Stony Stratford

File:Stratford hoard.BM.OA.252.JPG) Stony Stratford Hoard, on display in the British Museum ]]

Since at least Roman times, there has been a settlement here at the ford of Watling Street over the Great Ouse.{{Cite book |title=A History of the County of Buckingham |date=1927 |publisher=Constable & Co. Ltd. |editor-last=William Page |series=Victoria History of the Counties of England |volume=4 |location=London |page=476{{ndash}}482 |chapter=Parishes : Stony Stratford |access-date=17 February 2019 |chapter-url=https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/bucks/vol4/pp476-482}} The town's market charter dates from 1194 and its status as a town from 1215.

The town name is Anglo-Saxon in origin, and means "stony ford on a Roman road".{{cite web |title=Key to English place names: Stony Stratford |url=http://kepn.nottingham.ac.uk/map/place/Buckinghamshire/Stony%20Stratford |publisher=Institute for Name-Studies, University of Nottingham |access-date=14 January 2020 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20220228173814/http://kepn.nottingham.ac.uk/map/place/Buckinghamshire/Stony%20Stratford |archive-date=28 February 2022 |url-status=live}} The road in this instance is Watling Street, which runs through the middle of the town and crosses the River Ouse just outside it (nowadays by bridge).

In 1789, at Windmill Field (probably) in the parish of Old Stratford near Stony Stratford, an urn was uncovered which contained three fibulae and two headdresses.{{Cite web |title=The Stony Stratford Hoard (Roman) |url=https://www.heritagegateway.org.uk/Gateway/Results_Single.aspx?uid=MNN26090&resourceID=1044 |access-date=20 October 2020 |publisher=Northamptonshire County Council}} Known as the Stony Stratford Hoard, it also contained around thirty fragments of silver plaques which were decorated with images of the Roman gods Mars, Apollo and Victory. There were also inscriptions to Jupiter and Vulcan leading to theories that this was a votive hoard associated with a Roman temple.{{Cite web |title=Diadem |url=https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/H_OA-252 |publisher=British Museum |quote=The Stony Stratford hoard, Stony Stratford, Buckinghamshire, 3rd-4th century AD. This hoard of temple treasure was found in a pottery urn in 1789. It consists of two ornate bronze headdresses, probably worn by priests, and numerous fragments of silver plaques. Many of the plaques were plain, but three on display here show Mars, Mars with Victory and Apollo. PY OA 252}} The hoard is now kept at the British Museum.

There has been a chartered market in Stony Stratford since 1194 (by charter of King Richard I).R. H. Britnell, 'The Origins of Stony Stratford', Records of Buckinghamshire, XX (1977), pp. 451–3 (Until the early 1900s, livestock marts were still held in the market square but in more recent times the square has become a car park, apart from a monthly farmers' market in one corner. The weekly market has moved to Timor Court, and of course no longer deals in livestock). Stony Stratford formally became a town when it received letters patent from King John in 1215.

Stony Stratford was the location where, in 1290, an Eleanor cross was built in memory of the recently deceased Queen Eleanor of Castile, as her funeral cortège had stopped overnight in the town en route to London. The cross was destroyed during the English Civil War.

{{Quote box

|ARCHBISHOP: Last night, I hear, they lay at Stony Stratford,

|source = Wm. Shakespeare, Richard III, Act II, Scene 4

|align = left}}

The former Rose and Crown Inn at Stony Stratford was reputedly where, in 1483, the boy-king Edward V stayed the night before he was taken to London (to become one of the Princes in the Tower) by his uncle Richard, Duke of Gloucester, who soon became King Richard III. Edward had been returning from Ludlow Castle in the Welsh Marches to London to claim his crown on the death of his father, Edward IV, when he was met in Stony Stratford by his uncle, who later deposed him. The inn is now a private house but a plaque on the front wall commemorates the event.

Catherine of Aragon rode from London to address her troops assembling here for the Battle of Flodden, and went on to stay at Woburn Abbey in September 1513.Thomas Deloney, The Pleasant Historie of Jack of Newbery, London (1626), chapter 2: Letters & Papers Henry VIII, vol. 1 (1920) no. 2278: Calendar State Papers Venice, vol.2, no. 340: Hall, Edward, Chronicle, (1809), 564: Ellis, Henry, ed., Original Letters Illustrative of English History, 1st Series, vol.1, Richard Bentley, London (1825), 82–84, 88–89.

