STONY STRATFORD:
THE TOWN ON THE ROAD
Stony Stratford has an
exceptionally long and distinguished history. The
town has always had strategic importance as the
crossing point over the River Ouse, for a
prehistoric trackway, the Roman Watling Street,
the major London to Holyhead coaching road and
latterly the A5.
Stony Stratford - 'The Town
on The Road' - was where the Saxon king Edward
the Elder fought the Danes. Here King John - and
several successive monarchs - frequently held
court. Here the funeral cortege of Eleanor, wife
of Edward I, rested on its trip from Nottingham
to Westminster.
From Stony Stratford Edward
IV courted his wife, and it was from a house
still standing in the High Street that Richard
III secured the young uncrowned Edward V to seal
his fate in The Tower of London. Beneath the tree
in the Market Square the Methodist John Wesley
preached.
On June 10th
1645 - during the Civil War - the majority of
the Parliamentarian forces (the New Model army), likely to
have been 11,000 troops, were
billeted upon the town when on their way to the battle of
Naseby which took place on June
14th. The population of Stony
Stratford in those days was probably 500-1000.(Ref.
"Naseby, the Decisive Campaign" by Glenn Foard...published
1995 Pryor Publications)
Stony Stratford rose to
national eminence during the 18th century as one
of the country's most important coaching towns,
on the main London to Liverpool route. The High
Street still contains a wealth of coaching inns
that thrived in this period, including The Cock
and The Bull; in these inns travellers vied with
each other in the telling of outrageous stories,
from which the phrase 'Cock and
Bull story'
derives.
It was in The Bull in 1792
that the plans to build Britain's first major
waterway were unveiled; the Grand Union Canal was
started the following year, and the Industrial
Revolution was well and truly under way.
John Hooton, a local lad, fell foul of the law in 1822 and
although initially sentenced to death, he was
transported. Read his story here.
Today Stony Stratford is
known as 'The Jewel of Milton Keynes', a
description coined by local historian Frank
Markham, positioning the town as a unique part of
the UK's most dynamic and vibrant new city.
For more historical information click
here
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