Flackwell Local Area History Group

Fennels Way families at a VE Day party at Arthur Wilks' house on Swains Lane, from John Durham	Our objectives are: To conduct research into aspects of the history and life in the communities of Flackwell Heath, Loudwater and Wooburn To hold exhibitions on subjects of historical and topical interest To conduct community projects on the history of Flackwell Heath, Loudwater, Wooburn and their environs and related subjects of local and community interest To liaise with schools and other local interest groups to provide information on the history of Flackwell Heath, Loudwater, Wooburn and area To support Flackwell Heath Community Library in preserving records and sources of information on the history of the locality To organise talks, seminars and workshops on local history.
Autumn Programme 2025 All talks for 2025 will be at the Flackwell Heath Community Library. We are now on our summer break with our talks for the remainder of the year listed below. We look forward to seeing you in October. Monday 6th October 2025 from 7.30pm ‘The history of our local villages in SWOP pictures' with John Gurney at Flackwell Heath Community Library Flackwell Local Area History Group member John Gurney will present a history of the local villages of Flackwell Heath and Loudwater using old black and white SWOP pictures. Come and find the answers to some of your questions about the local area. This is a ticketed event. The tickets are £5 (£3 to friends of FHCL) and are available from the library on Tuesday 2nd September. Please note that the doors will open at 7:15pm and that tickets will not be available on the night. Monday 3rd November 2025 from 7.30pm CORRECTION TO TITLE: ‘The People and Places of Wooburn' with Simon Coles at Flackwell Heath Community Library Wooburn resident, Simon Coles, will present an illustrated history of the Wooburn areas from the Norman Conquest to the present day. This is a ticketed event. The tickets are £5 (£3 to friends of FHCL) and are available from the library on Tuesday 30th September. Please note that the doors will open at 7:15pm and that tickets will not be available on the night. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- To commemorate the 80th anniversary of VE Day the local history group presented a display in the Community Library of the Flackwell Heath Home Front. (Crocheted figures made by the Knitting and Crochet Group.) You can read the stories here: Start walk from Sedgmoor House. From new Green Dragon. From the village school. From the Green Man pub. From the Temperance Hall. Conclude walk at the Hostel. We have finally solved the mystery of where this house was once situated. It was at Cherry Corner. Many thanks to Ken Townsend's postcard collection for giving us the vital clue needed. The mystery house. Cherry Corner today Junction of Straight Bit with The Common. Postcard from Ken Townsend. The gate on the right was the entry to the recreation ground, now The Coppice. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- To find out more about our activities please use the links below: For a visual history of our villages go to Flackwell folk: www.galaxypix.com/Sally/Flackwellfolk/ Loudwater lea: www.galaxypix.com/Sally/Loudwaterlea/ Your memories of village life are always much appreciated and these will appear under the learn more buttons on our Flackwell folk and Loudwater lea websites:click here to contact us. For 'Then and Now' images of the area click here Here is a Timeline of Flackwell Heath. Our Fact Finding Forum is no longer running as we feel that we have run out of topics 'within living memory' to discuss and research. Our twentieth century shops, chapels, churches, schools, pubs, farms and houses have all come under our gaze at the fact finding evenings and this research is now being added to the Flackwell Heath Timeline.   Timeline of Flackwell Heath.  This timeline has been prepared by members of the group. It lists the events which have shaped Flackwell Heath since 1800 and also sets them in the national and international context. We hope you enjoy reading it. Further information about any of the events listed on the Timeline would be welcomed and we invite your comments or corrections. Contact the group at info@localhistorygroup.org.uk  Note that folders on the farms, woods and houses which support our timeline investigations can be found in the local history section in Flackwell Heath Community Library. We now feel that we need to go further back in time to find out how these buildings, and local family names, came to be here in the first place. A new research group has thus been formed to investigate deeper into our past and if