Stone is a village and former

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. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...

, now in the parish of Stone with Bishopstone and Hartwell, in

Buckinghamshire Buckinghamshire (, abbreviated ''Bucks'') is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England and one of the home counties. It is bordered by Northamptonshire to the north, Bedfordshire to the north-east, Hertfordshir ...

, England. It is located southwest of the town of

Aylesbury Aylesbury ( ) is the county town of Buckinghamshire, England. It is home to the Roald Dahl Children's Gallery and the Aylesbury Waterside Theatre, Waterside Theatre. It is located in central Buckinghamshire, midway between High Wycombe and Milt ...

, on the A418 road that links Aylesbury to Thame. Stone with Bishopstone and Hartwell is a

within

district and also incorporates the nearby settlements of Bishopstone and Hartwell. The architect

Clough Williams-Ellis Sir Bertram Clough Williams-Ellis, Order of the British Empire, CBE, Military Cross, MC (28 May 1883 – 9 April 1978) was a Welsh architect known chiefly as the creator of the Italianate architecture, Italianate village of Portmeirion in North ...

designed the village hall in 1910. The original dedication stone with his name on is on the south eastern corner of the building.

Description

The village name is

Old English Old English ( or , or ), 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 developed from the languages brought to Great Britain by Anglo-S ...

in origin, and refers literally to a boundary stone or marker stone. 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 at the behest of William the Conqueror. The manuscript was originally known by ...

of 1086 the village was recorded as ''Stanes''. The village of Stone adjoins the village of Hartwell. The parish church is dedicated to

St John the Baptist John the Baptist ( – ) was a Jewish preacher active in the area of the Jordan River in the early first century AD. He is also known as Saint John the Forerunner in Eastern Orthodoxy and Oriental Orthodoxy, John the Immerser in some Baptist ...

, and is dated 1273. The graveyard contains the grave of William Henry Smyth. In 2025, Freddy Kalder became the tenth Lord of Southcote, by rightful ownership of the lawful rights to the lordship. These rights are enshrined in the laws of England as incorporeal hereditaments and have been re-established through due legal process by a learned authority within the realm in compliance with the Honours (Prevention of Abuses) Act of 1925.

1806 description

In 1806, '' Magna Britannia'' described Stone as :STONE, in the hundred of Aylesbury and deanery of Wendover, lies nearly three miles west of Aylesbury, on the road to Thame. The manor was anciently in the family of Braci, afterwards in that of Whittingham. It has been since held for many years by the Lees with the adjoining manor of Hartwell, and is now the property of the Rev. Sir George Lee bart. :The parish church which was consecrated in 1273, retains some vestiges of the architecture of that period. The rectory was given by the Braci family to the priory of Oseney. By the act of parliament which passed for inclosing this parish in 1776, it appears that the Lees were entitled to the great tithes of Southwarp in Stone, and the earl of Chesterfield to those of the remainder of the parish. Allotments of land were then assigned to the impropriators and to the vicar, who was entitled to the tithes of hay. Sir George Lee is patron and incumbent of the vicarage.

Astronomical observatory

In 1839, John Lee and the

Royal Astronomical Society The Royal Astronomical Society (RAS) is a learned society and charitable organisation, charity that encourages and promotes the study of astronomy, planetary science, solar-system science, geophysics and closely related branches of science. Its ...

jointly owned the

advowson Advowson () or patronage is the right in English law of a patron (avowee) to present to the diocesan bishop (or in some cases the ordinary if not the same person) a nominee for appointment to a vacant ecclesiastical benefice or church living, a ...

of the

parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christianity, Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest#Christianity, priest, often termed a parish pries ...

. They appointed amateur scientist and Fellow of the

Royal Society The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...

, Joseph Bancroft Reade as

vicar A vicar (; Latin: '' vicarius'') is a representative, deputy or substitute; anyone acting "in the person of" or agent for a superior (compare "vicarious" in the sense of "at second hand"). Linguistically, ''vicar'' is cognate with the English p ...

. Reade served as incumbent until 1859, establishing a school and an astronomical observatory, and performing pioneering work in the early development of photography.Wood (2004)

Village school

Stone Church of England Combined School is

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 th ...

, mixed primary school with approximately 180 pupils aged between four and eleven. The school's catchment area includes the nearby villages of Bishopstone and Hartwell, and children transfer to the school from Dinton Church of England School, at the age of seven. The school dates from 1871, but most of the present buildings date from 1973 when a major programme of building work provided a hall, new classrooms, a library, changing rooms, offices and an extended playground. The current headteacher is Debbie Morrison. In 2006 the school was judged to be "satisfactory" and a 2007 Monitoring Report identified "good progress" in improving the curriculum and teaching. In 2019 the school achieved a ‘Good’ rating from Ofsted. In 2018 the school's

Key Stage 2 Key Stage 2 is the legal term for the four years of schooling in maintained schools in England and Wales normally known as Year 3, Year 4, Year 5 and Year 6, when the pupils are aged between 7 and 11 years. England and Wales Legal definition The ...

results exceeded the England average.

St. John's Hospital

In the early 19th century an asylum (later known as St. John's Hospital) was opened in Stone for people with

disabilities Disability is the experience of any condition that makes it more difficult for a person to do certain activities or have equitable access within a given society. Disabilities may be cognitive, developmental, intellectual, mental, physica ...

mental illness A mental disorder, also referred to as a mental illness, a mental health condition, or a psychiatric disability, is a behavioral or mental pattern that causes significant distress or impairment of personal functioning. A mental disorder is ...

es. It was closed in 1991, and the vast expanse of land has since been given over to a new housing estate. All that remains are the staff houses and the grade-II asylum chapel.

World War II prisoner of war camp

During

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, a

Prisoner of War A prisoner of war (POW) is a person held captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610. Belligerents hold prisoners of war for a ...

camp was located in Sedrup, a hamlet near Stone (Camp No. 36 ''Hartwell Dog Track''). The camp was known to house Italian prisoners from 1942 to 1946 and consisted mostly of tents with one hut. A 1946 RAF aerial photo of the site shows camp buildings at

Grid reference A projected coordinate systemalso called a projected coordinate reference system, planar coordinate system, or grid reference systemis a type of spatial reference system that represents locations on Earth using Cartesian coordinate system, Car ...

SP797121 , on what is now the Meadoway housing estate adjacent to Sedrup Lane. Remains of the camp were still evident on the site in the 1950s.

Civil parish

On 1 April 1986 the parish was abolished and merged with Hartwell to form "Stone with Bishopstone & Hartwell". In 1961 the parish had a population of 2106.

References

History and topography of Buckinghamshire: comprising a general survey of the county, preceded by an epitome of the early history of Great Britain
Author James Joseph Sheahan, Publisher Longman, Green, Longman, and Roberts, 1862, Stone pages 198–204 -

External links

Stone with Bishopstone and Hartwell Parish Council (SBHPC)Stone Church of England Combined SchoolParish Website (Parochial)
{{authority control Villages in Buckinghamshire Former civil parishes in Buckinghamshire Aylesbury Vale