CHENEYS, Chenies, or Islehampstea-Cheneys, a village and a parish in Amersham district, Bucks. The village stands on the verge of the county, on the river Chess, 4 ¼ miles E by N of Amersham, and 4 ½ WSW of King’s Langley r. station. It consists of neat cottages, grouped round a pretty green; has a post-office of the name of Chenies, under Watford; and gives the title of Baron to the Duke of Bedford. The parish comprises 1,744 acres. Real property, £2,399. Pop., 468. Houses, 112. The manor belonged formerly to the Cheynes and the Sapcotes; and passed by marriage, in 1560, to the Russells. The manor-house of the Sapcotes was almost rebuilt by the first Lord Russell, and gave entertainment to Queen Elizabeth in 1570; and a picturesque fragment of it, now a farm-house, still stands adjacent to the church. Chorley-Wood, in the near neighbourhood, is the seat of W. Longman, Esq. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Oxford. Value, £380. Patron, the Duke of Bedford. The church is an ancient edifice, beautifully restored; was the marriage-place, in 1630, of the Countess of Dorset to the Earl of Pembroke; contains two remarkable brasses of the Cheynes; and includes a chapel which has been the burial-place of the Russells since 1556, and which contains a series of magnificent tombs of the Earls and Dukes of Bedford and their children. There is a Baptist chapel.
Source: The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales [Wilson, John M]. A. Fullarton & Co. N. d. c. [1870-72].
