Beaconsfield: Encyclopedia - Beaconsfield

Beaconsfield

Beaconsfield is a market town in Buckinghamshire, England, about 30 miles NW of London. The town sits in the highly attractive Chiltern Hills and is part of the London commuter belt, thus the average cost of housing in the town is extremely high. It is in the South Bucks local government district, which was known as the Beaconsfield district from 1974 to 1980.

The parish is mainly given over arable land though some forest remains that was planted to supply the furniture industry of High Wycombe. The parish church is dedicated to St Mary.

The first written reference to Beaconsfield dates from 1185 where it is spelt Bekenesfeld, although this is popularly thought to mean the ¨field by the beacon¨ it may alternatively mean the ¨clearing in the beeches¨ (old Saxon) and the town´s icon is indeed a beech tree. Although the name has been spelt with an ´A´ during modern times the locals still pronounce the name as Beckensfield.

An annual fair is traditionally held on May 10. Its charter originally allowed for a yearly market for the trading of goods and livestock, but it has now developed into a funfair. In recent years some residents have opposed the fair as a hindrance to the Old Town, and have called for it to be scrapped, although the fair has been going for over 735 years, courtesy of Prince John.

In the Victorian era the town was the home constituency of Benjamin Disraeli, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom in 1868 and then again from 1874 until 1880. In 1876 he was made the 1st Earl of Beaconsfield by Queen Victoria. It was due to this that Beaconsfield became a popular road name in industrial cities across the country in the late Victorian period.

Dominic Grieve is the Member of Parliament for Beaconsfield, first elected in 1997, and now the shadow Attorney-General. Tony Blair, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom famously contested the seat in a by-election in 1982 and lost.

Today the town is very prosperous and quite picturesque. It is the home of Bekonscot model village, the National Film and Television School, and it is the birthplace of Terry Pratchett. Famous residents included Enid Blyton, Wendy Hiller and Pauline Quirke, and it is the burial place of Gilbert Keith Chesterton, Edmund Burke and Edmund Waller.

The town is served by a railway station on Chiltern Line out of Marylebone towards High Wycombe and Birmingham Snow Hill. Old Beaconsfield which grew up on the Oxford Road in part to serve the coach traffic, is now mirrored by New Beaconsfield which has grown up round the station to the north.

Beaconsfield - Twin towns

• Langres (France), since 1995

Beaconsfield - Schools

Davenies School, Beaconsfield, commonly known as Davenies, is a private preparatory day school for boys between ages 4 and 13. 2004 report by the Independent Schools Inspectorate.

Beaconsfield High School, commonly known as Becky High, is a high performing grammar school for girls between the ages of 11 and 18.

The Beaconsfield School, commenly know as Becky Secky, it has a high preformance rating and it's sixth form students join together with the Becky High to increase the courses available.

High March School, Beaconsfield, commonly known as High March, is a private preparatory day school for girls between the ages of 3 and 12 and boys between the ages of 3 and 5. 2003 report by the Independent Schools Inspectorate

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Beaconsfield", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki