Great Linford
Encyclopedia
Village
A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet with the population ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand , Though often located in rural areas, the term urban village is also applied to certain urban neighbourhoods, such as the West Village in Manhattan, New...
, district and civil parish in the northern part of Milton Keynes
Milton Keynes
Milton Keynes , sometimes abbreviated MK, is a large town in Buckinghamshire, in the south east of England, about north-west of London. It is the administrative centre of the Borough of Milton Keynes...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, between Wolverton
Wolverton, Milton Keynes
Wolverton is a constituent town of Milton Keynes . It is at its northern edge, between Stony Stratford and Newport Pagnell...
and Newport Pagnell
Newport Pagnell
Newport Pagnell is a town in the Borough of Milton Keynes , England. It is separated by the M1 motorway from Milton Keynes itself, though part of the same urban area...
.
Great Linford village
Great Linford was one of the North BuckinghamshireBuckinghamshire
Buckinghamshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan home county in South East England. The county town is Aylesbury, the largest town in the ceremonial county is Milton Keynes and largest town in the non-metropolitan county is High Wycombe....
villages incorporated into Milton Keynes at its designation in 1967.
Written as Great Linford to distinguish it from the even tinier Little Linford
Little Linford
Little Linford is a village in the Borough of Milton Keynes and ceremonial county of Buckinghamshire, England. It is about a mile west of Newport Pagnell, near the M1 motorway. Unlike its neighbour and namesake Great Linford it has yet to be joined up with Milton Keynes.Little Linford was...
, the village is another on the Grand Union Canal
Grand Union Canal
The Grand Union Canal in England is part of the British canal system. Its main line connects London and Birmingham, stretching for 137 miles with 166 locks...
. The name Linford is thought to derive from the crossing point over the River Ouse
River Great Ouse
The Great Ouse is a river in the east of England. At long, it is the fourth-longest river in the United Kingdom. The river has been important for navigation, and for draining the low-lying region through which it flows. Its course has been modified several times, with the first recorded being in...
which now separates Great Linford from Little Linford to the north, where there were linden
Tilia
Tilia is a genus of about 30 species of trees native throughout most of the temperate Northern Hemisphere. The greatest species diversity is found in Asia, and the genus also occurs in Europe and eastern North America, but not western North America...
trees. The first reference to Linford occurs in 944, when "King Edmund gave to his thegn
Thegn
The term thegn , from OE þegn, ðegn "servant, attendant, retainer", is commonly used to describe either an aristocratic retainer of a king or nobleman in Anglo-Saxon England, or as a class term, the majority of the aristocracy below the ranks of ealdormen and high-reeves...
Aelfheah, land at Linforda with liberty to leave it to whom he wished"; it appears in the Domesday Book
Domesday Book
Domesday Book , now held at The National Archives, Kew, Richmond upon Thames in South West London, is the record of the great survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086...
as Linforda. Today, the outer buildings of the seventeenth-century Linford Manor
Linford Manor
Linford Manor is an old mansion or manor house converted into a recording studio complex in Great Linford, Milton Keynes, England. It is now owned by Pete Winkelman who is chairman of football club....
form an Arts Centre, and the house itself is a recording studio.
In the early sixteenth century, the rector of this parish
Parish
A parish is a territorial unit historically under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of one parish priest, who might be assisted in his pastoral duties by a curate or curates - also priests but not the parish priest - from a more or less central parish church with its associated organization...
Dr Richard Napier
Richard Napier
Note that Dr. Richard Napier may be confused with his nephew, Dr. Richard Napier who was also a physician and astrologer.Richard Napier was a prominent English astrologer and medical practitioner.-Biography:...
was widely known as a medical practitioner, astrologer
Astrology
Astrology consists of a number of belief systems which hold that there is a relationship between astronomical phenomena and events in the human world...
and curer of souls. He was referred to by many in the upper class
Social class
Social classes are economic or cultural arrangements of groups in society. Class is an essential object of analysis for sociologists, political scientists, economists, anthropologists and social historians. In the social sciences, social class is often discussed in terms of 'social stratification'...
es, including the Earl of Sunderland
Earl of Sunderland
Earl of Sunderland is a title that has been created twice in the Peerage of England. The first creation came in 1627 in favour of Emanuel Scrope, 12th Baron Scrope of Bolton. The earldom became extinct on his death in 1630 while the barony became either extinct or dormant...
who lived under his care for some time.
Between 1817 and 1864 the village was the site of the junction between the Newport Pagnell Canal
Newport Pagnell Canal
The Newport Pagnell Canal was a 1.25 mile canal that ran from the Grand Junction Canal at Great Linford to Newport Pagnell through seven locks. Construction was authorised by an Act of Parliament in June 1814 and it probably opened in 1817...
and the Grand Junction Canal
Grand Junction Canal
The Grand Junction Canal is a canal in England from Braunston in Northamptonshire to the River Thames at Brentford, with a number of branches. The mainline was built between 1793 and 1805, to improve the route from the Midlands to London, by-passing the upper reaches of the River Thames near Oxford...
