The small village of STOKE GOLDINGTON is situated in the northernmost tip of Bucks near the Northants County border, 4 miles from Newport Pagnell and 10 miles from the centre of Milton Keynes. The population was 593 in the 2021 Census .
The B526 road, between Newport Pagnell & Northampton, runs along the High Street and was an important coaching route in the 18th Century.
The village lies in a shallow valley with the church of St Peter’s at the top of the hill.
Prior to the building of Milton Keynes, development had been strictly controlled in the area by the rules laid down in the 1950s in the North Buckinghamshire Structure Plan.
Later the 1973 Village Plan designated Stoke Goldington as a “Conservation Area“.
This was intended to preserve its inherent character and no building could take place outside the ‘Village Envelope’ with only sympathetic in-filling allowed inside.
Currently the High Street features a number of thatched cottages and many of the buildings are Grade II listed.
Other prominent buildings are the Primary School, the Village Hall, the Reading Rooms and St Peter’s church, located at a distance up the hill to the north.
Until recently there were 2 public houses; the White Hart and the Lamb
Both are unfortunately now closed, although there is now a group attempting to buy the Lamb and re-instate it as a social centre.
The building of the large new city of Milton Keynes, with its fast road and rail commuter links, has inevitably brought change to the area and to the mix of people who now live there.
Change is not a new phenomenon in this part of the world however: –
ln 1830 Stoke Goldington was a staging post on the north/south mail routes having 7 coaching inns in the Parish
By 1845 this business had all disappeared, with the development of railways and canals; the Inns then became farms.
In the 1841 census there were 247 lace makers recorded.
By 1891 there were only 27.
For a full History of Stoke Goldington and the surrounding North Bucks area click here
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The 1930 Photographs courtesy of The Kitchener Collection, City Discovery Centre, Milton Keynes.