you would like to join us please click here to contact us. Schools Records The Local History Group have CDs of the Flackwell Heath (1876-1913) & Loudwater Schools records for sale at £5 each. Please contact Pat Trotter 01628 524332 if you wish to buy a copy. Book a Family History Research session Would you like to find out about where you come from? Would you like to know who your grandparents or great-grandparents were, and where they came from? If you would like to discover more about your family using the internet but are unsure how to start, then why not try a session of family history research. To arrange a research session please contact Gill Kyle on 01494 436314 or by email donkyle@btinternet.com. The sessions cost £2.00 for 50 minutes plus the cost of any photocopying. Appeal Corner We continue to gather information about our villages in the past. Copies of old photographs of local houses, schools, churches, chapels, pubs, farms and farmland are always welcomed. If you have old cine films of your road, house or family filmed in this area we would love to see them to enable us to compare then and now. Please feel free to contact Pat Trotter on 01628 524332 or email pattrotter@talktalk.net Greeting Cards Also available from the library are local area greeting cards. We now only have Loudwater and Wooburn ones left. They are blank inside and cost £2.50 each. Facebook Flackwell Local Area History Group has its own page on Facebook where you can view and comment on old pictures and interesting information about our villages. If you are a Facebook user and would like to join the page there is a direct link at the top of this page or go to https://www.facebook.com/FlackwellLocalAreaHistoryGroup/ and 'like' the page. If you would like to share information in advance on the topics contained in any of our talks we would love to hear from you. click here to contact us. (For all enquiries please contact the Flackwell Heath Community Library, Chapel Road, Flackwell Heath) Remember to pick up a Walks Guide Sheet The Local History Group wish to encourage you to get out and discover some local views and the history under our feet. Jane Dunsterville has devised three circular walks in and around Flackwell Heath that are available from the Library. Pick up your Guide Sheet and discover an old trade route, the road that is named after a local merchant and the Old Wharf at Little Marlow. Walks are entitled: Fennels Wood Down on the Farm Golf links Loop To contact the group, please click here	Our Research Projects Members of the Local History Group have wide ranging interests, from transport to houses, and places to people. To find out more about the cherry orchards, for which the village was famed, see here: Orchards in Flackwell Heath. To make your own wild cherry wine follow this recipe which appeared in the Chilterns magazine in 1949: To find out more about how the village housing developed see here: Flackwell Heath housing. Local War Memorials The Flackwell Local Area History Group has now completed its research into the WW1 soldiers who are named on the Flackwell Heath War Memorial. A folder of this research is available in Flackwell Heath Community Library. In 2016 five new WW1 names were added to the memorial thanks to this research. Our research into the Loudwater WW1 names is also complete and a folder of this research is also available in the Library. Information on both these war memorial projects can also be found on this website tinyurl.com/warmemorials but this is still a work in progress as more information becomes available. The WW1 names on the Wycombe Marsh war memorial have also been researched during 2017 by member Ruth Bowler and this was presented to the people of Wycombe Marsh in October 2017. To commemorate the 100th anniversary of the end of World War 1 in 2018 the local history group took part in a large community event called Battles Over. This involved the scouts, guides, brownies, cubs and many other local groups. We began the day at the Flackwell Heath War Memorial where we re-enacted the 1921 unveiling ceremony of all the WW1 names and completed our commemorations in the Community Centre with a performance by boys from John Hampden Grammar School and the local history group. You can read the stories here: Men of the Hampshire Regiment. Men of the Ox and Bucks Light Infantry. The ones who died at home. Those who survived. The families left at home. Our World War Two research is now completed but we hope that anyone with additional memories of the WW2 men named on the memorial will contact us with any further information. Also, any stories of life in our villages during this time will be warmly welcomed. Do click