Great and Little Kimble cum Marsh

The exact origin of the name is unknown though there have been many competing theories.

The name 'Kimble' is said to have been first established around Anglo-Saxon times when it appeared with the name 'Cyne Belle', which corresponds to two Anglo-Saxon words. 'Cyne' (meaning royal) and 'Belle' (meaning 'bell')[3] though the exact reason for calling the place 'Cyne Belle' is not certain. The original theory was that the name 'Cyne Belle' originated from the Celtic leader Cunobeline though this has never been proved chronologically. The modern name Cymbeline originates from Shakespeare's play, his proper-spelt name at the time Cunobeline (Cunobelinus in Latin by the Romans) was King of the Celtic 'Cassivellauni' tribe from about 4 BC to about 41 AD. Cunobeline is most likely known to have owned the hillfort on Pulpit Hill. His tribe occupied part of southern Britain at that time, which was about 800 years before the Anglo-Saxon name 'Cyne Belle' first appeared, with 400 years of Roman occupation and several invasions from Europe in the intervening period.[4]

Mawer and Stenton, who published their book on the Place Names of Buckinghamshire in 1925, thought that 'belle' could have meant a hill and suggested that the conspicuous hill at Kimble (now known as Cymbeline's Castle or Cymbeline's Hill) would have impressed itself on the minds of the first settlers and might have called it 'royal' (or given it royal status) for being the largest visible hill in the locality, or that it earned the epithet by reason of some royal burial or other unknown event.[3] However the possibility of a 'royal burial' could have been that of Cunobeline's son Togodumnus who was a short-lived leader before the Roman Campaign, which by local legends has it, died at a battle in Kimble and might've been buried here. [5]

The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Place Names, first published in 1951, interpreted the name as "Royal bell-shaped hill" and the later Oxford Companion to Names (2002) also gives the same meaning.[6] The Cambridge Dictionary of English Place Names (2004) gives the translation "Royal Bell, the bell-shaped hill" and says that it is derived from the Old English cyne + belle, probably used as a place-name, and that the reference is to the prominent Pulpit Hill crowned with its hillfort, suggesting that 'royal' referred to Great Kimble for distinction from Little Kimble.[7]

Not all these explanations are completely convincing and there may be more to be said.[8] The precise nature of the Royal Bell in the minds of the inhabitants of Kimble in the 9th century or earlier remains something of a mystery. It must be remembered that Pulpit Hill (or part of it) might then have been unwooded open grassland,[9] which would have made the shape of the hill more apparent from below and the hillfort on the summit (already a thousand years old) would in that case have been clearly visible and impressive and might well have been thought to be a royal castle.

This hillfort is in Pulpit Wood on the summit of Pulpit Hill in Great Kimble, about 3/4 of a mile south-east of St Nicholas' church.[10] It is 813 feet (248 m) above ordnance datum. It has never been excavated and its precise date is unknown, though almost certainly built during the 1st millennium B.C. Hillforts are usually attributed to the Iron Age, but there are a series of hillforts at intervals along the Chiltern ridge and that at Ivinghoe Beacon, which is not far away, has been excavated and found to have been built in the late Bronze Age.[11]

The Pulpit Hill fort follows the contours at the top of the hill and has an area of 0.9 hectares (2.2 acres). The boundary is roughly D-shaped (nearly square) with maximum internal dimensions of 104 by 98 metres (341 ft × 322 ft). There are still double ramparts and ditches on the North and South East sides, but on the North and South West sides, face very steep slopes down the hill. The outer rampart is hardly apparent and there is no sign of an outer ditch. The builders seem to have relied on the steep natural slopes on these sides, though the original ditches may have been eroded away. The entrance is on the South East side, where the ground is level. The ramparts remain imposing after (probably) about 2,500 years. Although now mere banks of earth, they would originally been revetted with timber and boxed in, so that the faces would have been vertical.[12]

The fort, though in a commanding location, was probably not primarily intended as a fortress in time of war. With its deep embedded location in Pulpit Wood, it is likely to have been either a hunting lodge or a place for storing agricultural produce and used to store grain and to enclose animals from farms in the district (perhaps as protection from cattle raids), as well as being a defensible site if and when the need arose.

