Clifton Reynes is a village and
civil parish
In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authorit ...
in the
unitary authority area of the
City of Milton Keynes
The City of Milton Keynes is a unitary authority area with both borough and city status, in Buckinghamshire. It is the northernmost district of the South East England Region. The borough abuts Bedfordshire, Northamptonshire and the remainder ...
,
Buckinghamshire, England.
[Clifton Reynes]
Office for National Statistics
The Office for National Statistics (ONS; cy, Swyddfa Ystadegau Gwladol) is the executive office of the UK Statistics Authority, a non-ministerial department which reports directly to the UK Parliament.
Overview
The ONS is responsible for t ...
It is about a mile east of
Olney. It shares a joint parish council with
Newton Blossomville.
Extent
It is bounded, on the North, by the
River Great Ouse, by which this parish is separated from
Lavendon
Lavendon is a village and civil parish in the unitary authority area of the City of Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, England. It is the northernmost village in the Milton Keynes UA and South East England,near Olney, about WNW of Bedford and N ...
and
Cold Brayfield; on the East, by Newton-Blossomville; on the South, by
Petsoe and
Emberton
Emberton is a village and civil parish in the unitary authority area of the City of Milton Keynes, in Buckinghamshire, England. The village is near the borders with Northamptonshire and Bedfordshire, just to the south of Olney and four miles ...
; and on the West, by the latter and by Olney.
Origin of name
The village name comes in two parts: the former name 'Clifton' is
Anglo Saxon in origin and means 'Cliff farm', referring to the village's position on a
cliff
In geography and geology, a cliff is an area of rock which has a general angle defined by the vertical, or nearly vertical. Cliffs are formed by the processes of weathering and erosion, with the effect of gravity. Cliffs are common on co ...
on a bank of the
River Ouse. The latter name 'Reynes' refers to the ancient
lords of the manor
Lord of the Manor is a title that, in Anglo-Saxon England, referred to the landholder of a rural estate. The lord enjoyed manorial rights (the rights to establish and occupy a residence, known as the manor house and demesne) as well as seigno ...
of the village, whose
family name this was.
In the
Domesday Book
Domesday Book () – the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book" – is a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manus ...
on 1086 Clifton Reynes was recorded as ''Cliftone''.
Buildings of note
![Clifton Reynes, St Mary](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/34/Clifton_Reynes%2C_St_Mary.JPG)
The parish church dedicated to
St Mary is (unusually for a Buckinghamshire church) completely
castellated
A battlement in defensive architecture, such as that of city walls or castles, comprises a parapet (i.e., a defensive low wall between chest-height and head-height), in which gaps or indentations, which are often rectangular, occur at interva ...
: even the
gable
A gable is the generally triangular portion of a wall between the edges of intersecting roof pitches. The shape of the gable and how it is detailed depends on the structural system used, which reflects climate, material availability, and aesth ...
s are
embattled. The tower is thought to be
Norman
Norman or Normans may refer to:
Ethnic and cultural identity
* The Normans, a people partly descended from Norse Vikings who settled in the territory of Normandy in France in the 10th and 11th centuries
** People or things connected with the Norm ...
;
however, the top is later probably 14th century.
The majority of the building is of the 13th, 14th and 15th centuries and the nave is unusually tall. Features of interest include the 14th-century font and the medieval monuments of the Reynes family. These include two pairs of wooden effigies; one pair is of Ralph and Amabel de Reynes (ca. 1320–30) and the other is unidentified and slightly earlier.
[Betjeman, J. (ed.) (1968) ''Collins Pocket Guide to English Parish Churches: the South''. London: Collins; p. 126]
References
External links
Villages in Buckinghamshire
Areas of Milton Keynes
Civil parishes in Buckinghamshire
{{Buckinghamshire-geo-stub