It is believed that Neolithic man lived in the area on the dry land above the marshy hunting
grounds in the Thames Valley. 

In Roman Times we know that there was a presence, with villas and other substantial buildings in the area of High Wycombe. Hedgerley and Fulmer were well established for the supply of bricks and tiles in the area. At Holtspur Heath there was a Roman Kiln on the site now used by the sheltered accommodation known as Kiln Court.    

By the time of the Civil War the juxtaposition of Oxford and London in the Government of the country meant that the Oxford road became a major highway. Beaconsfield was well placed mid-way between the two cities and a convenient first change for horses. We see the
development of the coaching inns and hostelries that characterise the High Street of the Old Town of today. Tales of Highwaymen abound  particularly on what was the steep ascent of White Hill (through Cut-throat Wood) up to Holtspur Heath from Loudwater. On misty nights after suitable refreshments in the local hostelries it is said that ghosts can be seen in the hollow at the bottom of Wycombe End. The spot where a road traffic accident caused a coach and horses to overturn into the pond and the passengers drown.

In the 17th and 18th centuries we saw the development of the big estates which surround the Town. To the South is the Hall Barn Estate, to the North and West the Gregories Estate (later the Butlers Court Estate) and to the East the Wilton Park Estate.Further to the North was the Penn Estate. The family names remain in the town, particularly in street names where we see
Burke, Caledon (Du Pre), Curzon, Grenfell, Howe and Waller.

In the 19th Century some new names at Hall Barn with Lawson and Burnham, but the prosperity of the town was badly affected by the development of the railways elsewhere, taking much of the
traffic off the Oxford road. It was not until the coming of the railway at the turn of the 20th century that life took a dramatic turn in the Town. Just prior to the first world war the New Town
was created by very extensive development of the commuter home estates to the north of what then became know as the Old Town.

Prior to the coming of the railway the population had been fairly stable around 1700, this rose rapidly and reached a peak of around 12,000 in the 1970s then reducing to just below 11,000 at the present day.

Initial development of the New Town was on the road to Penn in the 1910s with Station Road to the South of the railway and Penn Road to the North. Shops were sited to the West of the station on both sides of the track. Just to the North East of the station was the Railway Hotel, later The Earl of Beaconsfield, which was replaced by the Waitrose supermarket in 1982. The development quickly extended to the North of the station with Baring Road and Reynolds Road, Ledborough Lane and to the South with Burkes Road, Gregories Road and Burgess Wood being completed before the first world war.

After that war the town saw extensive development to the west of Baring Road down towards Hogback Wood. The first council houses were built to the South East of the Old Town in what became Malthouse Square. The Town Hall was erected at the corner of Station Road and Burkes Road in 1919 then was replace by the present building in 1936, such was the speed of development of the New Town. To the East both sides of Ledborough Lane down to the railway were filled. In that area we saw the completion of St Michael's and St Theresa's Churches.

The film studios were started in the early 1920's.  In the 1930's the Beaconsfield Urban District Council committed to the extensive and high quality development of council housing to the South East of the station, extending from Maxwell Road to Waller Road. There was further infilling between Gregories Road and Burkes Road.

After the second world war the expansion of Beaconsfield increased its pace. Starting in the South West with Holtspur in the late 1940's, then the Butlers Court Estate in the 1950's and 60's. In the North Seeleys Farm was developed starting in the 1960's then extending up to Forty Green to the 1970's. Likewise the North of Sandels Wood End was opened up in the 1960's and further extended into Knotty Green in the 1970's.  

By the end of the 1970's the boundaries of the developed town had reached the defined area of the Green Belt and no more green field sites were available. Since then the development has been at a much reduced rate constrained to infilling within the existing boundaries. The 1990's actually saw the population of Beaconsfield reduce as children born in the developments of the 1950's to 1970's grew up and left home.

A very thorough and authoritative history of Beaconsfield has been documented, with many fascinating contemporary photographs (sadly the Roman ones have not survived), in a number of books published by the Beaconsfield and District Historical Society and available from local bookshops. www.beaconsfield.co.uk - history

And what of the Earl of Beaconsfield? – Benjamin Disraeli never lived in Beaconsfield.