| The Lee | |
|---|---|
 The Green at The Lee | |
  The Lee Location withinBuckinghamshire | |
| Population | 698 (2011 Census)[1] |
| OS grid reference | SP900042 |
| Civil parish |
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| Unitary authority | |
| Ceremonial county | |
| Region | |
| Country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | GREAT MISSENDEN |
| Postcode district | HP16 |
| Dialling code | 01494 |
| Police | Thames Valley |
| Fire | Buckinghamshire |
| Ambulance | South Central |
| UK Parliament | |
| |
The Lee (formally known as justLee) is a village andcivil parish inBuckinghamshire, England. It is located in theChiltern Hills, about 2 miles (3.2 km) north east ofGreat Missenden and 3 miles (4.8 km) south east ofWendover. Within the parish is the hamlet ofLee Clump, named for a small group of houses separate from the main village. In 2011 the parish had a population of 698. From 1974 to 2020 it was inChiltern district.
The village name isAnglo Saxon in origin and means 'woodland clearing'. In theDomesday Book of 1086 it was recorded asLee and was, following theNorman Conquest, granted byWilliam I toOdo, Bishop of Bayeux. Its early history is closely tied up with that ofWeston Turville and achapel-of-ease was established in this connection. It and also had associations with theEarl of Leicester who, in the early part of the 12th century, charged Ralph de Halton to oversee the lands. At the end of that century the Turville family took over this role. Soon after thisRobert, Earl of Leicester granted the land toMissenden Abbey. After the dissolution of the abbey The Lee stayed in the possession of the Crown until 1547 whenEdward VI granted a lease on the estate toJohn Russell, 1st Earl of Bedford.
The events that led toFrancis Russell, 2nd Earl of Bedford initially leasing the lands at The Lee to William Plaistowe in 1635 and later selling the land to the Plaistowe family are obscure; either they were mortgaged to pay off debts or were sequestrated as a consequence of the Russells' involvement on the "wrong" side of theEnglish Civil War. Thomas Plaistowe, who died in 1715, was the first of the family to be the outright owner of The Lee and his namesake in 1785 passed ownership to his daughter Elizabeth, who married Irishman Henry Deering. Deering bequeathed the estate in 1827 to his friendJohn Peter Gandy, the architect, whochanged his name to that of his benefactor.[2]
The Plaistowes once more owned the village for another 50 years.
In 1900,Arthur Lasenby Liberty bought the manor from John Plaistowe and built a newmanor house on the outskirts of the village. The old manor house became threeattached properties which remain so today. Outside the new manor house he sited afigurehead depictingAdmiral Richard Howe taken fromHMSHowe. The figurehead was moved to outside Pipers where the family moved to in 1953.
The ship, which had subsequently been renamedImpregnable, was scrapped by theRoyal Navy in 1919, and purchased by Liberty in 1926. He used the timbers of this ship to refurbish, inTudor revivalist style, the interior and frontage of his famedLiberty's department store in central London. The Liberty family still live at The Lee.[3]
The parish church in the villageSt John the Baptist is unusual in that it consists of two buildings: the ancient chapel of ease built in the 12th century which includes a window depictingOliver Cromwell andJohn Hampden as 'champions of liberty', and the more modernVictorian construction that was built of red brick in 1867. Both sit within an oval churchyard, common in places of importance in the pre-Roman period.
There is a Methodist chapel at Lee Common, which was built in 1839 as a Primitive Methodist chapel. It is one of the oldest Methodist chapels in Bucks. There is a small churchyard attached to it. The Methodist church is part of the Amersham Methodist Circuit.
Formerly there was also a Strict Baptist chapel at Lee Clump, and Mission Halls at Swan Bottom and Potter Row.
Hamlets in the parish of The Lee includeLee Clump,Lee Common,Lee Gate,Hunt's Green,Potter Row andSwan Bottom.[citation needed]
The village has been used as the backdrop for a number of television programmes including several episodes ofMidsomer Murders.
Media related toThe Lee at Wikimedia Commons
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