England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Lee St John the Baptist

The Parish

The parish of Lee (also rendered The Lee) lies in south central Buckinghamshire about 3 miles southeast of the market town of Wendover. Lee is a tiny place lying high on a Chilterns hill and scattered settlements of Lee Gate, The Lee and Lee Common make up the greater proportion of the properties. Lee sits in lanes about a mile east of the A413 road which links Wendover to Amersham. The countryside around would have known a mixed farming regime although nowadays it is largely arable. The rolling countryside of the Chilterns being often wooded with chalk dry valleys making for rather poor & flint-ridden soils. There is little surface drainage in the parish due to the porous nature of the underlying chalk, a series of dry valleys runs eastwards and perennially flow into the River Chess, this eventually makes its way to the Thames via the Colne. Lee stands at around 190 metres above the sea on top of its ridge, the valleys to the west followed by the A413 are some 50 metres lower. By Buckinghamshire standards and particularly those of the Chilterns Lee is a tiny parish, it covered less than 500 acres and supported less than 150 parishioners. There is no specific mention of Lee in Domesday Book.

The Church

St John the Baptist's church sits in The Lee alongside its major north/south running lane. The church is a Victorian replacement and is as small and simple as required for such a tiny parish. There is clearly little of architectural merit in the building as Pevsner dismisses it in a handful of lines. The old church still stands to the west of the current building and was 13th century in origin. The church sits on the western side of the lane and is screened by a waist-high hedge. A wooden kissing gate grants access, there are few restrictions to photography once inside the churchyard.