Lacey Green

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Lacey Green
Buckinghamshire
SmockMillLaceyGreen(AndrewSmith)Apr2006.jpg
Lacey Green Windmill
Location
Grid reference: SP8200
Location: 51°41’38"N, 0°48’36"W
Data
Population: 2,413  (2011)
Post town: Princes Risborough
Postcode: HP27
Dialling code: 01844
Local Government
Council: Buckinghamshire
Parliamentary
constituency:
Aylesbury
Website: LaceyGreen.com

Lacey Green is a village in the Chiltern Hills of Buckinghamshire, looking down from the slopes upon Princes Risborough.

During the Second World War, RAF Bomber Command commandeered some agricultural land for an airfield. The land has now reverted to agriculture, the school playing field and the village sports ground.[1]

The village has lost its Methodist chapel, shop and sub-post office but still retains a sports club, primary school, two pubs (with a third over at Parslow's Hillock), a village hall and a windmill.

The hamlet was known as Leasy Green in the early 19th century.

Lacey Green Windmill

Lacey Green windmill has been dated to 1650 by leading authority Stanley Freese, which makes it the oldest surviving smock mill in Britain.[2]

The mill was restored from a state of almost total collapse by volunteers under the auspices of the Chiltern Society.

It is widely believed that the mill was originally sited in nearby Chesham and moved to Lacey Green in 1821, but no primary sources have been found to substantiate this and the Chiltern Society has been unable to trace the story beyond 1932. A somewhat speculative theory to perhaps explain the story's origin has been advanced by Michael Highfield, author of the Chiltern Society's guide to the mill. He recounts a conversation with a 96-year-old lady who had lived in the area all her life and remembered being chased away from "Cheshums Mill" as a child. The Mill had been in the Cheshire family since the 1860s and was sometimes referred to locally as Cheshire's mill, which became 'Cheshums' in the local dialect.[3]

Hamlets

Hamlets within the parish of Lacey Green include Loosley Row, Speen,[4] Wardrobes and Parslow's Hillock.

Outside links

Commons-logo.svg
("Wikimedia Commons" has material
about Lacey Green)

References

  1. Lacey Green Airfield
  2. Lacey Green Windmill
  3. Highfield, M (2003). Lacey Green Windmill. The Chiltern Society. 
  4. Lacey Green Parish Council http://laceygreen-pc.org.uk/