Soulbury is a village and also a

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 ...

within the unitary authority area of Buckinghamshire,

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. It is located in the

Aylesbury Vale The Aylesbury Vale (or Vale of Aylesbury) is a geographical region in Buckinghamshire, England, which is bounded by the Borough of Milton Keynes and South Northamptonshire to the north, Central Bedfordshire and the Borough of Dacorum (Hertford ...

, about seven miles south of

Central Milton Keynes Central Milton Keynes is the central business district of Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, England and a civil parish in its own right, with a town council. The district is approximately long by wide and occupies some of the highest land in Mi ...

, and three miles north of

Wing A wing is a type of fin that produces lift while moving through air or some other fluid. Accordingly, wings have streamlined cross-sections that are subject to aerodynamic forces and act as airfoils. A wing's aerodynamic efficiency is e ...

. The village name is Anglo Saxon in origin, and means "stronghold in a gully". 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 ...

of 1086, the village was recorded as ''Soleberie''.

The parish

The parish contains the

hamlets A hamlet is a human settlement that is smaller than a town or village. Its size relative to a parish can depend on the administration and region. A hamlet may be considered to be a smaller settlement or subdivision or satellite entity to a lar ...

of: * Hollingdon in the west, * Chelmscote on the

Stoke Hammond Stoke Hammond is a village and also a civil parish situated in the north of the unitary authority area of Buckinghamshire, England, about two and a half miles south of Fenny Stratford (Milton Keynes). The village was first recorded in the Domesda ...

to Leighton Buzzard road, * Bragenham to the east of the

River Ouzel The River Ouzel , also known as the River Lovat, is a river in England, and a tributary of the River Great Ouse. It rises in the Chiltern Hills and flows north to join the Ouse at Newport Pagnell. It is usually called the ''River Ouzel'' ...

, and * Stockgrove near Stockgrove Country Park on the border with

Bedfordshire Bedfordshire (; abbreviated Beds) is a ceremonial county in the East of England. The county has been administered by three unitary authorities, Borough of Bedford, Central Bedfordshire and Borough of Luton, since Bedfordshire County Council ...

. Other places mentioned in historical records include: * Lortun Hill and * a road called London Street, (mentioning William Holynden) * Hongurhell The parish extends as far as Rammamere Farm on Watling Street. Rammamere Heath is managed with King's Wood, Heath and Reach, King's Wood in Heath and Reach as a nature reserve.

Liscombe Park

A 17th-century mansion, Liscombe Park was originally the seat of the Richard Lovett (Seigneur), Lovett family, of whom the most famous member was Colonel John Lovett (c. 1660–1710), patron of the Eddystone Lighthouse. The house was rebuilt in the 1920s by the Bonsor family who live there today. The house is built of brick with small turrets and crenelations, in the style of an 18th-century Gothic Revival architecture, pseudo gothic castle. The interiors are a mixture of panelling and some 18th-century styles. Near to the house is the former much older chapel, this today has been converted to a billiards room. The house is not open to the public, but the gardens are sometimes used for fairs and fetes. The stable block has been converted to a leisure and health complex, with a polo cross field. There is a riding stables, open to the public, adjacent to the complex. An early mention of the name as ''Lyscombe'' appears in 1418, where Roger Stok and his wife, Sara, lived, suing people from Stewkley (appearing as ''Stucle'') and Burcote. Soulbury gave its name to Solebury Township, Pennsylvania, which was founded by Quaker settlers from Soulbury.

Glacial erratic rock

Lovett House, Chapel Hill, Soulbury - geograph-3997650-by-Robin-Webster

A glacial erratic lies in a road in the parish. The stone originated in Derbyshire, and was deposited by the retreat of glaciers at the end of the last ice age. Oliver Cromwell is said to have used the stone as a podium during an attack on the village church during the English civil war. Local tradition holds that the stone is the petrified foot of the devil. In March 2016, the stone was hit by a motorist who made complaints of it being a hazard, prompting the county council to investigate its removal. The parish council and villagers strongly opposed its removal and the stone still remains in its ancient position. There is a public house in Soulbury called the Boot. Its pub sign features a boot of the Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, Duke of Wellington, but the tradition of the Soulbury Boot is said to be much older than that. It is said that the Devil himself once came to the village, but the villagers came together to fight him off. One of them took his sword and cut off the Devil's foot and as it fell to the ground it turned to stone. The stone came to be known as the Soulbury Boot. This story is said by some to have been made up by a previous pub landlord in order to attract visitors.

Soulbury Millennium Green

This public greenspace is owned and run by a local charitable trust and was created as part of the celebrations for the turn of the Millennium in the year 2000. It is one of 245 such Millennium Greens throughout England and the only one in Buckinghamshire.

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