There’s a long history of businesses cooperating in Stony Stratford and the Association originally started as a Chamber of Trade in the 1950s. With rates likely to increase, local traders were summoned to a meeting at The Cock Hotel where Dr Witheridge chaired the meeting because as he said he had “no axe to grind, nor scalpel to sharpen.” With the establishment of Milton Keynes new city the Newport Pagnell, Bletchley, Wolverton and Stony Stratford Chambers of Trade amalgamated. However the business men and women of Stony Stratford realised there was still a need for a business organisation and in 1981 the Stony Stratford Business Association held its inaugural meeting and formed a voluntary body operated by representatives from all areas of business within the town.