here if you have anything to offer our research. The Group also took part in the 'Tell Them of Us - Wycombe and the Somme' cemetery pageant at Wycombe Cemetery in 2016. A website providing self guided WW1 trails of the war graves and memorials in Wycombe Cemetery can be found here: www.galaxypix.com/Sally/Losttheplot/Tellthemofus/index.html (Some of our local men are buried in Wycombe Cemetery.) The Group's research into what happened to the Swing Rioters of 1830 who were transported to Tasmania, and the stories of the families they left behind, has now been completed. The research is now available in the library. For further information about any of our events and activities please call into the library, or click here Previous events 2025 The History of the Gardens with Dr Jacqui Edwards The People of the Abbey with Dr Ceri Falys What have the Romans done for Flackwell Heath? with Nigel Rothwell Retailers in High Wycombe with Jackie Kay John Hampden with Beth Rogers 2024 Four For Thought with John Gurney Commonwealth War Graves Commission – Gardening the Globe with Kevin Fitzsimons Willie & Ettie Grenfell: The Souls of Taplow Court with Nigel Smales The 80th Anniversary of D-Day with John Gurney Cliveden: The American Millionaires with Cliveden speaker How Lucky We Were with Luca Webb The Commonwealth War Graves Commission with Ron Baker 2023 Prehistoric Buckinghamshire with Michael Farley Thames Valley Millionaires with Keith Parry Coaching Inns with Julian Hunt The Bishop of Lincoln and our local area with Michael Garrido The Home Front During WWII with John Gurney Beacons of the Past: Chilterns Iron Age Hillforts with Dr Wendy Morrison 2022 Under the Radar – does Flackwell Heath have wartime secrets? with Sally Scagell The Mills of the River Wye with John Gurney From Yesteryear to Here - the Jubilee edition - with Sally Scagell From Yesteryear to Here with Sally Scagell Lords of the Manor with Sarah Charlton and Mike Dewey Sticky Bombs and Stool Pigeons with John Gurney 2021 The Caringtons with Sarah Charlton Secrets of Bucks in WWII with John Gurney 2020 All further 2020 talks postponed due to the pandemic Sticky Bombs and Stool Pigeons with John Gurney 2019 Repeat of Cliveden: Passion, Pleasure and Politics Secrets of Bucks in WWII Group Visit to the Bunker at RAF Uxbridge Cliveden: Passion, Pleasure and Politics Steam on the Met and Chiltern Lines Dreaming of Home Part Two – the village the men left behind 2018 The Battle's Over – A Nation’s Tribute Dreaming of Home Part One – the village the men left behind Disraeli: The Unlikely Prime Minister Rations to Fashions - shopping in High Wycombe 1945-1970 Steam on the Met and Chiltern Lines High Wycombe’s Contribution to Aviation Literary Luminaries of Buckinghamshire and their Secrets Lesser Known Grand Houses in Bucks 2017 Hospital Train 314 Lost Pubs in Our Villages Woodturning by KraftinWood ‘Frackle’ – what happened: Who built what, where, when and why? Loudwater in the Great War Buckinghamshire Spies and Subversives Warfare takes to the Air A History of Local Railways A History of Wooburn Town and St Paul's Church 2016 Wycombe Man, Carving a Niche in the World Frackle People and Places - from olden times to the 1950s - twice Volunteers from Flackwell Local Area History Group acted as guides for WW1 Wycombe Cemetery pageant Volunteers from Flackwell Local Area History Group acted as models for A Dress to Die For at Wycombe Arts Festival Over a Hundred Years of Local Railway History History of Chairmaking in Wycombe The Villages in the Great War part 1 - Flackwell Heath 2015 History of Chairmaking in Wycombe Stained glass making at Burleighfield The Local Machine Riots of 1830/31 - Rioters families Early Schooling in Flackwell & Loudwater - twice Over a Hundred Years of Local Railway History - thrice and always a sell out! 2014 Women on the Home Front Glory Mill - Walk and Talk The History of paper-making talk Our World at War - Little Marlow Cemetery tour To Boldly Glow - History of glow worms in the area Assistance at Tell Them of Us, WW1 Cemetery Tour, High Wycombe Glory Mill - Walk and Talk Our Villages in the Great War Then and Now - Fennels Wood a changing story - twice 2013 Fund raising Quiz Night The history of Windsor Chairs A virtual tour of the surrounding area - SWOP Open evening - house histories and Glory Mill The Times of their Lives - Little Marlow Cemetery tour Lace Making presentation Walk for National Mills Weekend Silt Road - the Wye Farming in Flackwell Heath Our research on the Machine Riots 2012 The Machine Riots of 1830 Open evening - sharing the past Jubilee Exhibition Community Library Opening - History Display

Site last updated 28th July 2025