Great Western railway and 4^ north from
Eton, in the Southern division of the county, hundred
and petty sessional division of Stoke, union of Eton,
county court district of Windsor, rural deanery of
Burnham, archdeaconry of Buckingham and diocese of
Oxford. By Local Government Board Order No. 39,611,
dated October 1st, 1900, a part of Stoke Poges civil
parish was added to Slough civil parish and Urban
District. By a further Order in Council, dated Dec.
12, 1904, the southern portion of the parish was
created a separate ecclesiastical parish and is now
known as St. Paul’s, Slough. The church of St. Giles,
standing in Stoke Park, and now almost entirely
covered with ivy, is a large and ancient structure in
mixed styles, consisting of chancel, with Hastings
chapel on the south side, nave of three bays, aisles,
a massive wooden south porch with pierced tracery
and feathered gable, and anembattled tower with
wooden spire at the east end of the north aisle con­
taining 6 bells: the tower and nave arcades are Early
English, the chancel arch, formerly Norman, has been
replaced by another in the Gothic style, and there are
some Decorated windows; the east window and south
chapel, erected in 1557, are Perpendicular: in the north
wall is a fine ogee feathered and crocketed arch over a
deep recess, supposed to have once contained the effigy
of Sir John Molyns, treasurer to Edward III.; in the
chancel are tombs with brass effigies to Sir William
de Molyns, who fell at the siege of Orleans in 1429,
and his wife Margaret and his daughter Eleanor, 1425 ;
there are also 16th century brasses to Edmund Hamp­
den esq. 1560, and his wife; a brass to James Edward
Coleman and his wife, of Hollenden Park, Kent, 1869;
and a tablet to several members of the Penn family,
descendants of William Penn, founder of Pennsylvania,
who were buried in a vault in the church from 1775 to
1869, the founder himself being buried at the Friends’
Meeting house at Jordans, Chalfont St. Giles; in the
Hastings chapel, built by Sir Edward Hastings, Baron
Hastings, of Loughborough, who died 5 March, 1572,
as a place of interment for his family, is a monument
to Gregory Hascard D.D. dean of Windsor, d. 1708;
on the north-west side is a private entrance, through
the cloisters, from Stoke Park: this cloister has eight
windows, containing ancient stained glass of the 16th
cent, and some of Flemish origin; the whole was col­
lected and placed here by a former owner of Stoke
Park: the cloister leads into a glazed chamber under
the tower now seated with chairs said to have belonged
to the Penn family: the chancel contains a sedile and
piscina: there are 450 sittings, 150 being free. The
churchyard, the scene of Gray’s celebrated “Elegy in
a Country Churchyard,” has some fine yews and
cypresses, and is visited by the admirers of the poet
from all parts; a plain flat stone covers the remains
of Gray and his mother and aunt, and bears an
epitaph to these relatives written by himself; in the
wall beneath the east window of the Hastings chapel,
opposite to his grave, is a small stone indicating the
place of his interment, and in Stoke Park, at some
distance from the church and near the road, is a monu­
ment erected to his memory by Mr. Penn: it consists
of a high square base and inscribed with lines from
the “Elegy ” and other poems, and surmounted by a
sarcophagus of Classic design; the poet died 30th July,
1771. The register of baptisms and marriages dates
from the year 1563; burials, 1564. The living is a
discharged vicarage, net yearly value £538, with resi­
dence and glebe, in the gift of the Duke of Leeds and
held since 1912 by the Rev. Arthur Thomas Barnett
M.A. of St. John’s College, Cambridge, canon of
Gibraltar and master of Lord Hastings’ hospital. The
chapel of ease, at Ditton, near Langley, 5 miles south­
east from the parish church, was originally a chantry
chapel, and consists only of chancel and nave, afford­
ing 80 sittings. It. is ecclesiastically attached to
Stoke Poges. but is served by the clergy of Datcket.
