The History of North Bucks
Nowadays days people only connect North Buckinghamshire and the River Ouse area with the development of the new city of Milton Keynes in the 20th Century, which is expanding year on year.
However the area had a very long and fascinating history – LONG before the arrival of Milton Keynes:-
PRE-HISTORY
Stoke Goldington village is situated in a hollow and is built on an exposure of Upper Lias clay. This is unusual, as the earliest people tried to avoid building on clay.
To the east lies a large deposits of river gravels which were exploited commercially. These were formed by an overflow channel from the Nene system at a time when the Great Ouse and the Nene were very much larger than they are today. To the north is Salcey Forest, growing on a thick deposit of boulder clay which is up to 90 feet thick.
To the south and west it is mainly limestone with little, if any, covering of boulder clay.
From Stoke Goldington to Weston Underwood, on the high ground near the gravel workings, is the site of a Romano British settlement.
Deer antlers have been found that had been cut by these people. Today’s road goes through the settlement and there is more to discover on the south side of the road. There are deep V- shaped ditches, and in one some years ago the remains of an infant burial were discovered. The date has been fixed at 2nd century A.D.
To the south east is the wide valley of the Great Ouse river, with the Mill near Ravenstone
Around this area aerial photography shows evidence of many ring ditches. One of these ditches was excavated in the area of the gravel pits, but little was found.
ANGLO SAXON
The village was originally an Anglo Saxon settlement and was lucky to avoid being invaded by the Danes during the Viking invasions. The insurgents halted their advance at what is now the Buckinghamshire County border right on the edge of Salcey Forest, less than one mile from the village.
Originally the settlement was probably centred round the church, dedicated to St. Peter which stands on a hill north west of the village.
Here the buildings would be on higher ground on limestone, affording better drainage and so less damp.
Near the church are the remnants of the old Manor House with traces of what might have been a moat and fish ponds in Home Close.
Nearby is land known as Stoke Park, but it’s ancient ownership is not known. It has been reported that many oyster shells have been found in the field nearby.
To the west of the church is the area called Gorefields there was a moat which once encircled a monastery, the stronghold of Stoke. There is a legend that an underground passage exists from this area to Gayhurst House.
Over the ages the village seems to have crept down into the hollow where it is possibly more sheltered. The reason for this may be due to periods of very severe winters experienced during the late 17th century and the early 19th century.
In the 10th century Hundred of Bonestou (Bunsty), the lands of William Peverell were described as a manor held under him by Drogo
The manor had been held by the Countess Gueth, and was passed to the Barentines who granted it in 1345 to the Priory of Ravenstone by Drogo Barentine.
NORMAN
Following the Norman invasion and the subsequent land share-out by the conquerors, the village and the surrounding area were given to Bishop Odo of Lisieux
In the Domesday survey of 1086 the village was recorded as “STOCHES” (Stockade)
This later passed to Sir Peter de Goldington from Bedford, who decided to change the name from Stoches to STOKE Goldington.
In 1265 Isabel de Goldington, the sole heiress of Sir Peter’s grandson, married Sir William de Nowers of ‘Gaithurst’. The control of the two villages became joined and the ownership remained at Gayhurst for the next six hundred and fifty years.
In 1273 Peter de Goldington who held lands in Northamptonshire, Goldington and Ravensthorpe died with three daughters, but without a male heir,
Two of them, Matilda and Isabella, married and a partition of the lands was made between them.
MIDDLE AGES
The estate passed through many hands and, when in 1521 Michael Nevill died, he was in possession of both Gayhurst and Stoke Goldington manors and advowson.
The Estate was later purchased by Dr Busby’s trustees and, with Willen, added to the doctor’s charity. This was contested by lay patrons and finally it was given to Cardinal Wolsey by Henry VIII.
Later Queen Elizabeth I passed it to Sir Henry Berkely for 21 years at £73.13s 8d yearly (NB the name is remembered today at Berkely Close)
In 1581 Queen Elizabeth I gave the estates of Gayhurst and Stoke Goldington to Sir Francis Drake, partly as a reward for the treasures that he had collected for her on his round the world voyages. Drake needed cash to finance further voyages and sold the villages to William Mulso within a couple of days of being presented with them.
In 1596 Everard Digby married his daughter Mary Mulso and so started the ill fated Digby dynasty at Gayhurst.
17th Century
Everard was knighted by King James I in 1602, but became active in the Gunpowder Plot, As any school child knows, the plot failed on 5 November 1605.
Digby and the other plotters were hunted down and Everard was caught by the Sheriff of Warwickshire. Following the subsequent trial, he was hung drawn and quartered.
His property was confiscated, but his wife, Lady Mary had prudently put the estate into a trust in a pre-nuptial agreement and so, by 1608, she had obtained its restitution to the family. An extraordinary achievement considering the enormity of her husband’s crime.
