Little Horwood
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Little Horwood is a village in Buckinghamshire, England. It is located in the Aylesbury Vale, about four miles ESE of Buckingham, two miles north east of Winslow.
The village name 'Horwood' is Anglo Saxon in origin, and means 'dirty or muddy wood'. In the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle in 792 the village was recorded as Horwudu.
The parish church dedicated to St Nicholas has a perpendicular style tower built of large blocks of ashlar, the remainder of the church externally dates from the restoration of 1889 by the architect J P St Aubyn. This architect's work, today, is not always viewed kindly. His Victorian Gothicisation of so many churches and houses has been described in terms ranging from vandalism to ruthless. Little Horwood church was lucky, as the interior survived relatively unscathed; and the early 16th century wall paintings depicting the seven deadly sins survived as did the Jacobean pulpit, and the decorated style chancel arch.
The manor in Little Horwood anciently belonged to the abbot and convent of St Albans, though was seized by the Crown in the Dissolution of the Monasteries in the mid 16th century. It was later sold to George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham who remodelled the house, which is now demolished.
The present Little Horwood Manor, three quarters of a mile north of the village, was one of the last houses in England to be built in the informal yet commanding style made popular by Edwin Lutyens. Constructed in 1938, it has a high pitched roof, and protruding wings terminated by pavilions, also with steep pitched roofs. The mansion has a gate house and lodges constructed in the same style. This has has now been sub-divided into five smaller houses.
1 mile south east of the village is Horwood House. Not to be confused with Little Horwood manor, this mansion is again a comparatively modern house, built in the Elizabethan style by the architect Detmar Blow in 1912. The house is of brick, and is symmetrical. The grounds are approached through an arched gatehouse. The house was considerably enlarged during the mid 20th century when it was a training centre for the General Post Office. Today this house is a conference centre and a setting for civil weddings.