In contrast to nearby areas of the Chilterns more land is given over to open space i.e. agricultural, both arable and pasture; paddocks; heathland and most significantly the Common along one side of which the majority of houses are arranged.

There is relatively little mature ancient woodland remaining as most was cleared mainly during the 18th century and given over to beech plantation connected with the furniture making industry in High Wycombe.

These have largely disappeared and over the last ten years or so the increasing popularity of horse riding has created a demand for suitable land for paddocks.

Villages in this part of the Chilterns are often set out around Greens and Commons or strung out along ridges with which they connect often without a gap to adjacent settlements.

Despite being not far distant from Chesham, Hawridge is consequently more closely linked in this way with the neighbouring villages of Cholesbury, St Leonards and Buckland Common.

Situated in the Chilterns AONB, and combined with national and local government planning controls there is strict enforcement of restrictions on residential building developments.

There is evidence of prehistoric settlement from archaeological finds, including a Palaeolithic handaxe found at the hamlet of Heath End, having probably arrived with road materials transported to the site.

[3] From finds such as a late Bronze Age sword, now at the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford it has been concluded that there was a permanent settlement in the area from around 600BC.

There is evidence of trading activity through finds of coins spanning from around 4th Century, the late Roman period of Valentinian I, and about 1450 during the reign of Edward IV.

Lynchets are the result of ploughing accumulating earth on the lowest point of the slope and building up a terrace of flatter ground on square or rectangular early medieval fields.

At Hawridge Court there is a medieval manor house dating from the 13th century enclosed by earlier ringwork, comprising a single rampart and ditch.

[3] Hawridge is said to have associations with the English Civil War during the 1640s Parliamentary soldiers were billeted in the area at a time when skirmishes were occurring in and around Wendover and Chesham.

From the beginning of the 18th century his son Richard owned jointly the manors of Hawridge and Cholesbury – an arrangement which has continued until today.

Held quarterly at the Full Moon, there are records of frequent fines for such misdeeds as turning out animals on the Common or removing from it wood or stone without permission.

They were able to flourish due to this boost in trade between the 18th and later on when up until the early part of the 20th centuries they were also frequented by the growing numbers of brickyard and agricultural labourers.

The Full Moon Pub, which is closest to the parish boundary with Cholesbury, is recorded as having its first licensed keeper in 1766 although as an unlicensed alehouse it may date back to 1693.

The arrival of the railway to Chesham during the 1880s, the relative closeness to London and other conurbations and improvement to the road networks and public transport resulted in work being sought from further afield.

Although a few businesses such as an agricultural merchants, a blacksmith and the three pubs continuing to operate today, there are no longer employers of significant numbers of local people within the village itself.

A stone obelisk on the boundary between Hawridge and Cholesbury was erected in 1898 to mark Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee the year before.

[7] The present day Hawridge Court, a private property, contains the location of the original medieval manor house which was surrounded by a ringwork, now designated a Scheduled Monument.

On the outside there is a moat, also dated to the medieval period, which almost surrounds the ramparts[8] The original manor house, built by 1223, was replaced by an 18th-century Grade II listed, timber-framed farmhouse.

All that remains of the original manor buildings is a granary (or possibly pigeon house) relocated inside the plot and converted into a timber and brick cottage during the Tudor period.

[9][10] The water-pumping station at Nut Hazel Cross was built in the 1950s to supply water from the aquifer to the growing population in the towns of Halton, Tring and Wendover.

During the 19th century it fell into disrepair and was rebuilt in 1856 by the church architect William White, using original flint-and-brick materials and in a style peculiar to the 1850s known as 'constructional polychromy'.

The local area with its open views, rural lanes, commons and woodland, criss-crossed by footpaths and bridleways consequently are very popular with cyclists, walkers and horse-riders.