Speen, Buckinghamshire


Speen is a village in the Chiltern Hills, an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, situated in the civil parish of Lacey Green, in Buckinghamshire, England.
As the crow flies, the centre of the village is 3.2 miles south east of Princes Risborough, 4.7 miles north of High Wycombe and 31 miles north west of central London. The village is a short distance from Chequers, the country residence of the Prime Minister of the day.
The village has an annual fete which is held on the first weekend of July and a bi-annual arts festival which has been running for 18 years.

History

The village name originates from Anglo Saxon. The exact meaning is unclear, but possibly meaning 'wood-chip place'. The name of the village corresponds to the location of the hamlet in the Chiltern Forest where trees were regularly felled.

Geography

The village is a mixture of woodland and agricultural fields and varies in elevation. There are approximately 165 houses in the village which has a population at the time of the 2011 census of 637 and has a current estimated population of 654.

Speen Festival

The village has a bi-annual culture and arts festival. The festival runs in September in odd numbered year and the 2017 festival ran from Saturday 2 September 2017 to Sunday 17 September 2017.
The first Speen Festival in 2001 was based on a festival held in 1999 to celebrate the passing of the Millennium.

Notable residents