Cricket Field Car Park
A good place to park if you arrive by car.To the north here Glebe Farm (indicating by its name that it belonged to the Rector) used to occupy this space.It was demolished some time in the 1970s, and apparently contained some strongly built sections which could have had earlier ecclesiastical uses. The Rectory barn, which was not demolished, can be clearly seen at the left of the group of buildings in the drawing by Ian Strang shown opposite. The farm and farmhouse were both small by today's standards, and would probably no longer be economically viable. The King family occupied the farm from 1912, where one-legged Boer-War veteran James King ran a dairy business.Cricket has been played on this field for well over a hundred years, and indeed the old field name of Bowling Leys could imply that the area has been used for ball games for an even longer period. The present Milton Keynes Cricket Club was founded in 1874, and is still a thriving club with an important presence in local leagues.Back in the 1950s, the field was farmed by the Walley family now at Glebe Farm, and the outfield often contained evidence of the previous occupation by cattle! The fenced-off square can just be discerned in this old picture.
Saxon Graveyard
During May 1992 many bones were discovered during the extension of the cricket field car park. The Police were informed, but it soon became clear that the skeletons were very ancient. The Bucks County Museum Archaeological Service excavated the whole area and the bones were found to represent at least 100 individuals. Two of the skeletons (one of which partially overlay the other) were sent to Amsterdam for radiocarbon dating and were found to belong to the period round about AD 900. The burials were all aligned east - west and no grave goods were found - which helped to confirm that these were Christians of the late Saxon period. It is thought that the site was used for burials for at least a hundred years, but there is nothing to indicate why the burial ground moved to its present position on the west side of Willen Road where All Saints Church now stands.The bones found in 1992 were re-interred at a ceremony on All Saints Day 1995 near the gate of the present churchyard under a specially inscribed slate slab. Future archaeologists maywonder why the bones are packed in polythene bags!To the north here is the football field. This was a gravel pit in the past, which was only filled-in during the 1970s - so unfit for building on. It sees regular use during the football season.Now retrace your steps down towards the church.
The Old Rectory
It is difficult in summer to see the handsome Old Rectory because of the trees which have grown up on the boundary of the garden, but it is still possible to catch a glimpse from here. The Rectory was built for Revd Dr William Wotton between 1696 and 1711, replacing an earlier stone built house round a courtyard on the same site. It is the largest house in the village and would be far too big for the present clergy to maintain. It was purchased from the Oxford Diocese by a private individual in the early 1960s, and was eventually acquired by the Milton Keynes Development Corporation and split into four separate apartments which were later sold on. Modern rectories have been constructed in both Broughton and Wavendon.Dr William Wotton was an interesting character. He was a child prodigy and entered St Catharine's College, Cambridge at the age of nine. His parents died of smallpox while he was at university (aged 13) and as a teenager he spent some time in the household of Gilbert Burnett (later Bishop of Salisbury). He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1687 at the age of 21 and wrote many learned essays - attracting the ire of Jonathan Swift along the way. He married in 1696, shortly after arriving at Milton Keynes. Unfortunately, despite his undoubted academic ability, he also also gained a reputation as a drunken lecher, and this caused Bishop Wake of Lincoln to withdraw his promise of the living at Sherington which would have helped to finance the building of the rectory at Milton Keynes. In 1714, as a result of the mounting debts incurred in the building work, Wotton was forced to retreat/run-away to Carmarthen where he worked initially as a supernumery preacher although he was allowed to retain the living at Milton Keynes. He only returned here in 1723 when his creditors had eventually been satisfied. He died in Buxted, Sussex where he had been able to obtain a living for his son-in-law William Clarke who married his daughter Ann in 1723.We are indebted to Dr David Stoker of the University of Aberystwyth for this information. For further reading see "William Wotton's exile and redemption". http://welshjournals.llgc.org.uk/browse/listarticles/llgc-id:1042330/llgc-id:1042921The older picture shows the Rectory in about 1907 when it was occupied by the Reverend the Honourable Wingfield Stratford Twisleton Wykeham-Fiennes who was Rector from 1880-1910. In those days it boasted a conservatory, but other than that, the exterior is little changed. The gardens were remodelled in the 1960s by the new owner, but as you can see, have always been very pleasant.WS Twisleton-Wykeham Fiennes was the fourth son of the 16th Baron Saye and Sele, and was a typical example of a younger son of an aristocratic family going into the church. The Two Villages Archive Trust has copies of his parish magazines from 1893-7, which reveal a kindly, if authoritarian, man who loved his parish. His accounts of the happenings in the parish are an invaluable record of life here in the late nineteenth century. He is the great-great-grandfather of the Actors Ralph and Joseph Fiennes and also an ancestor of the explorer Sir Ranulph Twisleton-Wykeham-Fiennes, 3rd Baronet.The family home of the Fiennes family is Broughton Castle, near Banbury. The family name is linked with "Ride a cock horse to Banbury Cross, to see a FIENNES lady upon a white horse"!
