Stony Stratford is a market town in Buckinghamshire and a constituent town of Milton Keynes, England. It is located on Watling Street, historically the Roman road from London to Chester. It is also a civil parish with a town council in the City of Milton Keynes. It is about from the city centre, in the north-west corner of the Milton Keynes urban area, just across the River Great Ouse from Northamptonshire. At the 2021 census, the parish had a population of 7,872. The town's market charter dates from 1194 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 near Stony Stratford", an urn was uncovered which contained three fibulae and two headdresses. 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. The hoard is now kept at the British Museum. The find spot is conjectured to be in Passenham, on the other side of the Ouse.

There has been a chartered market in Stony Stratford since 1194 (by charter of King Richard I). (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.

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. In the early 19th century, over thirty mail coaches and stagecoaches a day stopped here. 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.

Cock and Bull Story

thumb|upright 0.75|[[Public house#Pub signs|Pub signs of the Cock and the Bull]]

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 Chester turnpike), it is claimed locally that the common phrase a cock and bull story originated here.

Listed buildings

The parish has one scheduled monument, nine 'grade II*' listed buildings,

and a further 134 buildings and structures listed at Grade II.

The modern town

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.

Sport and leisure

Football

Stony Stratford Town F.C. are a Non-League football club, founded in 1898 who play at Ostler's Lane.

Cricket

Stony Stratford Cricket Club is an amateur cricket club, officially founded in the 1898, that is based at Ostlers Lane. The club has five senior XI teams that compete on Saturdays in the Northamptonshire Cricket League, two women senior XI teams in the Home Counties Women's Cricket League, a Sunday XI team in the Bedfordshire County Cricket League and an established junior training section that play competitive cricket in the Buckinghamshire CB Junior League.

Tennis

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. Both Men and Women teams compete in the local Milton Keynes leagues, and Juniors also play in the Aegon Team Tennis League.

Bowls

Stony Stratford Bowls Club was formed in 1923, and started playing on the present site at Ostler's Lane in 1924. The club compete in the Bletchley and District Bowls League and became league champions in 1994 and 2016.

Croquet

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.

In film

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.

Civil parish

Historic parish

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. 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.

In 1974, Wolverton Urban District became of the (then) Borough of Milton Keynes.

Modern parish

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.

Transport

Road

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 away, at a roundabout just north of Old Stratford. Local roads link the town directly to Fenny Stratford, Wolverton and Winslow.

Rail

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

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

Bus

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

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.

Images of Stony Stratford

References

  • A tour of Stony Stratford, comparing early and modern photographs, at the Milton Keynes Heritage Association web site.
  • Panoramic images and large selection of photographs of the town and its locality.
  • Stony Stratford Methodist Church
  • 'Parishes : Stony Stratford', A History of the County of Buckingham: Volume 4 (1927), pp. 476–482.
  • Aerial photographs & video of Stony Stratford and the surrounding area.
  • Aerial panoramas of the landscape surrounding Stony Stratford.
  • Stony Stratford redevelopment, part of Milton Keynes – A Village Life on BFI Player.
  • Historic mapping:
  • (Old Stratford and north-west Stony Stratford)
  • (South-east Stony Stratford to Kiln Farm ("Brickkiln Farm")
  • (east end of Stony Stratford to west end of Wolverton, including Galley Hill and Wolverton Mill)