Later it was in the possession of his son, Sir Kenelm Digby who was born there in 1603. He was a favourite at court but rarely visited the mansion as an adult.
18th CENTURY
In 1736 George Wrighte, the Lord of the Manor, obtained a licence from the Bishop of Lincoln for the annexation and consolidation of the churches of Stoke Goldington and Gayhurst, and since then both livings have been ministered by the one incumbent. There is an impressive statue of George and Nathan Wrighte in the church next to the house, built in 1728
In 1771 an Act of Parliament for Enclosing the open and common lands in Stoke Goldington and payment was made to the Rev. Robert Dowbiggin, the Rector, in lieu of compensation for his glebe land.
Thomas Scott the Commentator, who was minister here described the village in 1773:-
“The country is pleasant, the village large and populous, but the people poor, ignorant and idle. The highest wage of the labourer in harvest time is only 1/6 per day, without meat. Half of the inhabitants have little more knowledge, save the art of lace making, than they were born with. There are no schools for the poor and they have no means of instruction but at church, where the greater part never come. Those that have any religion, are almost all Methodists, and fanatics of one sort or another. Taking the whole country, I think it remarkably poor and ignorant”.
The village became the property of the Wrighte family who held it for three generations (one hundred and twenty six years in total) but in 1837 ownership passed to Ann Wyndham who married Lord Macdonald of Slate.
To the west of the church is the area called Gorefields there was a moat which once encircled a monastery the stronghold of Stoke. There is a legend that an underground passage exists from this area to Gayhurst House.
Eakley Lanes was thought to have been a separate parish,. There was a chapel there and services were held once a month. There were two manors one called Wolf’s Fields and the other Eakley Lanes and was for many years owned by the Lane family.
The Rectory was of local limestone with a tiled roof, the old rectory was pulled down and was subsequently rebuilt by the Rev. Charles Jerdein M.A. who was the first resident rector for nearly a century from 1865
At one time the village boasted the largest walnut tree in England, said to have been in the field near to the rectory. This was felled in 1941.
The Congregational Chapel was built in 1819. The school stands on the village green and in 1885 J.W. Carlile erected the Reading Room.
In 1830 the parish had seven coaching inns, starting at The Bull’s Head there were The Monarch, The Black Dog, The White Hart and The George and Dragon all at Eakley. Nearer to home the Coach and Horses and The George Inn.
The North-South mail, Liverpool, Manchester, Birmingham and London met up with the East-West mail at Northampton. There were twenty six scheduled mail coaches in each direction travelling through the village each day and they all required horse changing and accommodation facilities.
By the early 1840’s most of this trade had disappeared with the development of the London (Euston) to Birmingham (New Street) railway line and the building of the Grand Union canal. The coaching inns gradually became farmhouses.
In the 1841 census there were shown to be two hundred and forty seven hand lace makers in the village by the end of the century this figure had shrunk to forty two following the invention of machine made lace.
The population of the village mirrored these commercial developments. In 1801 there were 636 living there, this rose to 855 in 1841 and was back to 576 in 1901.
In 1842 the Carrington family took a twenty one year lease on the Gayhurst Estate which included the village but it was eventually sold to James William Carlile in 1882.
The Carlile family (James and his son Walter) lived at Gayhurst House until Walter’s death in 1950.
The Carliles were very generous individuals who took the responsibility of owning the village very seriously.
In 1882 James commissioned the building of the Stoke Goldington Water Works he had underground reservoirs built near St Peter’s Church and on the hill at the back of Mount Pleasant and had running water piped into the village. The system is still in existence and there are still half a dozen families in the village who can still get ‘Stoke Water’.
A major refurbishment of St Peter’s Parish Church, the building of the Village Reading Rooms, the gift of both the Village Green and Recreation Ground were other acts of philanthropy by the Carlile’s.
Sir Walter Carlile became Member of Parliament for North Buckinghamshire and was the first MP to drive to the House of Commons in a motor car.
PICTURE
In 1912 Sir Walter Carlile authorised the sale of the freeholds of all the village properties and it was his wish that existing tenants should have the opportunity to purchase their own properties at prices they could afford.
The sale conducted by Peacocks of Northampton realised £25,287. 16s. 8d leaving only East Side farm and West Side farm which failed to meet their reserve prices and were subsequently sold by private tender.
In the 1970’s the County Council issued a consultative document which resulted in the 1973 “Village Plan” aimed at preserving the inherent character of the village by limiting development to “sympathetic in filling”.
This policy which was carried out in seventeen villages around the development of Milton Keynes worked very well (initially) in preventing the new conurbation swallowing everything in its path.
Currently there are just under 600 residents in the village almost the same level of population as in both 1801 and 1901. The number of dwellings has increased and families are much smaller than 200 years ago.
Derek George – May 2005