.
For a hundred years (1867 to 1967) Great Linford was served by Great Linford railway station
Great Linford railway station
Great Linford railway station was a railway station on the Wolverton to Newport Pagnell line. It served the village of Great Linford, Buckinghamshire, which it was located a little to the northeast of. Built next to the Linford Wharf on the Grand Union Canal, the station opened to traffic in 1867...
a station on the Wolverton to Newport Pagnell branch line
Wolverton to Newport Pagnell Line
The Wolverton to Newport Pagnell Line was a railway branch line in Buckinghamshire, United Kingdom running from Wolverton on the London and North Western Railway to Newport Pagnell. The line fully opened to passengers in 1867, with an extension to Olney planned in 1865, but this scheme was...
.
St. Andrews C. of E. First School, on the High Street, founded in 1901, has survived various threats of closure from the local education authorities. The school was also home to Sir William Pritchard
William Pritchard
William Pritchard was the head coach of the Buffalo college football program in 1931.-Head coaching record:-External links:...
in the later part of that century, who was president of St Bartholomew's Hospital
St Bartholomew's Hospital
St Bartholomew's Hospital, also known as Barts, is a hospital in Smithfield in the City of London, England.-Early history:It was founded in 1123 by Raherus or Rahere , a favourite courtier of King Henry I...
in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
. He founded almshouse
Almshouse
Almshouses are charitable housing provided to enable people to live in a particular community...
s in Great Linford, which are still there today.
The parish church is dedicated to Saint Andrew
Saint Andrew
Saint Andrew , called in the Orthodox tradition Prōtoklētos, or the First-called, is a Christian Apostle and the brother of Saint Peter. The name "Andrew" , like other Greek names, appears to have been common among the Jews from the 3rd or 2nd century BC. No Hebrew or Aramaic name is recorded for him...
and dates from 1215.
Great Linford has two pubs; The Nag's Head, on the High Street and The Black Horse at the edge of Great Linford, by the Grand Union Canal.
Civil parish
In addition to Great Linford district itself (with the historic village at its core), the civil parish also includes the districts of Giffard Park, Blakelands, Neath Hill, PennylandPennyland project
The Pennyland project was one of a series of low-energy building experiments sparked by the 1973 oil crisis. It involved the construction of an estate of 177 houses in the Pennyland area of Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, United Kingdom...
, Tongwell
Tongwell
Tongwell is a district and ancient hamlet in the civil parish of Great Linford in Milton Keynes, England.Historically, it was in the parish of Newport Pagnell but today it is separated from Newport Pagnell by the M1 motorway and has become part of Milton Keynes. Just a few farms remained before...
, Conniburrow, Downs Barn and Downhead Park.
The parish is bounded to the north by Newport Road, to the west by the B4034/V8 Marlborough Street (as far as H4 Dansteed Way), then along Dansteed Way as far as V7 Saxon Street, south along Saxon Street as far as the A509
A509 road
The A509 is a short A-class road for north-south journeys in south central England, forming the route from Kettering in Northamptonshire to the M1 and A5 in Milton Keynes....
/H5 Portway, then east along Portway to V10 Brickhill Street, then north along Brickhill Street to Dansteed Way again, then east again along Dansteed Way to the M1
M1 motorway
The M1 is a north–south motorway in England primarily connecting London to Leeds, where it joins the A1 near Aberford. While the M1 is considered to be the first inter-urban motorway to be completed in the United Kingdom, the first road to be built to motorway standard in the country was the...
, then north along the motorway until it reaches Newport Road again. The Grand Union Canal bisects the parish.
The parish increased in population from 263 in the 1971 census to 11,882 in the 1981 census, an increase of some 4,400%.
(Little Linford is in the adjoining parish of Haversham
Haversham
Haversham is a village in the Borough of Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, England. It is situated just north of Milton Keynes near Wolverton and lies between Newport Pagnell and Stony Stratford. Haversham-cum-Little Linford is a civil parish in the Borough of Milton Keynes.The village has two...
-cum-Little Linford
Little Linford
Little Linford is a village in the Borough of Milton Keynes and ceremonial county of Buckinghamshire, England. It is about a mile west of Newport Pagnell, near the M1 motorway. Unlike its neighbour and namesake Great Linford it has yet to be joined up with Milton Keynes.Little Linford was...
. Linford Wood is in the adjoining Stantonbury
Stantonbury
Stantonbury is a district of Milton Keynes, ceremonial Buckinghamshire, England. It is situated at the northern edge, between Great Linford and Wolverton...
parish.