At Hollv Bush hill, about a mile and a half north-east
from the parish church, is another chapel of ease,

re-opened, after enlargement and complete restoration,
on Sunday, August 21, 1870; it was originally a dis­
senting place of worship, but was purchased for church
purposes by the Rev. John Shaw, a former vicar, and
entirely rebuilt by the Rev. Vernon Blake M.A. vicar
here 1866-1902, and now consists of chancel, nave and
a western turret containing one bell: there are 2 0 0
sittings. The hospital near Stoke Park was founded in
*557 by Sir Edward Hastings, 1st and only Baron
Hastings, of Loughborough, who died here 5 March,
1572> an(i is endowed with £137 yearly; it originally
stood near the church, but was rebuilt in 1765 by the
late Mr. Penn, about a quarter of^a mile north-east of
the church, and is now a structure of brick, containing
a house for the master, a chapel and apartments for
three men and three women, each of whom receives 7s.
per week from the funds of the charity: the vicar is
the present master. Lady E. Hatton’s charity of £24
yearly is for clothing, and Gardner’s of £3 yearly for
bread; there are also charities producing about £1 10s.
for apprenticing and of £7 for the benefit of the poor.
In 1810 an allotment of the common of 200 acres was
made for the benefit of the poor. Stoke Park, now the
club house of the Stoke Poges Golf Club, was once the
seat of Lord Chief Justice Coke ; the mansion, designed
by Wyatt, is in the Italian style and has a very fine
interior; the park, of about 500 acres, is well wooded,
and ornamented with a handsome sheet of water 10
acres in extent; Sir Edward Coke entertained Queen
Elizabeth in the old manor house, which was built in
I55S> in great style in 1601 ; he died 3rd September,
1633, and there is a monument in the park to his
memory, with a colossal statue by Rossi, on a fluted
pedestal 68 feet high ; his only daughter married Sir
John Villiers, who was created (19th July, 1619) Baron
Villiers of Stoke Poges and Viscount Purbeck, d. 1657.
The Penns of Pennsylvania at one time lived here, and
built the present house, which was finished early in
the 19th century. The Manor of Stoke derives its name
of Stoke Poges from its heiress Amicia, or Amice de
Stoke, having married Robert Pogis, a knight of the
shire of the 12th century. Ditton Park was, until
1895, the residence of Charlotte Ann Duchess of Buccleuch ; the house, said to have been built by Sir
Ralph Winwood kt. is a square building surrounded by
a moat with drawbridge, and stands in. a finely wooded
park of 260 acres ; it is the residence of Lord
Frederick Glyn Wolverton. Stoke Place is the seat
of Howard Henry Howard-Vyse esq. D.L., J.P. Stoke
Court is the property and residence of Henry
Eden Allhusen esq. D.L., J.P. Sefton Park is the
property and residence of Lord Decies ; the house
stands in its own grounds of about 170 acres, and
affords fine views of Windsor Castle. Mrs. Wilberforce
Bryant is lady of the manor. The principal landowners
are the Duke of Leeds, H. H. Howard-Vyse esq. H.
E. Allhusen esq. the trustees of the late Duchess of
Buccleuch and Sir John C. Bell bart. The soil is
gravel; subsoil, gravel. The chief crops are wheat,
oats and barley. The area is 3,167 acres of land and 27
of water; rateable value, £12,866; the population in
1901 was 3,175, and in 1911, 1433 in the civil and 1,492
in the ecclesiastical parish.
Slough, formerly partly in this civil parish, has been
constituted a separate parish.
DITTON is a hamlet, i£ miles north-east from
Datchet station.
WEST END is part of the parish, three quarters of
a mile north. The poet Gray resided here at what was
then called West End House, now Stoke Court.
Parish Clerk, Frederick Tarrant.
Assistant Overseer & Clerk to the Parish Council,
William Stevenson.
Post, M. 0 .& T. & Telephonic Express Delivery Office.
— Edward N. Cook, sub-postmaster. Letters through
Slough are received at 4.30 & 10 a.m. k 6.45 p.m. ;
dispatched at 8.50 & 11.20 a.m. k 3.30 k 8 p.m. ; Sun­
days, 7.40 p.m