Fingest

Fingest

St Bartholomew’s Church Fingest
Fingest
 Fingest shown within Buckinghamshire
OS grid referenceSU777912
Civil parishHambleden
DistrictWycombe
Shire countyBuckinghamshire
RegionSouth East
CountryEngland
Sovereign stateUnited Kingdom
Post town Henley-on-Thames
Postcode district RG9
Dialling code 01491
Police Thames Valley
Fire Buckinghamshire
Ambulance South Central
EU Parliament South East England
UK ParliamentWycombe
List of places
UK
England
Buckinghamshire

Coordinates: 51°36′51″N 0°52′37″W / 51.614232°N 0.876955°W / 51.614232; -0.876955

Fingest is a village in Buckinghamshire, England. It is in the Chiltern Hills near the border with Oxfordshire. It is about six miles WSW of High Wycombe. It lies in the civil parish of Hambleden (where the 2011 Census population was included).

The village name of Fingest comes from the Anglo Saxon name Thinghurst, meaning 'wooded hill where assemblies are made'. In the 16th century the name is recorded as Thingest and then Fingest.[1] Although the early name is the etymological root of both 'Tinghurst' and 'Fingest', the latter doesn't follow the former by any normal linguistic line.

The ancient parish of Fingest included Cadmore End to the north of the village, which became a separate ecclesiastical parish in 1852.[2]

The manor of Fingest anciently belonged to St Albans Abbey, though in 1163 it was given to the bishop of Lincoln. The ghost of Henry Burghersh, 14th-century Bishop of Lincoln, is reputed to haunt the area.[3] After this time it was used as the country residence for the Lincoln diocese until 1547 when it was seized by the Crown. It was then given two years later to the Duke of Somerset who exchanged it with a property belonging to Wells Cathedral.[2] The manor is now privately owned.

The civil parish of Fingest, originally based on the ecclesiastical parish, was enlarged in 1934 by adding land from the parishes of West Wycombe, Great Marlow and Hambleden. As a result Lane End became the largest settlement in the parish, and the parish was renamed Fingest and Lane End in 1937.[4] In the 1980s the civil parish was abolished. The larger part became the parish of Lane End, and the village of Fingest was added to Hambleden parish.

In May, 2013 George Clooney and Matt Damon arrived in Fingest to work on their new film. The actors, who have worked together several times, were filming the period drama Monuments Men, which was released in February 2014, alongside The Artist actor Jean Dujardin.[5]

Church

The parish church of St Bartholomew's dates from the early Norman period. It has an unusual tower, with a double vaulted roof. The church is a Grade I listed building.[6]

References

  1. Watts, Victor, ed. (2010), "Fingest", The Cambridge Dictionary of English Place-Names, Cambridge University Press
  2. 1 2 William Page (editor) (1925). "Parishes: Fingest". A History of the County of Buckingham: Volume 3. Institute of Historical Research. Retrieved 11 July 2011.
  3. "Green Man of Fingest - Mysterious Britain & Ireland". Mysterious Britain & Ireland. Retrieved 29 August 2014.
  4. Vision of Britain website
  5. Period Drama filmed in Fingest.
  6. English Heritage: Images of England

Media related to Fingest at Wikimedia Commons

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 11/20/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.