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Just barely big enough to be mentioned in the Domesday Book, Silverley was larger than its neighbour, Ashley. Popularly thought to have died out in the plague, Silverley was still there and active after the plague of 1340. At the time of the 1660 plague the villages had combined to be “Ashley-cum-Silverley” and by 1674 there were 41 householders for the purpose of the Hearth Tax. In 1705 Thomas Serancke, rector of Ashley from 1682 to 1730, observed in a reply to a questionnaire circulated to the clergy, “ …………. We have the ruins of both Churches (St Mary’s, Ashley and All Saints, Silverley), but both so dilapidated that they are wholly out of use…………..”
In 1752, William Cole during a tour of the Chiltern Hundreds observed, “There is but one church remaining in this depopulated parish, and nothing of the church but the tower………….” This refers to All Saint’s, Silverley. While I have no direct evidence of the demise of Silverley as a population centre, the above suggests it was virtually gone by 1705. Now, there is no sign of the village and no records of where the buildings stood. Maps from 1830 show no real signs of habitation and while Silverley was big enough to leave substantial archaeology, there seems to be none. Where was the village? What happened to it? At present, there are no more than 7 dwellings in the village and the oldest house is thought to be no earlier than 1740, so a substantial village vanished; and no-one seems to know why.
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