Description
The Venables were a significant family in the life of Cookham for well over a century, where they were major employers who ran the local paper mill. The family background was aristocratic, but the branch that settled first in High Wycombe and later in Cookham and the surrounding area was very much ‘trade’. Nevertheless, by dint of hard work and business acumen they amassed money and achieved social status in the changing world of the early nineteenth century, to the extent that they escaped the previously rigid confines of their class.
After spending the eighteenth century solely in the sphere of milling and papermaking, the new century saw the family expand its business both in size and scope, opening multiple manufacturing sites and engaging in a new venture – that of retail and wholesale stationery. In the course of this expansion, fortunes were made, allowing some of the family to venture into politics, the priesthood and other professions (such as medicine and finance).
This short book gives some background to their achievements, and charts the lives of those that have left monuments both inside Holy Trinity Church, and in the surrounding Graveyard. As such it gives context to these memorials, and it is fitting that some profits from its sale will go to the restoration, upkeep and future development of this fine old building.
