When in 2022 Affinity Water announced their plans to restore two sections of the River Misbourne in Old Amersham, the Society agreed to develop a project to build on proposed improvements by explaining the nature of chalk streams, their geology and ecology, their use and misuse over time and the history of the river in Amersham.
After the restoration works were completed in 2023, the Committee formed a working group to launch the project. As well as the Dulcie Denison legacy, they obtained additional support from Amersham Town Council and local residents Brian Withington and Graham Cook for which we are grateful.
The first stage of the project is the installation of an information panel at Church Mead and the development of this web page to provide some additional information.
A further panel will be installed near the river on Barn Meadow. Affinity Water are installing a similar panel on Pondwicks, explaining what has been done for restoring the river and enhancing habitat. We are also developing a riverside walk, with further information to be added here about the route.
About the Misbourne
The Misbourne is a chalk stream, it rises in Great Missenden and runs for about 27km (17 miles) until it joins the River Colne in Denham.
Chalk streams are rare. England has 283 chalk streams, about 85% of the world total. Chalk is a porous rock, which absorbs the rain, percolating down until it reaches the impermeable clays. It’s a slow process so much of the rain is held in a huge underground store, called an aquifer. Water slides out of the hillside, off the clay level and appears in springs of clear water at a steady temperature, having been through a giant chalk filter. With its calcium content, the stream water provides a natural habitat very suitable for certain types of plant and animal life.
Amersham grew up on the banks of the Misbourne because it provided a reliable supply of clear water for drinking by people and animals and our first information panel refers to bronze age finds in the river, shows the line of Roman roads and prehistoric trackways crossing the river. The river was gradually straightened and widened to support the many mills which grew up on the river making it much less suitable for wildlife.
Church Mead Information Panel
To read information published on the panel please click on the image below (PDF 9 MB), for additional information just scroll down.
The River Misbourne over-topped its bank here, flooding Church Mead for several weeks in both 2014 (right) and 2024 (far right).
However, flooding around here is nothing new. In the 15th century, the floor level of St Mary’s Church was raised by about 65 cm because of repeated flooding. If you go into the church via the porch on the south side, you can still see the evidence of this in the form of two low, blocked doorways, one immediately on your left as you enter the church, the other a little further round. But even further left, if you were to go into the bell tower (it’s usually locked) you would you have to descend three steps before then climbing the stairs up the tower.
Roman remains were discovered near the eastern end of the Amersham by-pass when a pipeline was being constructed. Other remains have been found around Mantles Green Farm. For example, Roman coins from Coldmoreham (the farmhouse and yard beyond 160 High Street) are now in the Amersham Museum as are coins found at the Friends Meeting House (Quakers) in Whielden Street. There is said to be a Roman villa at the bottom of Shardeloes lake, and very likely the remains at Mantles Green were the farm associated with it.
At the time of the Norman conquest in 1066, all the land in the parish of Elmodesham (Amersham) belonged to, or was under the protection of, Queen Edith, the widow of Edward the Confessor. Even William the Conqueror felt he could not confiscate the lands of a queen so it was not until her death in 1075 that the six manors (estates) into which the parish was divided were re-allocated. We don’t know which manors were where.
However the main manor, given to Geoffrey de Mandeville, must correspond to the one based at Bury Farm
and it’s reasonable to speculate that Thurston Mantle may have given his name to Mantles Green Farm.
The tithe map of 1838 shows that at the time Church Mead (field 83) was almost entirely surrounded by water – the river on the north side and channels on the other sides, with a spur going alongside what are now the Memorial Gardens, almost to the Broadway. These channels must be all that remains of the mill race for the mill, originally mentioned in the Domesday Book later used as a fulling mill. The spur would have fed water to the Griffin Maltings, the white building (now a beautician).