Since records began Stoke Goldington was essentially a small farming village that had the usual local rural trades of baker, blacksmith, farm worker, innkeeper, lace-maker – even poacher (!) etc. This was until the Industrial Revolution in the late 18th and early 19th Centuries when people and goods began to move much farther distances and technical developments changed the skills needed.

Stoke Goldington was ideally placed on the roads to and from London and the North, via Northampton, and quickly became a significant staging post for Mail and Passenger Coaches.        read more…

In 1830 there were  seven coaching inns in the parish (including Eakley) and  many of the occupations in the village were to supply the needs of the coaching trade (inn keepers, ostlers, stable hands, farriers, feed suppliers etc).

Coaching  as a means of employment was sadly short-lived and, with the arrival of the Railway Works at Wolverton and a station nearby  at Olney, the coaches had gone by 1850 and the Inns became Farm houses or Beer houses.

In the late 19th Century the Railway Works and McCorquodale Printers in Wolverton began to offer better paid employment to those who were able to go outside the village and learn new skills

However several businesses were later set up in Stoke Goldington, some of which may be surprising…

    • Stoke Water Board (set up by J W Carlile in 1887)
    • Public Houses – The Lamb, and The White Hart,  (with a Malting House  at rear)
    • Restaurant – Hollow Tree  (former White Lyon coaching Inn)
    • Wesley’s Coaches (“Bluebell Coaches”)
    • Haberdashery – owned by Harry Armstrong, founder of the Bucks Cottage Agency
    • Park Farm Dickson’s Roses (and later: Boat Transport)
    • Post Office and Delicatessen
    • Butcher
    • Tobacconist and Newsagent – run by Horace, a member of the Wesley Family
    • Springbank Garage (on former wood yard site)
    • Gardner & White – Car and Motorcycle garage (on former site of ‘Bluebell’ coaches)
    • Christmas Trees at Purse Lane
    • Bed & Breakfast accommodation

Nowadays many people either commute to work in Milton Keynes and London, or run computer based businesses from home, so the economic profile of the village continues to change.