Social and Community
The village was subjected to a wave of housing development during the 1960s and early 1970s and now has about 4,000 inhabitants (almost double that of nearby Great Missenden). The big individual developments of the 1960s and 1970s included an expanded range of shops around Turners Place, the Winter's Way estate, the Fox Road and Harries Way estate and the Holmer Court estate (Clementi Avenue). A significant number of newcomers to the village came from Middlesex during that period.
The village has two centres: a commercial centre based around the shops and central crossroads; and a community-oriented centre based around The Common featuring two churches, the village hall, a school, a pub, a children’s playground, and The Common itself.
Holmer Green's most desirable roads range from older roads like Watchet Lane and Penfold Lane through to newer developments like Mead Park. The village's most famous residents are television presenter Fern Britton and her husband celebrity chef Phil Vickery.
Residents jealously guard the village's independence from the Wycombe-based urban sprawl next door. Maintenance of an independent community separate from the Wycombe conurbation has been helped not only by the village's historic connections with the Missendens, Penn Street and Amersham but also by the presence in the village of a full range of amenities including: pre-schools; primary and secondary schools; three different Christian denomination churches (Anglican, Baptist, Methodist); a GP practice; a dental practice; three pubs (The Bat and Ball, The Earl Howe and The Old Oak); two clubs (The British Legion and the Holmer Green Sports Association); and good sports facilities.
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Famous quotes containing the words social and/or community:
“School success is not predicted by a child’s fund of facts or a precocious ability to read as much as by emotional and social measures; being self-assured and interested: knowing what kind of behavior is expected and how to rein in the impulse to misbehave; being able to wait, to follow directions, and to turn to teachers for help; and expressing needs while getting along with other children.”
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