IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Penn Street, AMERSHAM, HP7 0PP

19th century outbuildings at the entrance to the farmyard in vernacular Chiltern style, with brick and flint infill walls. Photograph taken with a Pentax ESII camera with Takumar 1.8/55 lens, on Fuji Superia 200 film.

This information board has been erected by Penn Parish Council and is located south east of Penn Street off the road to Winchmore Hill, its postcode being HP7 0PS. The wording on this board is mentioned in another submission, https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/6624267 refers.

This information board located south east of Penn Street off the road to Winchmore Hill, has the following wording: GATESTAKES POND & COMMON Top Photo: The pond in early April 2004, soon after it was cleared. Wording: Gatestakes Pond is on common land owned by the Penn Estate. It was completely hidden by tall trees and shrubs and has recently been revealed and cleared out. Behind it, in the woodland, is a second pond and a very large clay pit, the result of a century or more of the activity of a large works on the other side of the road which was making bricks, tiles and pottery for at least a century from the 1770s. Photo: Looking towards Gatestakes Pond from Penn Street common, with the Hit or Miss on the far left, c.1914 (Postcard from Colin Seabright) Left ANCIENT CHARTER Manor House. The present hamlet probably first grew up on the heath outside the gates to service the new manor house, now Penn House, after the de la Penne family moved from their first cramped manor house at Penbury, near Penn Church, to a site which had room for an enclosed warren for breeding game, a dovecote, a rookery and a windmill, all important manorial benefits. This must have been at some time after a Statute of 1285 first allowed a lord to enclose part of a shared common, provided he left enough pasture for the commoners. An 'ancient' charter was produced as evidence for an inquiry, in 1665, into rights of common on the 4,000 acre Wycombe Heath, which covered parts of seven parishes, including the northern quarter of Penn. The charter was a forgery, but it included the traditional bounds of the heath that are judged to be authentic. The bounds define the heath after a large rectangular bite (see map) had been taken out of it, presumably to allow room for the de la Penne's new manor house, shortly after 1400. Field names around Penn House, Ashmoor, Shinglemoor, Culvermoor and Horsemoor, confirm that it stands on former heathland. The names Great and Little Readings tell us that trees have been cleared around it. As late as 1829, Lady Howe paid a quit rent to the manor court for building part of Penn House on the manorial waste of Segraves Manor. Gatestakes. The part of the ancient charter's bounds relating to Penn Street goes, 'and so the way leadeth to woods heeves lyeing and beinge towards the Gatestakes of Pennbury the Manor of Sir Roger Atte Penn Knight'. The 'Gatestakes of Pennbury' are the gates to Penn House opposite Penn Street Farm. There is another record of a 'Roger atte Penne' in 1384. Wood Eves. 17th C deeds show that 'Woods heeves', i.e., the eaves or edge of the wood, was an earlier name for part of Penn Street, presumably the part between Penn House gates and Penn Wood. Middle WYCOMBE HEATH, c.1285 Image: Map of Penn Street village and surrounding area Wording: Green shading shows part of the southern boundary of the 4,000 acre Wycombe Heath, as defined by the 'ancient charter' in c.1400. Note that what is now Penn Street village was then part of the common heath. A poll tax of 1377 records that after the ravages of the Black Death there were only 81 people over 14 years old in Penn parish. Thus, there would have been little objection to the loss of part of the common heath to accommodate the new manor house. The present Earl Howe is a descendant of the de la Pennes and the Penn Estate still owns approximately 1,100 acres of farm land, 450 acres of woodland with 33 houses and cottages. Right ENTRANCE TO PENN HOUSE Photo: At the entrance to Penn House, c.1914 (Postcard from Colin Seabright) Wording: Another Statute of 1285 required that a 200 foot wide (i.e. a bowshot) strip of land was kept clear of trees between a highway and woodland, in order to remove any cover for highwaymen, who were then a serious problem. Thus, the Penn Street gates to Penn House, today, are 200 feet from the road and the common is roughly 200 feet wide with the same open width up to the wood boundary running all the way down, past the school, to the main Wycombe - Amersham road. Penn Street Farm was on the edge of the main common until it moved here after the 1855 inclosure to join the large works which made bricks, tiles and pottery for at least a century from the 1770s. The field next to the farm was called Kiln Slip on the 1838 Tithe Map. In 1840, William Hearne started a small chair factory in a shed behind the Hit or Miss, which grew into Dancer and Hearne, the largest chair factory in Europe employing over 300 people until closure in 1966. The Hit or Miss still has its own cricket team and ground opposite the pub. 1923/38 O.S.MAP SHOWING LINE OF PONDS AND COMMON Colour Code: Green overall - shows registered common Green perimeter - land owned by Penn Parish Council Brown - former common, now private land. There is a separate leaflet and information board for each of the three ponds, which are linked by a mile-long belt of nearly continuous common land. They are the product of a combined Penn Parish Council and Penn Estate project largely funded by a Local Heritage Initiative grant. Miles Green, April 2005 Penn Parish Council