There is also evidence that hillforts were used for ritual activities, possibly for religious purposes connected with agriculture. In similar terrain further south of Kimble appears Whiteleaf Cross which has been referenced as a phallic symbol. [13]

At Little Kimble on the east side of the church are indications of the site of a Roman villa. Foundations, wall plaster, tesselated floors, tiles, coins and pottery have been found there over the past two hundred years, but it has never been properly excavated in modern times.[14]

It would have been the dwelling of a substantial landowner, farming a fair-sized estate, probably surrounded by the principal farm buildings. Villas are more common on the south side of the Chilterns, but there are 7 or 8 along the north side below the scarp of which this is one. The reason for this was because back in the Mediterranean climate having a dwelling within the shadow of a hillside could be comfortable in the hot summer weather.[15] (There was another villa built on the north side at Saunderton). Surplus produce would have been sold at Verulamium (St Albans).[16]

A barrow or funeral mound lies on the west side of Great Kimble church of St Nicholas, adjoining the churchyard and fronting on Church Lane. It is known as Dial Hill (from the sundial formerly erected above it) and is believed to date from the Roman period, but has not been properly excavated. Although there were limited amateur investigations in 1887 and 1950. It is scheduled as an ancient monument by English Heritage and their description suggests that it might have held the body of the occupant of the Roman villa.[17]

Facsimile of the Return made by the Assessors at Great Kimble[26]

Great Kimble has a special claim to fame as the parish where John Hampden refused to pay his ship-money in January 1635/6.[27] King Charles I, attempting to govern the country without a parliament, needed money to improve the navy and tried to raise it by levying "ship-money" from all the counties of England. Although the writ requiring the payments was worded as imposing an obligation on each county to provide a ship, in fact the money raised went straight to the treasurer of the Navy and was seen as being a tax.[28] It was a long established principle of the constitution that no tax could be raised by the king without the consent of parliament.

Each county had to raise a stated sum which was then divided between all the parishes in the County. Each parish appointed two Assessors to divide this liability between the individual landowners. John Hampden, who owned land in several parishes in Buckinghamshire, was assessed to £8.4s in his own parish of Great Hampden and he paid this and other assessments in full, showing that he was not objecting to the amount nor rejecting an obligation to defend his country. But in two parishes, where he owned less land, he refused payment on the point of principle and others followed his example. The two parishes where he refused payment were Great Kimble, where he was assessed to pay £1.11s.6d, and Stoke Mandeville, where his liability was £1.[28]

The Assessors for Great Kimble were required to prepare a list of persons failing to pay and this was issued at Great Kimble on 25 January 1635/6. At the head of the list is 'John Hampden 31s.6d.' followed by thirty other names assessed for smaller amounts including the two Assessors themselves and the two parish constables responsible to collect the money.[29]

People throughout the country were refusing payment and the king decided to select one man to be sued in a test case before all the judges in the Court of Exchequer Chamber. He selected John Hampden as the defendant in respect of the round sum of one pound assessed upon him at Stoke Mandeville. (The case did not mention the Great Kimble assessment).[30] Judgment was given for the King but only by a majority decision of seven judges to five, which was seen throughout the country as a moral defeat for the King and was followed by more refusals to pay.

Although the case referred only to Stoke Mandeville, Thomas Carlyle made Great Kimble famous with his description of what had happened, "there, in the cold weather, at the foot of the Chiltern Hills."[31]

Griffin House School, formerly Ladymede School, an independent co-educational school, is located in Little Kimble.[32] It has a capacity of just over 100 day students from ages 3–11.

• Jerome Horsey
• A. Russel (Landowner)
• George Russell (Landowner)

The main A4010 road runs through Great and Little Kimble cum Marsh, as does the Chiltern railway line between Aylesbury and Princes Risborough. Where the main road meets the railway is Little Kimble railway station, which has been in operation since 1872, although the station buildings are now a private dwelling. There is a level crossing at Marsh.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Great and Little Kimble cum Marsh.

• Ladymede (now Griffin House) School site