Stony Stratford - History

History

The town name 'Stratford' is Anglo-Saxon in origin, and means 'ford on a Roman road'. The Roman road in this sense is the Watling Street that runs through the middle of the town. The ford is the crossing of the River Ouse. The prefix 'Stony' refers to the stones on the bed of the ford, differentiating the town from nearby Fenny Stratford.

There has been a 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.

Stony Stratford was the location where, in 1290, an Eleanor cross was built in memory of the recently deceased Eleanor of Castile. The cross was destroyed during the English Civil War.

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

Wm. Shakespeare, Richard III, Act II, Scene 4

The Rose and Crown Inn at Stony Stratford was reputedly where, in 1483, 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 later became King Richard III. The inn is now a private house but a plaque on the front wall gives a brief account of the event.

Queen Anne House also known as Shell House, at 48 High Street, was once the Dower House for nearby Wolverton Manor (demolished in 1728). This house has many distinct sections, spanning from the 1520s to the early 1700s, with a rare number of original features still intact. The front portion, built in 1703, is believed locally to have been underwritten by Sir Christopher Wren (also considered to have worked on nearby Winslow Hall in 1700). Certain features within the two properties bear more than a passing resemblance. The hallway is dominated by a grand oak staircase with carved inverted pentagrams, possibly old masonic symbols. Wren became Grand Master mason in 1698 and remained so until 1716. Given the passage of time it is unlikely that either property will uncover firm evidence that Wren was involved in their construction.

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.

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.

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. 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. For the rest of that century, Stony was in decline until the arrival of the motor car, when again its position on the original A5 road made it an important stopping point for motorists.