Haversham is a village in the
City of Milton Keynes unitary authority area, in
Buckinghamshire
Buckinghamshire (), abbreviated Bucks, is a ceremonial county in South East England that borders Greater London to the south-east, Berkshire to the south, Oxfordshire to the west, Northamptonshire to the north, Bedfordshire to the north-ea ...
, England. It is situated to the north of (and separated by the
River Great Ouse
The River Great Ouse () is a river in England, the longest of several British rivers called "Ouse". From Syresham in Northamptonshire, the Great Ouse flows through Buckinghamshire, Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Norfolk to drain into the Wa ...
from) the
Milton Keynes urban area, near
Wolverton and about north of
Central Milton Keynes. With
Little Linford, it forms the
civil parish of Haversham-cum-Little Linford.
The village name is an
Old English
Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain, Anglo ...
word that means 'Haefer's homestead'. In the
Domesday Book of 1086, when it belonged to the Peverell family, it was listed as ''Havresham''.
The ancient
manor house in the village, which was fortified in 1304, was largely burnt down, but parts of it still remain in a farm house just outside the main village.
Haversham was once a village of farm-workers' dwellings. , only Hill Farm, Grange Farm and Crossroads Farm remain as active working farms. The village has two distinct settlements separated by farmland. The older part of the village contains the manor house. It lies at elevations between 60 metres and 65 metres
above mean sea level, just above the
flood plain
A floodplain or flood plain or bottomlands is an area of land adjacent to a river which stretches from the banks of its channel to the base of the enclosing valley walls, and which experiences flooding during periods of high discharge.Goudi ...
of the Ouse. In the 1930s, 'New Haversham' was built nearer Wolverton, to house staff working at the
Wolverton railway works nearby. New Haversham contains the primary school and is on ground at elevations between 65 metres and 75 metres, overlooking the Ouse Valley.
In the 1970s,
ARC
ARC may refer to:
Business
* Aircraft Radio Corporation, a major avionics manufacturer from the 1920s to the '50s
* Airlines Reporting Corporation, an airline-owned company that provides ticket distribution, reporting, and settlement services
* ...
dug the river meadows near the site of the old village of
Stanton Low
Stantonbury is a district and civil parish of Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, England. The toponym ''Stanton'' is derived from an Old English term for "stone-built farmstead" and the ''bury'' element from the French family who held it in 1235. ...
for gravel extraction, leaving behind the large man made lakes that surround Haversham to the south today. These lakes are the home to the Hanson Centre and to the Haversham Sailing Club, one of the sailing clubs around Milton Keynes.
Just south of Haversham beside the road to
Wolverton, is the Wolverton Railway Viaduct over the valley of the
river Great Ouse
The River Great Ouse () is a river in England, the longest of several British rivers called "Ouse". From Syresham in Northamptonshire, the Great Ouse flows through Buckinghamshire, Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Norfolk to drain into the Wa ...
, of a
Stephenson
Stephenson is a medieval patronymic surname meaning "son of Stephen". The earliest public record is found in the county of Huntingdonshire in 1279. There are variant spellings including Stevenson. People with the surname include:
*Ashley Stephen ...
's design, carrying the
West Coast Main Line.
The village gave its name to
HMS ''Haversham'', a
Ham class minesweeper.
Civil parish
Haversham is in the
civil parish of Haversham-cum-Little Linford,
which also includes
Little Linford. This merged parish was formed in 1934 following a
County Review order. It formed part of the
Newport Pagnell Rural District until 1974 when, as with the rest of NPRD, it became part of the (Buckinghamshire) District of Milton Keynes subsequently renamed the
City of Milton Keynes unitary authority.
Listed buildings and structures
The parish has one
scheduled ancient monument, one grade I
listed building, two grade II* and nine grade II, including
Wolverton Viaduct, an 1830s railway bridge.
References
External links
Community Website
{{authority control
Villages in Buckinghamshire
Areas of Milton Keynes