Whielden Lane leading to Penn Street at Horsemoor Lane junction

Lodge Cottages ahead.

This photo taken by a drive off the Penn Street - Winchmore Hill road, shows the plan of the Penn Estate. It has the following wording: Top left KEY PUBLIC BRIDLEWAY Blue Dots PERMISSIVE HORSE RIDE NORTH TO SOUTH Green Dots PERMISSIVE HORSE RIDE EAST TO WEST Red Dots These permissive Horse Rides have been devised for your pleasure and to meet a need for off road links for riders from the public bridleways near Great Beards Wood in the east and Church Road Penn to Common Wood Lane and Penn Street. Please observe the Country Code and keep dogs under control. Please light no fires and take your litter home, respect the countryside and enjoy your ride. Middle left The ride between Great Beards Wood and Common Wood Lane. Red Dots This ride climbs up from the bridleway at Great Beards Wood through the plantation and then enters Sandals Wood, a conifer and hard wood mix, and about thirty years old. The mature section is probably 150 years old. On leaving the wood the ride runs over part of Seagraves Farm with Park Grove Wood on the horizon, crossing Clay Street Lane, before entering Witheridge Wood. The ride takes the rider across a 20 year old plantation, through mature woodland and then open country to Penbury Farm and down the sunken ancient Crown Lane to Church Knowl. At this point the ride climbs up hill skirting Brook Wood then entering for a short distance to run along a ridge towards Puttenham Place Farm House. It then swings north to Pughs Wood and on downhill to Common Wood Lane. Top right The Penn Estate Bridleways and Permissive Horse rides The Estate is approximately 1550 acres, comprising 450 acres of woodland and about 1100 acres of farmland. There is a dairy herd of 140 cows and in the region of 900 acres of arable land. Within the Estate are 33 houses and cottages, the majority of which are scheduled as being of historic and architectural interest. The woodlands are actively managed under the guide lines of Woodland Policy of the Plan for the Chilterns and a proportion of mature timber is felled each year, being replaced with the broad leafed species of Beech, Oak, Ash and minor species as Field Maple, Lime, Hornbeam and Hazel. Middle right The ride between Church Road Penn and Penn Street. Green Dots This ride leaves Church Road, Penn and runs due north, downhill skirting Twitchels Wood. On leaving the edge of the wood the track climbs to a ridge crowned by hedge and bears right to Brook Wood. The ride enters the wood and skirts a small recently stocked broad-leaved plantation along a belt of trees to Common Wood Lane. Proceeds north east along the lane, down into Penn Bottom, across the road and then climbs up to Penn House Grove where it meets the former principal drive to Penn House. The first section of the drive passes through dense Laurel and then becomes lighter and more open where the drive passes the grounds of Penn House. The house can be glimpsed to the east of the drive. The drive skirts the kitchen garden wall, turns due north down the north entrance drive to Penn House past a pair of old timber framed cottages, across a small common to the highway at Penn Street Farm.

Bluebells and newly planted saplings

The gate into the wood can be seen next to the branches of the fallen tree. There is also a path to the right before the gate, leading to Penn Street farm.