In 1927 "The Victoria History of the Counties of England: Buckinghamshire" states as follows:
Bledlow parish lies on the western boundary of Buckinghamshire. It is nearly separated from the other parishes in the Three Hundreds of Aylesbury by a piece of Desborough Hundred, which lies between the parishes of Bledlow and Horsenden. The southern end of the parish lies on the Chiltern Hills, and is called Bledlow Ridge, being between 600 ft. and 800 ft. above the Ordnance datum. The lower Icknield Way runs parallel to the line of the high ground from north-east to south-west, along the north and west sides of the parish, and the village and church stand back from it about half a mile on the lower slopes of the hills. Close to the east end of the church is a steep wooded coombe called the Lyde, in which several springs break out from the chalk and form a small pool. The nearness of the church to the steep banks of the coombe has suggested a local rhyme -
They that live and do abide
Shall see the church fall in the Lyde,
but fortunately this disaster does not seem very imminent. The brook running from the pool is called the Lyde Brook, and is used for two paper-mills, Bledlow Mill and North Mill. The western boundary of the parish is formed by Cuttle Brook, which runs south to the River Thame.
The higher slopes of the hills are in parts well wooded, and in one of the open spaces, on the north slope of Wain Hill, is the Bledlow Cross, cut in the turf, and visible for miles as a landmark.
The village is picturesque, its small houses, surrounded by gardens, lying for the most part along the side of the hill, but there are outlying houses in the lower ground on the side roads which join the Icknield Way.
The subsoil on the hills is chalk, and in the northern part of the parish Upper Greensand and Gault. The surface soil is partly chalk loam, and partly stiff clay. The inhabitants are mainly engaged in arable farming, the parish containing 2694 1/4 acres of arable land, and 963 acres of parmanent grass. There are several poultry farms, and in the Lyde there are watercress beds. The paper-mills of Mr. A. H. James provide occupation for part of the population. Both the Upper and Lower Icknield Ways pass across the parish, and the Wycombe branch of the Great Western Railway runs through it, with a station one mile to the north of Bledlow village. There are six hamlets in the parish. Of these Bledlow Ridge has been formed into a separate ecclesiastical parish since 1868. The other hamlets are Pitch Green, Rout's Green, Forty Green, Skittle Green, Holly Green. The whole civil parish contains 4168 1/2 acres. [© copyright of the editors of The Victoria Histories of the Counties of England]
Bledlow was described in 1806 in "Magna Britannia" as follows:
Bledlow, in the hundred of Aylesbury and deanery of Wendover, lies on the borders of Oxfordshire, about six miles south-east of Thame. The manor of this place, which belonged formerly to the alien priory of Okeborne, was given by King Henry VI to John, Duke of Bedford, and, after his death, to the provost and fellows of Eton College, under whom it has been for some time held on lease, by the family of Badcock. The Rev. Benjamin Anderson, and Thomas Spiers esq. give a deputation for an estate, called the manor of Bledlow, late Corhams.
In the parish church, which is of the earliest Gothic architecture, are memorials of the family of Crosse, who had a seat here, and held the rectorial manor under the provost and fellows of Eton College, to whom the rectory, which had belonged before to the abbey of Grestein, in Normandy, was appropriated in 1444. The vicarage is in the patronage of Lord Carrington, who has lately purchased the lease of the rectorial manor, (to which a part impropriation is annexed,) and the advowson, of Mr. Whitbread. The latter bought this estate of the Haytons, who inherited by female descent from the family of Crosse.
Bledlow church stands near the edge of a rock, under which, in a deep glen overgrown with trees, and exhibiting some pituresque scenery, little to be expected from the character of the neighbouring country, issue some transparent springs, which form there a pond called the Lyde. They are said to wear away the rock, which has occasioned the following local proverb:
"They who live and do abide
Shall see Bledlow Chuch fall into the Lyde."
