Maids Moreton 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 north-west
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, around north of
Buckingham. The village sits on top of a plateau overlooking Buckingham and is less than 1km away from the Foxcote Reservoir SSSI
Description and history
The parish of Maids Moreton covers about of which are arable, permanent grass and woods and plantations. The soil is mostly clay and gravel and the subsoil gravel.
The village lies along the Buckingham to
Towcester
Towcester ( ) is an affluent market town in Northamptonshire, England. It currently lies in West Northamptonshire but was the former administrative headquarters of the South Northamptonshire district council.
Towcester is one of the olde ...
road (
A413
The A413 is a major road in England that runs between Gerrards Cross (west of London) to Towcester (northwest of Milton Keynes). It passes through or near various towns and villages including (in northbound order) Amersham, Great Missenden, ...
). It contains many 17th-century houses and cottages with timber frames with brick or plaster filling and
thatch
Thatching is the craft of building a roof with dry vegetation such as straw, water reed, sedge (''Cladium mariscus''), rushes, heather, or palm branches, layering the vegetation so as to shed water away from the inner roof. Since the bulk of ...
ed roofs.
The 15th-century
parish church
A parish church (or parochial church) in Christianity is the church which acts as the religious centre of a parish. In many parts of the world, especially in rural areas, the parish church may play a significant role in community activities, ...
of
Saint Edmund is said to have been built by two
maiden ladies of the Pever family hence the name "Maids' Moreton". The Maids' memorials are a wall painting over the north door and brasses on a slab just within the doorway.
The old
post office
A post office is a public facility and a retailer that provides mail services, such as accepting letters and parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. Post offices may offer additional serv ...
, situated at the junction of Main Street with the A413, closed in the mid-1990s and is now a private house. The chapel (on the A413) was demolished in the early 1980s and the allotments next to the chapel were all used for new housing.
Since 2015 the residents of Maids Moreton have been embroiled in a major planning dispute involving the proposed enlargement of the village by 40% (planning application 16/00151/AOP). Two documentary films have been produced and can be seen at the Maidsmoretonmatters.org website. A local resident, Patrick Hardcastle has launched an application for a Judicial Review in 2022. The planning application has been controversial with the proposed building on green field agricultural land, five different sets of biodiversity figures being produced by the developers, David Wilson Homes, and the Council ecologist found to have breached the CIEEM code of conduct in relation to how the application has been dealt with.
School
Maids Moreton Church of England School is a mixed
Church of England
The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britain ...
voluntary controlled
A voluntary controlled school (VC school) is a state-funded school in England and Wales in which a foundation or trust (usually a Christian denomination) has some formal influence in the running of the school. Such schools have less autonomy than ...
primary school
A primary school (in Ireland, the United Kingdom, Australia, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, and South Africa), junior school (in Australia), elementary school or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary e ...
in Maids Moreton. The school takes children between the ages of four and seven and has about 50 pupils.
References
External links
North Buckingham Parish
{{authority control
Villages in Buckinghamshire
Civil parishes in Buckinghamshire