Stony Stratford, Buckinghamshire
Historical Description
Stony Stratford, a small market-town and a parish in Buckinghamshire. The town stands on Watling Street and the river Ouse, 2 miles W from Wolverton station on the main line of the L. & N.W.R., 8 miles NE from Buckingham, and 51 from London. It is an ancient place, and is supposed by some antiquaries to occupy the site of the Roman Lactodorum, and a Roman urn and some Roman coins have been discovered here. It was the place from which Edward IV. started in 1464 to marry Elizabeth Woodville, and was also the place where Richard III. seized Edward V. It formerly had an Eleanor Cross, but this was demolished in 1646. In 1742 it suffered much desolation by a fire, and lost then its church of St Mary Magdalene, with the exception of the tower, which still remains, and which is regarded as a fine specimen of the Perpendicular style. The town, which consists chiefly of one long old street, a market place, and a new street, communicates with Old Stratford in Northamptonshire by a fine bridge of three arches, which spans the river Ouse. It has a good supply of water, drawn from artesian wells, the property of the local sanitary authority. The town is the head of a petty sessional division, has a head post office, a weekly market held on Friday for corn, a cattle market on the first Monday in each month, and pleasure fairs on August 2 and the Friday following October 10. It has two banks, some good hotels, some engineering works, and it publishes a weekly newspaper. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Oxford; net value, £288, in the gift of the Bishop of Oxford. The church is a building of stone in a debased Gothic style, rebuilt in 1776, and partly restored in 1876. New vestries were built in 1895, and the space under the tower has been converted into a baptistery. There are Congregational and Wesleyan chapels. There is a provident dispensary at Calverton End, a small cottage hospital, a cemetery with two mortuary chapels, and several valuable charities. The ecclesiastical parish of St Mary Wolverton was formed in 1870 from the portions of Calverton End and Wolverton End at the SE extremity of the town. The living is a perpetual curacy in the diocese of Oxford; net value, £190 with residence, in the gift of the Radcliffe Trustees. The church, erected in 1864 from the designs of the late Sir G. Gilbert Scott, R.A., is a building of stone in the Early English style. The area of Stony Stratford East is 69 acres; population, 859. Acreage of Stony Stratford West, 84; population, 1160. Population of the ecclesiastical parish, which is made up of the united parishes of St Giles and St Mary Magdalene, 2019. There are parish councils for Stony Giles, consisting of nine members, and St Mary Magdalene, of seven members.
Administration
The following is a list of the administrative units in which this place was either wholly or partly included.
Ancient County | Buckinghamshire | |
Hundred | Newport | |
Poor Law union | Potterspury |
Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.
Church Records
The parish register dates from the year 1613.
Churches
Church of England
St. Giles (parish church)
The church of St. Giles, originally a chantry chapel, founded about 1450, and endowed in 1482, is an edifice of stone, rebuilt in 1776, in a debased Gothic style, and subsequently enlarged: the 15th century tower, the only part of the original structure now remaining, is of Perpendicular date; it was restored in 1922; two new bells were added to the existing peal of 6 in 1923, one presented by Mr. and Mrs. G. W. Bull in memory of their only son, B. G. S. Bull, who fell in the Great War, 1915, and the other in memory of Mr. and Mrs. John Reeve, presented by their family: the church was reseated in 1866, and in 1876 the interior was restored, new side galleries replacing the former heavy ones, the grained ceiling and pillars were decorated, and a chancel formed by the erection of screens: in 1928 the chancel was pulled down and rebuilt: in 1905 the church was decorated, and a new chancel screen of English oak erected as a memorial to John Worley: the oak pulpit was erected in 1921 in memory of the men of the 2nd South Midland Brigade Field Ambulance who fell in the Great War, 1914-18: a carved oak lectern in memory of Mr. James Rogers, was presented in 1921 by his widow and children: the carved oak altar and retable in the Lady Chapel was presented in 1922: there are various memorial windows: the church affords 630 sittings: the lych gate was erected as a memorial in 1931.
Civil Registration
For general information about Civil Registration (births, marriages and deaths) see the Civil Registration page.
Directories & Gazetteers
We have transcribed the entry for Stony Stratford from the following:
- Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Stratford, Stony)
Land and Property
The Return of Owners of Land in 1873 for Buckinghamshire is available to browse.
Maps
Online maps of Stony Stratford are available from a number of sites:
- Bing (Current Ordnance Survey maps).
- Google Streetview.
- National Library of Scotland. (Old maps)
- OpenStreetMap.
- old-maps.co.uk (Old Ordnance Survey maps to buy).
- Streetmap.co.uk (Current Ordnance Survey maps).
- A Vision of Britain through Time. (Old maps)
Newspapers and Periodicals
The British Newspaper Archive have fully searchable digitised copies of the following Buckinghamshire papers online:
Visitations Heraldic
A full transcript of the Visitation of Buckinghamshire, 1634 is online