THIS article will be the first in a series of articles which I am planning about local landmarks – their previous uses and origins, and how they obtained their names. We will deal with not just today’s landmarks, but those which would have been referred to by our fathers and grandfathers.

We will begin with one which today is somewhat notorious for its traffic congestion, perhaps you can guess its name. I refer to the Handy Cross roundabout.

Those of us of advanced years can think back to the time when we did not have the noise and fumes from motor vehicles at that location, but bird-song and the smells of newly cut grass. All the attributes of a countryside environment.

One could walk along a country road from the end of Cressex Lane, before it became Cressex Road, to the hamlet Handy Cross. A distance of perhaps half a mile. There were fields on either side, and few trees except for a small clump on the eastern side.

This was the road from High Wycombe to Marlow and beyond that to Henley and Reading. It was the Thames Valley bus route No.28, which began in Frogmoor.

At the epicentre of the hamlet of Handy Cross was Handy Cross Farm, with its farmhouse, barns and cowsheds.

Across the road was the Blacksmiths Arms pub, and on its Marlow side was a row of cottages; also a prefab church whose walls and roof were corrugated galvanised steel sheets. Opposite the cottages was Winchbottom Lane, leading eventually to the Bourne End to Marlow road. On the Cressex side of the pub was Ragman’s Lane, which ultimately led to Marlow Bottom.

When I say “eventually” and “ultimately” that’s how it seemed when one was walking, something we did much more of in those days. In reality today in a car those journeys would take a couple of minutes, and still without traffic jams.

The origins of Handy Cross are linked to the farm, which goes back to at least the first half of the 18th century. At that time the Handy Cross estate, which was part of the manor of Bassettsbury, was owned by Samuel Welles. He was a prominent inhabitant of High Wycombe, who died in 1747 and Handy Cross Farm is mentioned in his will.

The farm remained in the Welles family after his death through his sons Samuel and Richard. The records which still exist list indicate that initially the estate was leased to Richard Lansdale of High Wycombe.

The estate included fields, all are listed by name, which were in the parishes of High Wycombe, Little Marlow and Great Marlow. The cottages in the estate were occupied by amongst others John Hutchins and Silvester Hester and the fields were being used by, amongst others, Richard Welles, Thomas Batting and James Batting the younger.

In September 1799 the farm and estate was sold by auction to Ian Walker for £8,200. In November of that year he leased it to John Drewcott for 9 years at a rent of £280 pa.

In February 1812 it was then leased to Richard Badcock of High Wycombe, farmer, at a rent of £500 pa.

On August 2 1814 Handy Cross Farm and the estate of 436 acres, which was then owned by John Walker, presumably the son of Ian Walker, was offered for sale by auction at the Auction Mart. This was an auction house opposite the Bank of England in London.

The farm and estate was sold to Lord Carrington for £11,825, who in 1820 leased it to William Morris for 20 years at a rent of £450 pa. The terms also specified that an additional rent of £30 would be paid for every acre ploughed (ie brought under cultivation), £5 for every acre mown, £5 per load of hay, clover, turnips, and straw, and £5 per sheep “folded” on another farmer’s land. It appears therefore that Lord Carrington was keen that the acreage of arable land on the farm should be greatly increased. In 1826 the Handy Cross estate was valued at £536.16s.6d.

The farm has remained in the occupation of the Morris family for nearly 200 years.

I have found memories of the farm in the 1950’s when it was in the tenure of Cyril Morris, who was a direct descendant of the man who leased the estate from Lord Carrington. I had a part-time job at the farm, doing general odd-jobs around the farm on Saturday mornings in term-time and helping out at harvest-time in the school holiday.

Harvest-time was a joy. Being still a boy I was assigned to be a loader – this entailed arranging the sheaves on the trailer, which was drawn by a tractor around the field where the wheat had been cut and bound into sheaves. Starting on the bed of the trailer the load gradually grew higher and higher and only stopped when the loaders with their pitchforks could no longer reach high enough. It was then back to the farm to transfer the sheaves to a barn for storage.

The day ended in the farmhouse for a delicious supper provided by Mrs Morris.

This account about Handy Cross ends with an event which demonstrates that most things which happen have happened before, albelt in a slightly different form. The article began with the reference to the modern-day Handy Cross roundabout. However nearly 200 years earlier there was probably a similar controversy relating to a new road scheme.

In 1821 it was a proposed to construct a road from Handy Cross north west across the countryside to link up with the “London Road near Crispins Chapel in the parish of West Wycombe, to form a improved communication between Reading and Aylesbury”.

This road was not built at time, but of course New Road, which connects Cressex Road at the Turnpike to Sands, and then Chapel Road to the West Wycombe Road, follows an almost identical route. Our ancestors certainly were farsighted!