All Saints Church
All Saints' Church is described by Clive Rouse in John Betjeman's 'Guide to English Parish Churches' (1958) as "Text book 14th century", and the grouping of the roofs and tower certainly makes an attractive picture seen from the road outside (although you may have to take a few steps to right or left to get an unobstructed view). The church is generally acknowledged to be one of the best examples of the Decorated period of architecture in the area. It was mostly constructed in about 1330, although the chancel arch remains from an earlier building on the site and dates from about 1200. The layout is unusual, having a chancel offset from the centre-line of the nave so that a chapel can be accommodated alongside. The tower is also in an unusual position on the north side of the nave.Very little has changed since our picture of the churchyard gate taken from a postcard postmarked 1910. The wooden gates have been replaced by handsome wrought iron ones, and the sequoia (redwood) tree has grown considerably, but a villager from that era would still recognise the place. The church itself has not been altered to any degree since then. The whole structure was fully restored in about 1860 by GE Street who was the Architect for the Oxford Diocese. It is thought that although he made extensive repairs to the church, he tried to retain its character and did not introduce too many intrusively Victorian features. He did, however, remove the internal plaster from the walls. This was probably necessitated by the poor state of the plaster, but must have changed the look of the interior dramatically.The Church is usually kept locked, but a key can be borrowed from nearby houses. See the list in the porch. Alternatively a church tour is available on the TVAT website.http://www.mkheritage.org.uk/tva/saints-tour-welcome/
Manor Farm House
Manor Farmhouse is a seventeenth century building which was probably extended in the same century. Most of the land to the northwest of Milton Keynes was farmed by the Macbeth family who lived in the farmhouse from 1932 until 1999 and the fields reached almost to Willen Village, taking in parts of what is now Willen Lake. The diversion of the river Ouzel and the formation of Willen Lake together with extensive gravel extraction gradually reduced the land available for agriculture, but the farm survived until the early 1980s.The picture of Manor Farmhouse taken from the upper windows of the Rectory in 1968 shows the extensive outbuildings behind the farmhouse. Note also the fence round Lords Close, the field in front of the school immediately opposite Manor Farm. At that time this was occasionally used to graze stock. The Dutch barn behind the house was demolished when farming ceased, but some of the other outbuildings have survived and will possibly be converted for other uses.Turning to the South-East you see the Village Hall. This is a popular venue for all kinds of village activities such as TVAT Meetings, but is also sought after by city dwellers in general as venue for social functions. Its architecture tells of its origins as a school. It was built in 1859 to accommodate sixty pupils, but this was probably wishful thinking, as pupil numbers seem always to have been fairly low. It was a Church School, built at the instigation of the Rector, the Revd JN Dalton, on a quarter of an acre of Rectory land, the loss of which, as a source of income, caused some resentment among later clergy. The front porch (now demolished) used to be capped by a turret containing the school bell. Try turning the clock back 94 years!The roll at Milton Keynes school was down to "a baker's dozen and two babies" by 1895, though numbers rose again at times. Between thirty and forty boys and girls appear on this school photograph of about 1906, and we know that one small girl at the extreme right of the picture celebrated her hundredth birthday in the year 2000. The numbers were swelled by evacuees during the second world war, necessitating the employment of an extra teacher, but the school closed in 1945 - after which the building continued to be used for meetings and village activities. It was finally sold by the Diocese of Oxford in 1960 to the Society of Merchant Venturers who then owned most of the village for £450. It was later acquired by a Trust, for the use of the two villages of Milton Keynes and Broughton as a Community Centre.The village green here is known as Lord's Close. It is used as a play space and is the site of the Village Fair and Sports Day every June.
Nurses Cottage
On the corner between Walton Road and Willen Road, is Nurse's Cottage. The name is comparatively recent (perhaps 50 years old) and was given to the cottage because the District Nurse used to live there. She was a very important member of the village community in the days when the nearest doctor was in Newport Pagnell, and there were few telephones or cars in the village.Before the time of the District Nurse, the cottage was simply one of those owned by the estate, and was occupied by a farm worker. This view of Nurse's Cottage was lent by John Chapman, who was born and brought up in Newport Pagnell, but whose mother's family lived here. A note on the back of the photograph reads "Grampy Savage and Lilian". We are not sure whether "Lilian" refers to a person or the pony - certainly only the pony is clearly visible!There were evidently several more thatched cottages in the vicinity at the time. Some have been replaced by modern houses, put up originally for farm workers, and others have disappeared without trace.