The town has twice become almost completely consumed by fire, the first time in 1736 and the second in 1742. The only building to escape the second fire was the tower of the chapel of ease of St Mary Magdalen, now a scheduled monument.

Since at least the 15th century, Stony Stratford was an important stop on the road to Ireland via Chester, becoming quite rich on the proceeds in the 16th century. In the stage coach era of the 17th and early 18th centuries, it was a major resting place and exchange point with the east–west route with coaching inns to accommodate coach travellers. Traffic on Watling Street and the consequent wear and tear to it was such as to necessitate England's first turnpike trust, from Hockliffe to Stony Stratford, in 1707.{{Cite journal |title=House of Lords Journal |volume =18 |date=4 March 1707 |url=https://www.british-history.ac.uk/lords-jrnl/vol18/pp267-269#s5 |access-date=3 June 2008 |website=British History Online |publisher=University of London |pages=267–269}} In the early 19th century, over thirty mail coaches and stagecoaches a day stopped here.{{cite web |url=http://www.mkheritage.co.uk/mkm/stonystratford/docs/history.html |url-status=dead |title=General History of Stony Stratford through the Ages |publisher=Milton Keynes Heritage Association |archive-date= 1 July 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190701001905/http://www.mkheritage.co.uk/mkm/stonystratford/docs/history.html }} That traffic came to an abrupt end in 1838 when the London to Birmingham Railway (now the West Coast Main Line) was opened at Wolverton – ironically, just three years after the bridge over the Ouse had been rebuilt. Wolverton railway works provided an important source of employment in the town, with the Wolverton and Stony Stratford Tramway being built to serve the workers. With the arrival of the motor car, the town's position on the original A5 road made it again an important stopping point for travellers.

The 1841 census lists the population as 1,757.{{cite book |title=The National Cyclopaedia of Useful Knowledge |volume=III |location=London |date=1847 |publisher=Charles Knight |page=899}}

Image:StonyStratford CockandBull.jpg of the Cock and the Bull]]

{{Main|Cock and bull story}}

Due to the juxtaposition of two hotels in the centre of town, The Cock and The Bull (both originally coaching inns on the main London{{snd}} Chester turnpike), it is claimed locally that the common phrase a cock and bull story originated here.{{Cite web |last=Quinion |first=Michael |title=Cock and bull story |url=http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-coc6.htm |access-date=26 November 2010 |website=worldwidewords.org}}

The parish has one scheduled monument,The tower of the former Church of St Mary Magdalene.{{LBE|1310932|title=TOWER OF CHURCH OF ST MARY MAGDALENE, HIGH STREET |location=Buckinghamshire|lbe-no-cat=true|no-ref=true|ds=Scheduled monument}} nine 'grade II*' listed buildings,St Mary & St Giles Church (Church of England parish church). ({{LBE|1125375|title=St Mary & St Giles Church |location=Buckinghamshire|lbe-no-cat=true|no-ref=true}});

48 High Street ({{LBE|1311040|title=48 High Street, Stony Stratford |location=Buckinghamshire|lbe-no-cat=true|no-ref=true}});

75 High Street ({{LBE|1125378|title=75 High Street, Stony Stratford |location=Buckinghamshire|lbe-no-cat=true|no-ref=true}});

92 and 94 High Street {{LBE|1159586|title=92 & 94 High Street, Stony Stratford |location=Buckinghamshire|lbe-no-cat=true|no-ref=true}});

Burnham House, Silver Street {{LBE|1160550|title=Burnham House, Silver Street, Stony Stratford |location=Buckinghamshire|lbe-no-cat=true|no-ref=true}});

The Bull Hotel {{LBE|1332253|title=The Bull Hotel, High Street, Stony Stratford |location=Buckinghamshire|lbe-no-cat=true|no-ref=true}});

The Cock Hotel {{LBE|1310973|title=The Cock Hotel, High Street, Stony Stratford |location=Buckinghamshire|lbe-no-cat=true|no-ref=true}});

12 and 13 Market Square {{LBE|1332270|title=12 and 13 Market Square, Stony Stratford |location=Buckinghamshire|lbe-no-cat=true|no-ref=true}})

and a further 134 buildings and structures listed at Grade II.{{Cite web |title=Stony Stratford |access-date=28 February 2022 |url=https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/results/?searchType=NHLE+Simple&search=Stony+Stratford |publisher=English Heritage}}

Today Stony Stratford is a busy market town. In early June, Stony Live is a week of cultural events that culminates in Folk on the Green, a free festival of folk music, folk rock and eclectic taste that takes over Horsefair Green.

