Stoke Poges is famous for its churchyard, where Thomas Gray wrote one of our most enduring and often quoted poems, 'Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard'. A church has stood on the site for over a thousand years. Nearby was the castle of the de Molyns, eventually replaced by a splendid Elizabethan manor house, of which one wing still survives. The medieval barons had been succeeded by the Hastings family, then Sir Edward Coke, England's greatest lawyer ofhis day and the prosecutor of Guy Fawkes, and by the Penns, descendants of the founder of Pennysylvania...

This first full and detailed histgory of the village marks more than a millennium to celebrate the lives of those 'rude forefathers of the hamlet' since Gray's 'Elegy' itself. Ordinary people, like Fred Spring, whose account of his 16 days in 'No Man's Land' in the First World War speaks for all who served in that terrible conflict, feature in this very readable narrative, as well as other 'short and simple annals of the poor', as Gray put it. Inevitably, the records are dominated by those whose 'boast of heraldry, the pomp of power', ensured their documentation - like the Lord Hastings who established, by Act of Parliament in 1557, one fo the earliest almshouses in the county; or the succession of notable clergy who made significant contributions to the welfare of the community.

This attractive book will be warmly welcomed as a significant addition to the published history of Buckingham-shire and, by residents and visitors alike, as a compelling account of the past 1000 years in a fascinating Buckinghamshire village.

LIONEL RIGBY has lived all his life in South Buckingham-shire, and has always been involved in local affairs. As editor of his Parish Magazine he regularly wrote articles about the history of Stoke Poges, During his research he has built up a unique collection of old engravings, maps, postcards and historical documents, some of which are used in this book, written for the Millennium Year.

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