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The Three Trees

The Three Trees is very much the centre of the village, it lies at the junction of Heath Road, Ivy Lane and four other village streets, Lower Way, Pound Hill, Stoke Lane and Cuff Lane. This is where many of the village's children have to catch their bus each morning for school in Aylesbury! In 2000, for the Millennium, the Three Trees site was re-landscaped and a time capsule buried. But this is not the first time the site has been re-landscaped

In 1951, the Parish Council noted the dangerous state of the Three Trees site, but it was not until 1977 that it was agreed that the trees should be removed professionally, as they presented a hazard to the highway. On 18th March 1978, observed by villagers and schoolchildren from High Ash School, three new oaks were planted. Unfortunately this was not the end of the problems for the site, as the trees supplied died and had to be replaced. It was not until 1980 that all the current trees were planted and the site landscaped in such a way that it was both acceptable to the villagers and discouraged unwanted parking.

Tree planting ceremony 18 March 1978

Behind the Three Trees stands a house known as the Grange. This was once part of a larger house known as the Lodge which was built by the owner of Stockgrove House in the 1800s. The Lodge gained some notoriety in the 1960s when it was used as a weekend retreat by the Kray Twins. It was some years after this time that the House was split into two dwellings, the Lodge and the Grange. The Lodge itself burned down in suspicious circumstances at the end of the 1980s Cuff Lane forks off Heath Road near the ThreeTrees. At the bottom the lane turns into a bridle path, which horses used to reach the stream so they could drink, the footpath continues on to Stockgrove Park. Before the war there was a third pub in Cuff Lane near the junction with Heath Road.:The Spinning Wheel is now a private house. It is also thought that there was yet another alehouse at the bottom of Cuff Lane, but no trace remains now

View of theThreeTrees from Heath Road, showing the old Spinning Wheel Pub on the left hand side and the Red Lion in the distance. The Lodge can also be seen behind the houses on the left.