Book Launch

The History of Coleshill book is now complete and was officially launched on Saturday 7th November.

The book was launched by the Lord Lieutenant of Buckinghamshire, Sir Henry Aubrey-Fletcher and the event was complemented by a local history exhibition and a book signing by the author Julian Hunt.

This new book has been compiled by volunteer members of the Coleshill History Project with the help of the well-known Buckinghamshire historian, Julian Hunt. The book extend to 160 pages, and is illustrated with over 100 maps, prints and photographs of local places, people and events. The book is hardback with an attractive dust jacket.

The book explains how the village evolved on an exposed hillside between the market towns of Amersham and Beaconsfield. It recounts the lives of famous residents such as the poet Edmund Waller, whose family leased Stock Place, and Thomas Ellwood, who held the Quaker monthly meetings at Ongar Hill Farm.

The book focuses on the Common, with its windmill, ancient duck pond, and the clay pits dug by the many potters who lived nearby. It also covers the potteries and chair factories of Winchmore Hill, where the Potters Arms and the former Plough Inn were part of the parish of Coleshill until the 1955 boundary changes.

The book also traces the history of the elegant houses occupied by gentry families with London connections. It shows that when the locals ceased to make pots and chairs, they became servants, chauffeurs and gardeners at the big houses. It brings the village story up to date with Coleshill as a thriving commuter village, retaining its Parish Church, Infant School and Village Hall.