Bletchley (Fenny Stratford), Buckinghamshire
Historical Description
Fenny Stratford, a parish and small market-town in Bucks, 6 miles S from Newport-Pagnell. The town has a station on the L. & N.W.R., and a post, money order, and telegraph office under Bletchley station. It has a market for cattle every alternate Thursday, and fairs on 19 April and 11 Oct. The Grand Junction Canal and river Ouzel pass-through it, and a fair trade in bricks and tiles is carried on. A large trade in timber is carried on, and the town has now an excellent supply of water. There is a weekly newspaper published here, and the town is the head of a petty sessional division. Acreage, 1040; population, 2614. Bletchley Park is a chief residence. The living is a vicarage in the-diocese of Oxford; net value, £97. The church is a building of brick and stone in a debased Gothic style, erected in 1724-30, and enlarged in 1823, and again in 1866. There are a church mission-room, a Baptist, two Primitive Methodist, and Wesleyan chapels, and a Salvation Army barracks.
Administration
The following is a list of the administrative units in which this place was either wholly or partly included.
| Ancient County | Buckinghamshire | |
| Ecclesiastical parish | Bletchley St. Mary | |
| Hundred | Newport | |
| Poor Law union | Newport-Pagnell |
Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.
Churches
Church of England
St. Martin (parish church)
The parish church of St. Martin, a structure of red brick with stone dressings, in a debased Gothic style, was erected in 1724-30, chiefly through the exertions of Dr. Browne Willis F.S.A. the antiquary, on the site of a chapel dedicated to St. Margaret, consisting of two or three aisles and an embattled tower, which had been destroyed, and its burial ground desecrated during the Civil War: the present church was consecrated by Dr. Richard Reynolds, Bishop of Lincoln, 27th May, 1730, and was originally 67 feet in length and 25 in width; in 1823 it was enlarged by the addition of a south aisle, and in 1866 by the erection of a new nave and large chancel, the former nave becoming a north aisle, separated from the later work by an arcade of three bays: a south aisle was added in 1903: in 1908 the nave was lengthened and a south chancel added at a cost of £1,800: the church, therefore, now consists of a chancel, nave with aisles, vestries, south porch and an embattled south-western tower containing a clock and 6 bells: the chancel is enriched with diaper work, and a stained east window: the ceiling of the north aisle is divided into forty compartments, ornamented with the arms of the various original contributors: in April, 1884, the west window was filled with stained glass as a memorial to the Rev. Francis de Lacy White B.A. vicar 1881-3, and in the same year the church was restored, an illuminated clock being at the same time placed in the tower: in 1898 the organ was renovated and two memorial windows inserted: a children's corner, with carved oak panels and curtains of local work, in memory of an old parishioner, was dedicated in 1931; on St. Martin's day, Nov. 11th, 1938, a new chapel was consecrated by Bishop Roscow Shedden for the Bishop of Buckingham, behind the Browne Willis chapel. This is in memory of the late Mr. Dan Quinby: there are 600 sittings: since the cemetery has been opened the churchyard has been very prettily laid out with flower-beds.
Civil Registration
Fenny Stratford was in Newport Pagnell Registration District from 1837 to 1934
Directories & Gazetteers
We have transcribed the entry for Bletchley (Fenny Stratford) from the following:
- Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Bletchley (St. Mary))
Land and Property
The Return of Owners of Land in 1873 for Buckinghamshire is available to browse.
Maps
Online maps of Bletchley (Fenny 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:
Villages, Hamlets, &c
Water EatonVisitations Heraldic
A full transcript of the Visitation of Buckinghamshire, 1634 is online