Short History of Stony-Stratford
Stony Stratford (sometimes shortened to Stony) is a town in the north-west corner of Milton Keynes, England. It is located on the border with Northamptonshire, on the other side of the Great Ouse. Prior to the designation of the new city in the 1960s, the town was in Wolverton Urban District, north Buckinghamshire.		OS grid reference: SP787404 Latitude: 52.0567° Longitude: -0.8526°

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).

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.

The Rose and Crown Inn at Stony Stratford was reputedly the last place where King Edward V and his younger brother Richard of Shrewsbury, 1st Duke of York were seen alive in public. It was here in 1483 that his uncle Richard, Duke of Gloucester met them to become their legal guardian before taking them to the London to become the "Princes in the Tower". The Inn is now a private house but a plaque on the front wall gives a brief account of the event.

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.

In the stage coach era, Stony Stratford was a major resting place and exchange point with the east/west route. In the early 1800s, as many as 250 coaches a day stopped here. That traffic came to an abrupt end in 1838 when the London - Birmingham Railway (now the West Coast Main Line) was opened at Wolverton. For the rest of that century, Stony was in decline until the arrival of the motor car, when again its position on the A5 road made it an important stopping point.

The modern town
Today Stony Stratford is a busy market town at the north-east corner of Milton Keynes, and is considered by many to be quite picturesque. The many pubs, restaurants and specialist shops attract visitors from some distance. The highlight of the annual calendar is in early June (second Sunday) when Folk on the Green, a free (voluntary contribution) festival of folk music, folk rock and eclectic taste takes over the Horsefair Green.

Cock and Bull Story The common phrase a cock and bull story is said to have originated here. Two pubs in the centre of town, The Cock and The Bull were originally coaching inns on the main London to Chester and North Wales turnpike. Travellers gossip and rumour that was exchanged between the two, was renowned for being far-fetched and fanciful. Today, there is an annual story telling festival to celebrate these Cock and Bull stories. Read about the Wolverton and Stony Stratford Tramway

Historic parish
Anciently, Stony Stratford was divided covered by two Chapelries, St Giles, attached to the parish of Calverton, and St Mary Magdalen, attached to the parish of Wolverton. A single civil parish was established "early", and from 1767 a single ecclesiastial parish covered the two. Around this time, the civil parish was also divided, into East (St Mary Magdelene) and West (St Giles) sides.

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.

The ecclesiastical parish of Stony Stratford was merged with another parish, Stony Stratford St Mary the Virgin (prior to 1953 known as Wolverton St Mary), in 1968, to create the parish of Stony Stratford St Mary and St Giles.

Modern parish The civil parish consists of the land north H3 Monks Way to the south, the city boundary to the west, the Great Ouse to the north 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: Stony Stratford itself (defined H1 Ridgeway to the south, the city boundary to the west, the river to the north and the V4 Queen Eleanor Street to the east) Galley Hill (H1 to the south, V4 to the west and the A5 to the north-east). Fullers Slade (H2 to the south, H1 to the north, V4 Watling Street to the west and the A5 to the east). The modern civil parish was established in 2001.

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Stony Stratford".

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