Flaunden Village History

The original village of Flaunden was located on the banks of the river Chess between Latimer and Chenies about one and a half miles away from the present village. Records are vague but there are signs of settlement in the Chess Valley in Roman times.

The Domesday Book does not mention Flaunden but it does provide a picture of what the area might have looked like at that time – mainly wilderness but with watermills along the river Chess. In the latter part of the 1200s a manor of Flaunden was held as a separate entity by a Nicholas de Flaunden – the manor was later granted to his son Thomas who improved it and named it after him and it became a village.

In the 18th century the village of Flaunden slowly began to decline on the banks of the Chess and expand at the top of the hill – the reason for this is unclear but it is thought a combination of the plague from rags carrying the disease brought to Chesham for making paper and flooding from the river was the main cause.

The movement uphill was accelerated by the building of a new church there in 1838 and by the end of the 19th century only two cottages and an orchard remained in occupation on the original site. The old village is now lost under the grass.

And now the village of Flaunden flourishes.

Flaunden - The Past, Present and Future book

The history of Flaunden is recorded in a delightful book created by the village community for the millennium celebrations. The Flaunden Book is given by the parish council to all new residents of the village and can be purchased from the council for the sum of £10.  To order the Flaunden Book please contact the Clerk at  clerk@flaundenparish.gov.uk

The Church in the Valley book

The present church in Flaunden, the first designed by Sir George Gilbert Scott, stands at the top of Old Church Lane. This leads down towards the Chess Valley, where the remains of the old church can be found, alongside the river and close to the footpath between Chenies and Latimer. Very little survives of the old church, just a pile of rubble hidden beneath undergrowth in the middle of a copse, but it is of both historical and architectural interest. It was bulit around 1235 by Thomas de Flaunden for the ‘Conveniency of his Tenants’, who would otherwise have had to go to church in Hemel Hempstead, and was one of the few churches in Hertfordshire made in the shape of a Greek cross. This book tells its story from its initial construction until it was abandoned in 1838 and, since many features of the old church were incorporated in the new, is also of relevance to the building which replaced it. It will therefore be of interest both to local residents and those passing through, whether walkers or people staying in the area.