Knotty Green
Coordinates: 51°37′19″N 0°39′18″W / 51.622°N 0.655°W
Knotty Green, once a rural hamlet in the Buckinghamshire Chiltern Hills. It is characterised by large houses set in their own extensive grounds and though it remains within the civil parish of Penn (where the 2011 Census population was included ) today it has become contiguous with the market town of Beaconsfield. .
History
The centre of the old hamlet is still identifiable at the junction of Penn Road and Forty Green Road where there remains a remnant of the old green from which the hamlet took part of its name. The name of the hamlet can be traced back to the 13th century. Knotty Green, or Nattuc as it was called in 1222, takes its name from Old English nattuc (rough grass of tussocks) that grew on the green.
There are several surviving buildings built in the 15th and 16th centuries, including timber-framed hall house Baylins Farm (or Beelings Manor) dating back to 1450. Opposite the cricket pitch stands Hutchins Barn, a 16th-century timbered house with a minstrels gallery. Eghams Farm, built in Tudor times, is a private residence and stands on a path leading to Hogback Wood.[1]
In one corner of the small recreation area adjoining the cricket pitch, there is an old dew pond formerly used for sheep dipping and reputed to have been in existence for 400 years.
The development that followed the arrival of the railway in Beaconsfield in 1906 increased the population of the parish as a whole by nearly 50 per cent in five years, but it was confined to the Penn Road and Forty Green Road. There was still an obvious dividing line between the parishes of Penn and Beaconsfield, where the boundary stream ran under the Penn Road—and where Beaconsfield's pavement and new houses stopped abruptly. Development at this time included a house by the architect C F A Voysey, completed in 1907. Knotty Green also contains a 20th-century water garden at Juniper Hill.
Present day
The Red Lion pub, (which according to Buckinghamshire County Council archives dates back to 1753) lies at the centre of the hamlet along with the home of Knotty Green Cricket Club and a children's playground, is the only pub in Knotty Green and is the only remaining commercial entity in the hamlet. The pub has an Enid Blyton Room, with a gallery of original prints and a library of books donated by members of the Enid Blyton Society. The children's author lived most of her life in a house called Green Hedges (since demolished) nearby.
Notable residents
Val Doonican was one of Knotty Green's notable residents.
References
- ↑ History on Line Knotty Green, Accessed 2 July 2015
External links
- Knotty Green Village website
- The Red Lion Knotty Green
- A brief history of Knotty Green
- Knotty Green Cricket Club
- Visit Buckinghamshire
- The Enid Blyton Society
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