Descriptive Gazetteer Entry for MARLOW (GREAT)

MARLOW (GREAT), a town, a parish, and a sub-district, in Wycombe district, Bucks. The town stands on the river Thames, at the boundary with Berks, amid beautiful and picturesque scenery, 4½ miles W of Marlow-Road r. station, and 5¼ SSW of High Wycombe; was known, at Domesday, as Merlawe; consists chiefly of two streets, crossing each other at a market-place; contains several genteel residences; has, of late years, undergone considerable improvement; and has a head post office,‡ designated Marlow, several inus, a suspension bridge over the Thames, a lock on the Thames navigation, a town hall, an aucient building called the Old Deanery, two churches, four dissenting chapels, a Roman Catholic chapel, a literary and scientific institution, a lecture-room, a national school, an endowed school with £119 a year, alms houses with £79, and other charities, £158. The suspension bridge was constructed in 1835, in room of an old wooden one; and has a span of 225 feet. The lock on the navigation has a fall of 5½ feet. A "chaff ''query is current among the bargemen, "Who ate puppy-pie under Marlow bridge? ''an d originated in a trick of a local innkeeper, who palmed upon plunderers a puppy-pie which they imagined to be a rabbit one. The town hall is a neat stone structure after designs by Wyatt. The Old Deanery contains an ancient kitchen, and has two fine pointed windows with flamboyaut tracery. The parish church, or church of Ail Saints, was built in 1835; superseded a beautiful aucient edifice; is a stncco structure, with a lofty steeple; cost so much as £16,000; and has, in the vestibule, a picture of an extraordinarylusus naturæ, called "the spotted boy. ''Trinity church is a recent stone structure, and serves as a chapel of ease. The Roman Catholic chapel is a neat edifice, after designs by Pugin; and has attached to it a convent. A weekly market used to be held on Saturday, but was recently discontinued. A fair for horses and cattle is held on 1 May and the two following days. Paper-making and brewing are largely carried on; the working of lace, embroidery, satin-stitch and baby linen is considerable; and the manufacture of skewers, for the London and other markets, is extensive. The militar.y college was established at Great Marlow several years prior to its removal, in 1813, to Sandhurst. Shelley resided here in 1817; and he wrote his "Revolt of Islam ''while strolling or boating in the neighbourhood. Seymour Court, on an adjacent hill, is believed by the natives, but erroneously, to have been the resideuce of Jane Seymour; and it commands a fine view over the town and the valley. The town sent two members to parliament in the time of Edward I. and Edward II., and from the time of James I. till the act of 1867, but now sends only one; it was not placed in any schedule of the new municipal act; and it is governed by a high constable. Its old limits comprised only about 150 acres; but its limits for parliamentary representation, since the time of the act of 1832, have comprised the Bucks parishes of Great Marlow, Little Marlow, and Medmenham, and the Berks parish of Bisham. Electors in 1833,457: in 1868,354. Pop. of the p. borough in 1851,6,523; in 1861,6,496. Houses, 1,284. The parish comprises 6,152 acres. Real property, £18,577; of which £15 are in fisheries, and £330 in gasworks. Pop. in 1851,4,485; in 1861,4,661. Houses, 900. Tlhe manor belonged, at the Conqu est, to Earl Algar; was given, by the Conqueror, to his queen Matilda; passed to the Clares, the Despencers, the Beauchamps, and the Nevilles; went, through Lady Anne, to the Crown; was part of Queen Mary s maintenance prior to her coming to the throne; was given by her to Lord Paget; and passed from the Pagets to the Claytons. The living is a vicarage, united to the chapelry of Trinity, in the diocese of Oxford. Value, £260. * Patron, the Bishop of Oxford.—The sub-district contains also the parishes of Fingest and Turville. Acres, 9,771. Pop., 5,450. Houses, 1,055.


(John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72))

Linked entities:
Feature Description: "a town, a parish, and a sub-district"   (ADL Feature Type: "cities")
Administrative units: Great Marlow AP/CP       Marlow Urban CP       Great Marlow SubD       Marlow SubD       Wycombe RegD/PLU       Buckinghamshire AncC
Place names: GREAT MARLOW     |     MARLOW     |     MARLOW GREAT     |     MERLAWE
Place: Marlow

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