> Marshalls Home
Aston Rowant, the Aston meaning ‘east tun’ and the Rowant after the 14th century
Rohant family, is a pretty little brick and flint village lying at the northern
foot of the Chiltern Hills. Like all the villages along the foot of the
Chilterns it is sited by a stream, the Holbrook, which forms its eastern
boundary, the A40 forming its western boundary. To the south of the village the
ancient Icknield Way runs below the Chiltern escarpment and to the north the
Lower Icknield Way.
The oldest part of the village lies by the 12th century church of St Peter and
St Paul. In spring the bank of the churchyard is massed with daffodils and
blossoming trees. Elizabeth I, when a princess, rode past on her way to
imprisonment at Rycote and the bell ringers were put in the stocks for ringing
in her honour.
The village boasts a privately owned one and a half acre village green with fine
trees and daffodils in spring. Around the green is a farmhouse and cottages,
which were mainly built in the 18th and 19th centuries. To the east a row of
neo-Georgian houses was built in the early 1970s.
There has been a manor house at Aston Rowant from 1352. In the 17th century the
house was rebuilt in Haseley stone dressed with Bath stone — a fine house with
ornamental staircase and picture gallery. Over the years the park and gardens
were laid out, together with a two and a half acre lake. ‘The manor house with
its park and gardens was one of the remarkable seats in the county’, as Brewer
put it in his guide of 1819. On the death of Edward Dashwood in 1950 the house
was sold and used for storage by a grass-drying firm — it burned down in 1956.
Now 13 ranch-style bungalows have been built in the park and the walled kitchen
garden, with its grape, peach and nectarine houses, owned and worked as a
nursery until 1986, has been built on.
The village school was built in 1844, much earlier than many in the county.
Before that there had been a lace school for girls. Originally pupils spent all
their school years in the village, now they leave at nine to go on to Chinnor
and Thame. Bucket toilets were only replaced in the late 1960s.
The railway came in 1872. The station was used for the films My Brother Jonathan
and The Captive Heart in the 1950s. Sadly the station closed in 1957 and the
site is now used for storage by the County Council.
Up until the 1960s most people worked for the ‘big house’ or on the local farms.
Aston House owned the village, it made its own gas for street lighting, etc, the
road through the village was swept daily and woe betide a gardener if a weed
could be found!
With the coming of the M40 Aston Rowant has become a commuter village, its
inhabitants working in London or the larger towns nearby. Two of the farms have
become studs, one stallion being the famous Daring Do. The village shop has
disappeared but the church and school still thrive. The church has a good team
of bell ringers and a social committee to organise various social events.
Unfortunately a lot of money is needed for its restoration.
There is no public house but there is a thriving cricket club, established in
1881, with a pitch so well cared for that it has been used for Minor County
games. Twice the team has got to the semi-finals of the National Village Cricket
Knockout.
Click here
for a quote and to instruct your survey online
> Marshalls Home