Stony Stratford Town F.C. are a Non-League football club, founded in 1898 who play at Ostler's Lane.{{Cite web|url=https://www.stonystratford.gov.uk/community/sports-clubs/football-club |title=Stony Stratford Town F.C. |website=stonystratford.gov.uk |publisher=Stony Stratford Town Council |accessdate=2022-01-03 }}

Stony Stratford Cricket Club is an amateur cricket club, officially founded in the 1898,{{Cite web|url=https://www.stonystratford.gov.uk/community/sports-clubs/cricket-club |title=Stony Stratford Cricket Club |website=stonystratford.gov.uk |publisher=Stony Stratford Town Council |accessdate=2022-01-03 }} that is based at Ostlers Lane.{{cite web |url=https://stonystratford.play-cricket.com/Aboutus |title= Stony Stratford CC |website=stonystratford.play-cricket.com |publisher=Stony Stratford Cricket Club |accessdate=2022-01-03 }} The club has five senior XI teams that compete on Saturdays in the Northamptonshire Cricket League,{{cite web |url=https://ncl.play-cricket.com/home |title=Northamptonshire Cricket League |website=ncl.play-cricket.com |publisher=Northamptonshire Cricket League |accessdate=2022-01-03}} two women senior XI teams in the Home Counties Women's Cricket League,{{cite web |url=https://homecountieswcl.play-cricket.com/ |title=Home Counties Women's Cricket League |website=homecountieswcl.play-cricket.com |publisher=Home Counties Women's Cricket League |accessdate=2022-01-03}} a Sunday XI team in the Bedfordshire County Cricket League{{cite web |url=https://bedsccl.play-cricket.com/home |title=Bedfordshire County Cricket League |website=bedsccl.play-cricket.com |publisher=Bedfordshire County Cricket League |accessdate=2022-01-03}} and an established junior training section that play competitive cricket in the Buckinghamshire CB Junior League.{{cite web |url=https://buckscbjl.play-cricket.com/ |title=Buckinghamshire CB Junior League |website=buckscbjl.play-cricket.com |publisher=Buckinghamshire CB Junior League |accessdate=2022-01-03}}

Stony Stratford Lawn Tennis Club was founded in 1923 and is based at Ostler's Lane. The club have 9 courts of which 7 are floodlit and a new club house.{{Cite web|url=https://www.stonystratford.gov.uk/community/sports-clubs/tennis-club |title=Stony Stratford Lawn Tennis Club |website=stonystratford.gov.uk |publisher=Stony Stratford Town Council |accessdate=2022-01-03 }}{{Cite web|url=http://www.ssltc.co.uk/uploads/1/7/1/6/17169464/a_history_of_stony_stratford_lawn_tennis_club_1921_web_version_june_2013.pdf |title=A History of Stony Stratford Lawn Tennis Club 1921-2013 |website=ssltc.co.uk |publisher=Stony Stratford Lawn Tennis Club |date=26 May 2018 |accessdate=2022-01-03 }} Both Men and Women teams compete in the local Milton Keynes leagues, and Juniors also play in the Aegon Team Tennis League.{{Cite web|url=http://www.ssltc.co.uk/teams.html |title=SSLTC Teams |website=ssltc.co.uk |publisher=Stony Stratford Lawn Tennis Club |accessdate=2022-01-03 }}

Stony Stratford Bowls Club was formed in 1923, and started playing on the present site at Ostler's Lane in 1924.{{Cite web |url=https://stonystratfordbowlsclub.com/ |title=Stony Stratford Bowls Club: About |website=stonystratfordbowlsclub.com |publisher=Stony Stratford Bowls Club |accessdate=2022-01-03 }} The club compete in the Bletchley and District Bowls League and became league champions in 1994 and 2016.{{Cite web |url=http://www.banddbowlsleague.co.uk/community/bletchley-district-bowls-league-13665/history/# |title=The History of the Bletchley and District Bowls League |website=banddbowlsleague.co.uk |publisher=Bletchley and District Bowls League |accessdate=2022-01-03 }}

