History
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Great Missenden lay on a major route between the Midlands and London. Several coaching inns, particularly the Red Lion (now an estate agency)[citation needed] and The George, provided rest and refreshment for travellers and their horses. The first railway line in the area was, however, routed alongside the Grand Union Canal to the east.[citation needed] Once the mailcoaches stopped running, the village declined in importance and prosperity, becoming an agricultural town.[citation needed] Following the arrival of the Metropolitan Railway (later the London Underground's Metropolitan line) in 1892, Great Missenden became a village where writers, entertainers and even prime ministers resided.
The village is overlooked by the medieval Church of England parish church, the Church of St Peter and St Paul, whereas the High Street itself is home to the Catholic Church of The Immaculate Heart of Mary, one of the largest Catholic churches in the Chiltern District. The position of the parish church away from the town centre suggests an earlier settlement around the church, with a move of the village's heart to its present location in the early Middle Ages.[citation needed] In the twelfth century, Great Missenden was granted a charter allowing it to hold an annual fair in August.[citation needed] Missenden Abbey, founded in 1133 as an Augustinian monastery, was ruined following the Dissolution of the Monasteries, and the remains were incorporated into a Georgian mansion; it is now a conference centre.[citation needed]
Gipsy House was the home of author Roald Dahl, from 1954 until his death in 1990, and still remains in the family. Many local scenes and characters are reflected in his work.[citation needed] Dahl is buried at St. Peter and St. Paul's Church; his children still leave toys and flowers at his grave. In June 2005, the Roald Dahl Museum and Story Centre opened in the village to honour his work.
Robert Louis Stevenson, the writer of famous works such as Treasure Island and the Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, stayed a night at The Red Lion, now 62 High Street, in October 1874, which he wrote in an essay called "An Autumn Effect".[citation needed]
The espionage novelist David Cornwell, who wrote as John le Carré, noted in a posthumously published introduction to a 2021 reissue of his first novel, Call for the Dead, that "I lived in Great Missenden in those days and commuted to Marylebone station."
