Gayhurst is a village and
civil parish in the
unitary authority area
A unitary authority is a local government, local authority responsible for all local government functions within its area or performing additional functions that elsewhere are usually performed by a higher level of sub-national government or the ...
of the
City of Milton Keynes,
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 about two and a half miles NNW of
Newport Pagnell
Newport Pagnell is a town and civil parish in the City of Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, England. The Office for National Statistics records Newport Pagnell as part of the Milton Keynes urban area.
It is separated from the rest of the urban ...
.
The village name is an
Old English language word meaning 'wooded hill where goats are kept'. In the
Domesday Book in 1086 it was recorded as ''Gateherst''; later names include Goathurst.
At that time the
manor
Manor may refer to:
Land ownership
*Manorialism or "manor system", the method of land ownership (or "tenure") in parts of medieval Europe, notably England
*Lord of the manor, the owner of an agreed area of land (or "manor") under manorialism
*Man ...
was owned by
Bishop Odo of Bayeux
Odo of Bayeux (died 1097), Earl of Kent and Bishop of Bayeux, was the maternal half-brother of William the Conqueror, and was, for a time, second in power after the King of England.
Early life
Odo was the son of William the Conqueror's mother ...
.
History
In 1582,
Queen Elizabeth I made a grant of
Gayhurst Manor "in the event of its reversion to the Crown" to
Sir Francis Drake
Sir Francis Drake ( – 28 January 1596) was an English explorer, sea captain, privateer, slave trader, naval officer, and politician. Drake is best known for his circumnavigation of the world in a single expedition, from 1577 to 1580 (t ...
,
but there is no record that he ever received it. The house once belonged to Sir
Everard Digby (1578–1606), one of the conspirators in the
Gunpowder Plot of 1605.
His son Sir
Kenelm Digby, (1603–1665) was an English courtier, diplomat, natural philosopher and astrologer. He was born at Gayhurst.
Gayhurst had an outstation from the
Bletchley Park codebreaking establishment, where one of the
Bombes used to decode German
Enigma messages in World War Two were housed.
Listed buildings and structures
The parish has two buildings
listed at Grade I, five at Grade II* and 20 at grade II. The (Grade I listed) Church of St Peter was built in the classical style in 1728 to replace a medieval church; the designer is unknown.
[Betjeman, J. (ed.) (1968) ''Collins Pocket Guide to English Parish Churches: the South''. London: Collins; p. 127]
References
Villages in Buckinghamshire
Areas of Milton Keynes
Civil parishes in Buckinghamshire
{{Buckinghamshire-geo-stub
