Social and Economic History
An open field system of farming prevailed in the parish until an Act of Parliament was passed in May 1733 enabling Chipping Warden's common lands to be enclosed.
In May 1744 a bill was moved in the House of Lords to dissolve the marriage between Henry Scudamore, 3rd Duke of Beaufort and Frances Scudamore. Among witnesses who testified under oath before their Lordships was John Pargiter, a farmer of Chipping Warden, who stated:
"That, in the Beginning of June, 1741, he observed a Man (whom he described), and afterwards found it was Lord Talbot, to meet the Dutchess as she was walking alone in the Fields near that Place; and thereupon mentioned adulterous Familiarities which passed between them."
Witnesses William Douglas and Thomas Bonham corroborated Pargiter's evidence. The Journal of the House of Lords delicately omits the details of the "adulterous Familiarities" but records that subsequent witnesses testified "as to the sending for a Midwise to the Dutchess; her being delivered or brought to Bed of a Daughter". After hearing this and evidence of the Duchess's further adultery with Lord Talbot, their Lordships passed the Bill for the Duke and Duchess to be divorced.
RAF Chipping Warden, just northwest of the village, was built during the Second World War and commissioned in either 1941 or 1943 as a Bomber Command Operational Training Unit. It was decommissioned in 1946. Its buildings are now an industrial estate.
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