Stony Stratford Croquet Club play on the Ancell Trust Sports Grounds at Ostler's Lane. The club won the East Anglian Croquet Federation's Handicap League in 2016.{{Cite web |url=https://www.miltonkeynes.co.uk/sport/stony-stratford-conquer-croquet-league-1193239 |title=Stony Stratford conquer croquet league |website=miltonkeynes.co.uk |publisher=MKCitizen. (JPIMedia Publishing Ltd.) |date=6 October 2016 |accessdate=2022-01-03 }}

Scenes from the 1987 cult film Withnail and I were filmed in Stony Stratford. Cox and Robinsons chemist is the 'Penrith tea rooms' where Withnail demands "the finest wines known to humanity." The Crown pub became the 'King Henry pub' in the film. Both premises are on Market Square.

From about 1648, Stony Stratford was divided between the ecclesiastical parishes of Calverton and Wolverton, and covered by two chapelries: St Giles, attached to Calverton; and St Mary Magdalen, attached to Wolverton. St Mary Magdalen dates from about 1450, though only the tower remains from the 1742 fire. St Giles dates from the 15th century (as a chantry chapel), but all but the tower was rebuilt in 1776 to accommodate the parishioners of St Mary Magdalen.

A single civil parish of "Stony Stratford" is recorded in 1767, which was divided in the "late 18th century" in Stony Stratford East and Stony Stratford West CPs.{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/guidetolocaladmi0000youn/page/41/mode/1up |last=Youngs |first=Frederick |title= Guide to Local Administrative Units of England: Volume 1 |page=41 |publisher=Offices of the Royal Historical Society; University College, London |date=1980}} Both the civil parishes became part of Wolverton Urban District in 1919. These urban parishes were wound up in 1927 and both added to the parish of Wolverton.{{cite web

| author= GB Historical GIS Project

| publisher = University of Portsmouth, Department of Geography

| date = 2014

| title = Stony Stratford

| work = A Vision of Britain through Time

| url = https://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/place/2164/units

| access-date = 8 January 2023

}}

In 1974, Wolverton Urban District became of the (then) Borough of Milton Keynes.{{cite legislation UK |type=si |si=The English Non-metropolitan Districts (Definition) Order 1972 |year=1972 |number=2039 |accessdate=25 April 2023}}

The civil parish consists of the land north of H2 Millers Way to the south, the boundary with Calverton parish to the west, the Great Ouse (and Northamptonshire) to the north and west, and the A5 road to the east. The V4 Watling Street becomes Queen Eleanor Street here as it follows the original Stony Stratford bypass. Its districts are these:

• Stony Stratford itself (defined H1 Ridgeway (and reservation) to the southeast, the Calverton border to the southwest, then river around west to north, and Queen Eleanor Street to the east and southeast)
• Galley Hill (H1 to the southeast, V4 to the southwest and the A5 around to the north-east).
• Fullers Slade (H2 to the southeast, H1 to the northwest, V4 Watling Street to the southwest and the A5 to the northeast).

The modern civil parish was established in 2001.{{Citation needed|date=February 2010}}

The town is no longer on any national routes. Watling Street, a Roman road, runs through the town (where it is called "London Road", "High Street" and "Towcester Road"): this was route of the A5 until it was rerouted (twice) onto new alignments in the latter half of the 20th century. Today, the A5 (towards Towcester or Dunstable), the A422 westbound (towards Buckingham) and the A508 (towards Northampton) meet about {{convert|1|mile}} away, at a roundabout just north of Old Stratford. Local roads link the town directly to Fenny Stratford, Wolverton and Winslow.

The nearest station to the town is Wolverton (about {{convert|2|mi}} away), and is on the West Coast Main Line though only local stopping trains call there. Intercity services stop at Milton Keynes Central, about {{convert|5|mi}} away.

From 1887 to 1926, the Wolverton and Stony Stratford Tramway linked Stony Stratford with Wolverton and (briefly) Deanshanger.

