IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Mill Lane, PRINCES RISBOROUGH, HP27 9LG

According to the noticeboard on the left, this modern industrial unit in Mill Lane has recently been purchased by Croudace Homes http://www.croudacehomes.co.uk/ with a view to redeveloping the site for residential use, and is a typical example of a change in use to satisfy demand for houses. Offset against this is the loss of employment opportunities for local people. A Google search revealed little about Aston & Full although it would appear that the production of packaging materials, and maybe paper cups in particular, might have been the function of the factory.

The dovecote is thought to date from the 16th century, and was originally a building on Place Farm, which was demolished in the 1970s for housing development. Dovecotes were built by landowners to house rock pigeons. The pigeons would breed between April and October and the young birds, called squabs, would be taken when about four weeks old to be cooked and eaten. The design of dovecotes has always tried to appeal to pigeons and to discourage birds of prey, although modifications were sometimes needed to cope with the later threat posed by brown rats which could burrow into dovecotes and attack nests close to the ground. This particular dovecote was constructed of chalk and originally would have had about 200 nestboxes. (Notes loosely transcribed, with thanks, from the nearby information board written by the Princes Risborough Area Heritage Society.) Image is in the background. From a cartographic point of view the dovecote somewhat surprisingly merits its own pale orange "building" on the Ordnance Survey 1:50,000 scale mapping.

Monks Risborough is the oldest recorded parish in England. Oldest parts of this present building date back to around 1150, structurally the Church hasn't changed much since around 1470.

The parish celebrated its 1100th anniversary in 2003, with its boundaries having been witnessed by royalty and bishops in a charter dated 903. The Church's website is here http://www.stdunstanschurch.com/ There is a comprehensive description of the church in the British History website here http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=62768

A view across the nave of the light and spacious St Dunstan's church in Monks Risborough with the North Aisle beyond the pointed Gothic arches.

Through a fine early Gothic doorway.

The side of the pulpit seen in Image] nearer to the chancel arch.

The pulpit in St Dunstan's Monks Risborough is C19th. It has some heraldic shields around it making it somewhat unusual. For a view of the other side see Image]

The church dates mostly from C14 and C15 although it was restored in 1863. It replaced an earlier structure. "Risbergh" appears in the Domesday Book and Monkenrisbourgh appears for the first time in 1346 in the Patent Rolls.

A close-up view of the geometrical and leaf design of the carving below the rim of the C12th "Aylesbury" font in St Dunstan's, Monks Risborough. See also Image], Image] and the shared descriptions below.