Highwaymen, Martyrs and Model Villages: The Secret Stories of Beaconsfield

[Highwaymen, Martyrs and Model Villages: The Secret Stories of Beaconsfield] Imagine a hill on the road between London and Oxford so dangerous that it earned the name Cut Throat Wood. A place where carriages slowed down on the incline and highwaymen lay waiting in the trees, ready to take your money, your belongings, and sometimes even your women. This was the world of old Beaconsfield, a town whose story stretches from medieval property records to royal scandals and even the oldest model village in the world. Let's start at the beginning. In property returns from 1185, the town appears as Bekensfeld, meaning a clearing in the beeches. Over time, the name evolved into Beaconsfield. But the town really came alive during the late 1700s and early 1800s, when it established itself as a coaching town between London and Oxford. Why did coaching towns matter so much? Because travelling at night was simply unsafe. Highwaymen killed travellers who refused to hand over their valuables. One of the most famous of these criminals was Claude Du Vall, a Frenchman who arrived in England as a footman when Charles the Second was restored to the throne. He hid in Cut Throat Wood, on what is now the A40 between Beaconsfield and High Wycombe, waiting to prey on stagecoaches heading to London. Like so many highwaymen who were caught and convicted, he was executed at Tyburn. The coaching trade shaped the town itself. Old Beaconsfield filled with coaching inns built with wide gates so carriages could pass through to the backyard. Among the major inns were the White Heart and the Saracen's Head, which still stands today, though now as a hotel. And there is evidence that a site existed there as far back as 1242. Then came the railway, and everything changed. As the railway expanded, so did London, and people who could afford to move out chose what became known as New Beaconsfield during the 1910s and 1920s. Between 1906 and 1930, most of the buildings went up, many in the Edwardian style. Curiously, the Beaconsfield Railway is known as the last railway built in the country. The neighbouring town of Amersham had its railway running before Beaconsfield did. Now, who lived in this town? The answer might surprise you. The great politician and statesman Edmund Burke bought the Gregorie's Estate and renamed it Butler's Court. Burke, believed to be the first to tackle the issue of the slave trade, expanded the estate and built a house there. Around 1813 that house burnt down, and a new one was rebuilt in the 1890s. When the railway arrived, the estate was divided into lots and sold to developers. Today those houses stand on Burke's Road, considered the most expensive road in Beaconsfield, and possibly the most expensive in the whole country. Other remarkable residents followed. Enid Blyton, the beloved children's author, lived here. So did G.K. Chesterton, whose house is the second on Grove Road and who wrote A Beaconsfield Ballad. Lord Reith, the first Chairman of the BBC, lived on Hedgerley Lane. And here is a delicious irony. Benjamin Disraeli held the title Earl of Beaconsfield, yet he never lived there and had nothing to do with the area. A close friend of Queen Victoria, he was offered an earldom and asked which suffix he wanted. He chose Beaconsfield, perhaps because his late wife had been the Viscountess of Beaconsfield. There is no clear reason or known relation to the town itself. The estates around town carry their own dramatic histories. Wilton Park was used as a base for interrogating senior German officers after World War Two, later becoming an army training establishment. Hall Barn, built in the mid seventeenth century for the poet and politician Edmund Waller, was sold by the family in 1832 and is now used as a filming location. And there are stranger stories still. Consider the Vicar of Beaconsfield who could not settle his debts and was locked away in a debtor's prison in London. Every Sunday he was released, taken back to Beaconsfield to deliver the ceremony, and then returned to his cell that evening. Today, you can visit Bekonscot, the oldest original model village in the world, created by Roland Callingham, showing many buildings of England in miniature. Look up, and you might spot a Red Kite soaring overhead. These large birds of prey were down to their last six pairs in Wales before being reintroduced in 1994 at the Wormsley Estate in the Chilterns. So what does Beaconsfield teach us? That a small town can hold an entire nation's story. Highwaymen and statesmen, imprisoned vicars and beloved authors, ancient beech clearings and modern luxury. The next time you pass through a quiet English town, ask yourself what secrets it might be keeping. Beaconsfield certainly kept plenty.