Great Linford is a historic village, district and wider

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 ...

in the north of

Milton Keynes Milton Keynes ( ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city in Buckinghamshire, England, about north-west of London. At the 2021 Census, the population of Milton Keynes urban area, its urban area was 264,349. The River Great Ouse forms t ...

, England, between

Wolverton Wolverton ( ) is a constituent town of Milton Keynes Milton Keynes ( ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city in Buckinghamshire, England, about north-west of London. At the 2021 Census, the population of Milton Keynes urban ar ...

and

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. The town is separated from the rest of the u ...

, and roughly north of Central Milton Keynes.

Great Linford village

Great Linford was

one 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number, numeral, and glyph. It is the first and smallest positive integer of the infinite sequence of natural numbers. This fundamental property has led to its unique uses in other fields, ranging from science to sp ...

of the North

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 ...

villages incorporated into Milton Keynes at its designation in 1967.

History

The origin of the name Linford is not recorded. The first reference to Linford occurs in 944, when "King Edmund gave to his

thegn In later Anglo-Saxon England, a thegn or thane (Latin minister) was an aristocrat who ranked at the third level in lay society, below the king and ealdormen. He had to be a substantial landowner. Thanage refers to the tenure by which lands were ...

Aelfheah, land at Linforda with liberty to leave it to whom he wished"; it appears 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 ...

as ''Linforda''. Archaeological investigations at the parish church indicate that the site was a Saxon settlement in the seventh century. In the early sixteenth century, the rector of this parish Dr Richard Napier was widely known as a medical practitioner,

astrologer Astrology is a range of Divination, divinatory practices, recognized as pseudoscientific since the 18th century, that propose that information about human affairs and terrestrial events may be discerned by studying the apparent positions ...

and curer of souls. He was referred to by many in the upper classes, including the Earl of Sunderland who lived under his care for some time in 1629. Great Linford Manor was originally built on the hill where the South Pavilion now stands. It was the home of Sir Richard Napier from 1633 to 1676. The manor was the country seat of Sir William Prichard (or Pritchard) in the later part of the seventeenth century, who was

Lord Mayor of London The Lord Mayor of London is the Mayors in England, mayor of the City of London, England, and the Leader of the council, leader of the City of London Corporation. Within the City, the Lord Mayor is accorded Order of precedence, precedence over a ...

, a merchant and slave trader. He bought the Manor of Great Linford in 1682, demolished the original manor house and built the present house below it. In 1702, he founded the group of

almshouse An almshouse (also known as a bede-house, poorhouse, or hospital) is charitable housing provided to people in a particular community, especially during the Middle Ages. They were often built for the poor of a locality, for those who had held ce ...

s and school-house beside the church, which are still there today. The village grew in importance following construction in 1800 of the

Grand Junction Canal The Grand Junction Canal is a canal in England from Braunston in Northamptonshire to the River Thames at Brentford, with a number of branches. The mainline was built between 1793 and 1805, to improve the route from the English Midlands, Midlan ...

and associated

wharf A wharf ( or wharfs), quay ( , also ), staith, or staithe is a structure on the shore of a harbour or on the bank of a river or canal where ships may dock to load and unload cargo or passengers. Such a structure includes one or more Berth (mo ...

to serve

; in 1817 an arm, the Newport Pagnell Canal, was built out from here but was unsuccessful and closed in 1867. For a hundred years (1867 to 1967) Great Linford was served by Great Linford railway station on the Wolverton to Newport Pagnell branch line.

Education

St. Andrews C. of E. Infant School, on the High Street, was founded in 1901. As part of the development of Milton Keynes, a new primary and middle school was opened in 1977, originally known as Great Linford County Combined School, and more recently as Great Linford Primary School.

Parish church

The parish church of

Saint Andrew Andrew the Apostle ( ; ; ; ) was an apostle of Jesus. According to the New Testament, he was a fisherman and one of the Twelve Apostles chosen by Jesus. The title First-Called () used by the Eastern Orthodox Church stems from the Gospel of Jo ...

is a Grade II* listed building, dating from about 1250. By 1708, the church had become dilapidated and Prichard's widow, Sarah, paid for it to be restored; the church was restored again in 1884–5.

Other

Great Linford has two pubs: ''The Nag's Head'', on the High Street and ''The Black Horse'' at the edge of Great Linford on Wolverton Road, by the Grand Union Canal. There is a new Memorial Hall and a Community Hall off Marsh Drive behind the manor house. Linford Manor is now owned by Pete Winkelman who is chairman of Milton Keynes Dons F.C. The former stables and associated gate houses are now an Arts Centre. , the former almshouses are not in use but in February 2022, Milton Keynes Council transferred them into the care of the Parks Trust and they are scheduled to be restored.

Civil parish

In addition to Great Linford district itself (with the historic village at its core), the civil parish also includes the districts of Bolbeck Park/Giffard Park, Blakelands, Neath Hill, Pennyland, Tongwell, Conniburrow, Downs Barn, Downhead Park and Redhouse Park. The parish is bounded to the north by Newport Road, to the west by the B4034/V8 Marlborough Street (as far as H4 Dansteed Way), then along Dansteed Way as far as V7 Saxon Street, south along Saxon Street as far as the A509/H5 Portway, then east along Portway to the M1, then north along the motorway until it reaches Newport Road again. The Grand Union Canal bisects the parish. The parish increased in population from 263 in the 1971 census to 11,882 in the 1981 census, an increase of some 4,400%. At the 2011 census, the population had reached 19,350, and the 2021 census is expected to show a further increase because of construction of Redhouse Park in the intervening period.

Listed buildings and structures

The parish has four Grade II*

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...

s (the parish church, the Almshouses, the Manor House, and the Pavilions), a further 20 Grade II listings, and one

scheduled monument In the United Kingdom, a scheduled monument is a nationally important archaeological site or historic building, given protection against unauthorised change. The various pieces of legislation that legally protect heritage assets from damage, visu ...

(two small brick kilns).Great Linford Brickworks

Images of Great Linford CP

Notes

References

External links

*
The village on navigable 1946 O. S. map
{{authority control Villages in Buckinghamshire Areas of Milton Keynes Civil parishes in Buckinghamshire