Bus 6 (Arriva) connects the town with Wolverton or Central Milton Keynes, Bletchley and the Lakes Estate; bus X6 (also operated by Arriva) connects the town with Aylesbury via Buckingham or Central Milton Keynes via Milton Keynes Central railway station{{cite web|url=https://www.milton-keynes.gov.uk/highways-and-transport-hub/bus-and-taxi/bus-timetables-maps-and-travel-updates|title=Bus and Taxi, Bus Timetables, Maps and Travel Updates|publisher=Milton Keynes City Council}}

MK City Council also operates an on demand bus service known as "MK Connect", which serves the whole MK unitary authority area, including Stony Stratford.{{cite web|url=https://city.ridewithvia.com/mk-connect|title=On-Demand Rideshare in Milton Keynes powered by Via|work=Via}}

{{Gallery

| title = Stony Stratford images

| align = center

| footer =

| style =

| state =

| height = 200px

| width =

| captionstyle =

| File: Stony Stratford - the Cock and the Bull.jpg

| alt1=The high-street decorated with bunting and flags

| The High Street in festive mood

| File: The Retreat, Stony Stratford (1892).jpg

| alt2= A group of almshouses built of limestone and brick. A panel over the door reads "The Retreat, 1892

| "The Retreat" (Almshouses in Queen Anne Revival style, one of a number of buildings in the town by local architect Swinfen Harris.) 1892. Listed Grade IIThe Retreat almshouses at rear of 14 and 16 High Street, Stony Stratford {{LBE|1125396|title=The Retreat almshouses at rear of 14 and 16 High Street, Stony Stratford |location=Buckinghamshire |lbe-no-cat=true|no-ref=true}}

|File: Horsefair Green, Stony Stratford - geograph.org.uk - 2305795.jpg

|alt3=A terrace of town houses overlooking a grassy open space

|Horsefair Green

|File:Sundial - geograph.org.uk - 569824.jpg

|alt4= A sundial on the face of a house on Church Street, with an inscription

|18th-century sundial on the front of 40 Church Street. The Latin motto {{lang|la|Tempus et ignis omnia perdunt|nocat=yes}} ("Time and fire lose all") refers to the great fire of 1736.

}}

• Wolverton and Stony Stratford Tramway
• The Stony Stratford Hoard (actually found in Old Stratford parish).

{{reflist}}

{{wikivoyage|Stony Stratford}}

• [http://www.mkheritage.co.uk/mkm/stonystratford/docs/tourframe.html A tour of Stony Stratford, comparing early and modern photographs, at the Milton Keynes Heritage Association web site.]
• [http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/leslii/index.html Panoramic images and large selection of photographs of the town and its locality.]
• [http://stonystratfordmethodistchurch.synthasite.com Stony Stratford Methodist Church]
• [http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=62618 'Parishes : Stony Stratford', A History of the County of Buckingham: Volume 4 (1927), pp. 476–482.]
• [http://aerialstony.blogspot.co.uk/ Aerial photographs & video of Stony Stratford and the surrounding area.]
• [http://aerialpanos.blogspot.co.uk/ Aerial panoramas of the landscape surrounding Stony Stratford.]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20150710203149/http://player.bfi.org.uk/film/watch-milton-keynes-a-village-city-1973/ Stony Stratford redevelopment, part of Milton Keynes – A Village Life on BFI Player.]
• Historic mapping:
• {{cite map |author=Ordnance Survey |title=OS 25-inch England and Wales, 1842–1952 |map=Buckinghamshire IX.10) |map-url=https://maps.nls.uk/view/104180594 |year=1925 |scale=1:2,500 |publisher=National Library of Scotland }} (Old Stratford and north-west Stony Stratford)
• {{cite map |author=Ordnance Survey |title=OS 25-inch England and Wales, 1842–1952 |map=Buckinghamshire IX.15) |map-url=https://maps.nls.uk/view/104180621 |year=1925 |scale=1:2,500 |publisher=National Library of Scotland}} (South-east Stony Stratford to Kiln Farm ("Brickkiln Farm")
• {{cite map |author=Ordnance Survey |title=OS 25-inch England and Wales, 1842–1952 |map=Buckinghamshire IX.11) |map-url=https://maps.nls.uk/view/104180600 |year=1925 |scale=1:2,500 |publisher=National Library of Scotland}} (east end of Stony Stratford to west end of Wolverton, including Galley Hill and Wolverton Mill)

{{Milton Keynes parishes}}

{{Buckinghamshire}}

{{River Great Ouse}}

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Category:Towns in Buckinghamshire

Category:Market towns in Buckinghamshire

Category:Populated places on the River Great Ouse

Category:Milton Keynes

Category:Civil parishes in Buckinghamshire