Coleshill, Buckinghamshire
Template:Short description Template:Use dmy dates Template:Use British English Template:More citations needed Template:Infobox UK place Coleshill (formerly Stoke) is a village and civil parish within Chiltern district in Buckinghamshire, England. It is Template:Convert south of Amersham and Template:Convert north of Beaconsfield.
History
The village name is Anglo Saxon in origin, and means 'Coll's hill', though it has only been known by this name since the early 16th century. It appears as 'Colshull' on John Speed's maps in the early 17th century.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Previously it was known as 'Stoke'. In 1844 the village was transferred from Hertfordshire to Buckinghamshire by the Counties (Detached Parts) Act 1844.
From 1919 to 1939, the village was home to the Coleshill Convalescent Home, officially opened on 27 June 1919 by Lady Portman. It had 12 beds for soldiers wounded in World War I.<ref>Lost Hospitals of London http://ezitis.myzen.co.uk/coleshill.html</ref>
Facilities
The village has a primary school (Coleshill Church of England Infant School), community hall, two pubs (The Red Lion http://www.theredlioncoleshill.pub and The Harte & Magpies), a tennis club with two courts, and a cricket club. A small play park exists in Hill Meadow.
The village has a pond which is notable for the presence of Starfruit, Damasonium alisma,<ref>Coleshill Village Pond Report http://www.coleshill.org/Content/legacy/images/Coleshill%20Pond%20FINAL%20DRAFT%20Preliminary%20Scoping%20Report%20Coleshill,%20Febr.pdf</ref> which is found at only a few locations in Buckinghamshire and Surrey in Southern England. The pond is centrally located and while the village does have a Common, it is rather hidden from view.
Notable buildings
All Saints Church was built of flint and stone in 1861.<ref>All Saints Church http://www.coleshill.org/history/buildings/churcheschapels/83-all-saints-church.html</ref>
The village includes Georgian villas and some 1809 cottages with bottle ends set into the upper walls for decoration.<ref>'Bottle Cottages', at Coleshill.org</ref>
The site of the long vanished manor house where Edmund Waller was born is nearby.<ref>Template:Cite EB1911</ref> The house known as 'Wallers Oak' was built in 1909 as a vicarage for All Saints Church.<ref>'Wallers Oak' at Coleshill.org</ref>
Porch House, Village Road, was the home of composer and painter Laura Wilson Barker following the death of her husband Tom Taylor in 1880 until her own death in 1905.<ref>'Porch House' at Coleshill.org</ref> Her choral setting of Keats's A Prophecy, composed in 1850, was performed for the first time 49 years later at the Hovingham Festival in 1899.<ref>The Academy, Vol. 57, p. 90</ref>
Just outside the village is The Water Tower a Template:Convert tall structure which once fed water to Amersham but is now a residential property. This development was the subject of season one, episode four of the TV show Grand Designs<ref>List of Grand Designs episodes</ref>