The Swan
It is thought that the Swan Inn has served the village of Milton Keynes since 1550, and the present building dates largely from the 16th and 17th centuries. Its position at the convergence of the roads leading to Willen, Broughton and Walton make it the natural centre of the village. In this view looking towards Broughton, the shrub beyond the Inn conceals the bus shelter which was converted from the disused forge some years ago. This can be seen to better advantage from position 4. The Inn lost its thatch in 1970 in a disastrous fire, but was fully restored, and is a popular meeting place for visitors and locals alike.Sadly, fire visited the Swan again on the afternoon of Wednesday 7 December 2011. The damage was very similar to that suffered in1970, but happily not all the building was affected, and the Swan was able to re-open for business on 23 December using the restaurant and part of the original bar. It re-opened fully on 23 November 2012 with a big celebration for all its regulars. Its reconstruction was complete and the Swan was able, once again, to offer its traditional hospitality.The same view pictured in about 1960 seems worlds away from the bustle of modern Milton Keynes, yet little has changed except the replacement of the horse and cart by the motor car. The road, which went right past the front door of the Swan is now cut off at Willen Road to form a car park, and the electricity poles have gone, but the telephone box (traditional style!) remains.
Old Village Forge and Bus Shelter
Next to the pub is a disused red telephone box. Now owned by the parish council, there are plans to install a defibrillator and other useful community items, such as a lending library. The the bus shelter next has been converted from the old Village Forge. This was where an itinerant blacksmith would come each week to carry out his trade. Not many bus shelters can claim to have a chimney! Compare the depth of the shelter with that of the whole building.Crossing the road, go southwards along Walton Road, where you now pass a pair of semi-detached houses. These and six similar ones further along Walton Road were erected by the Society of Merchant Venturers of Bristol who owned the village from 1945 until all the land was purchased by the Milton Keynes Development Corporation. The Merchant Venturers seem to have been enlightened landlords who did their best to raise the standard of housing available for the local farmworkers, and replaced many of the more dilapidated properties in the village (although today these might be seen as desirable cottages ripe for redevelopment!). The caption on this postcard, which was sent before the First World War, was "School House - Milton Keynes". It seems that the school authorities did not own the house, but older residents can remember the schoolmistress living there. At that time, the schoolmistress was obviously an enthusiastic cultivator of cabbages! The house and a smaller thatched one behind it were pulled down in the 1950s and Merchant Venturers' houses were built on the site. The chimney of the forge can just be made out at the left of the picture.
Southside Farm and Burley Cottages
On the left of the road are Burley Cottages. Now two dwellings, this was once one house which was timber framed and built in the late sixteenth century. The southern end was extended in brick, heightened and re-roofed with tiles in the early eighteenth century to improve the accommodation. The name of the cottages refers to Burley on the Hill in Rutland, the home of the Finch family who owned the Milton Keynes Estate from 1677-1939.Fifty years earlier the thatched portion of the house had only one dormer window, but otherwise the front of the building has not altered much (apart from the lean-to porch which is now brick). The timber frame of the northern half of the building can be clearly seen where it extends into the rebuilt southern half. It is said that the Finch family used this house when they stayed in the village, and Miss Jasmine Finch, the last surviving member of the family to carry the Finch name lived there at times before the Second World War.The handsome house to the right of the road to Walton belonged to Southside Farm. This was the largest of the four main farms in the village and traditionally held the most land from the Finch estate. It was also the last working farm in the village. Now a private house, the building dates from the eighteenth century although it was re-fronted in the nineteenth century and close inspection reveals evidence of many alterations and additions. Extensive outbuildings remain at the rear of the farmhouse, mostly now converted into dwellings except for the black timber building with a tile roof which is an ancient granary standing on staddle stones to keep out vermin.Externally Southside Farm did not look much different fifty years earlier. As an active farm during the Second World War it housed prisoners of war in its extensive loft rooms which are panelled in pine. The Powell family who were tenants during the war continued to work the farm to the very end. Their land extended southwards almost to Walton Hall and included large parts of what are now Monkston and Oakgrove.Now retrace your steps along Walton Road, go to the end of Hopkins Close, up the footpath and right along Boughton Road to the corner...
Meadow Lane Corner
Like most of the houses in Milton Keynes Village, this row of cottages was built for the use of farm workers. It is now just two houses (No. 1 and No. 2, Milton Keynes Village in the Post Office's numbering system), but the evidence of chimneys and blocked doorways tells of its history as four separate cottages. The row was modernised in about 1870 - well before the more recent modifications. The workers would probably have been employed by Brook Farm or Home Farm (also sometimes known as Village Farm), both of which are only a few yards away.Some seventy years earlier, the houses were still separate. There is some evidence that they originated as a detached brick cottage with an adjacent terrace of three 'one up, one down' cottages which were re-roofed and joined in the 1870 modernisation. The line of the road has not changed much, but the little track leading off to the left is today a modern urban footpath. Across the road is the newest house in the Village - actually a pair of rather mis-matched semis - the western one being thatched. These have been built on the site of a small bungalow dating from the 1960s. It is interesting to note that this corner was originally occupied by thatched cottages - see pictures.Meadow Lane in those days was not much more than a track and didn't have a name. In some pictures the old thatch has been covered with corrugated iron - a common way of extending the life of thatch and making it waterproof. On the other side of Meadow Lane are some of the parish allotments. These are the remains of a much larger area by the road to Broughton which was owned by the Rector and let by him to local farmworkers for them to cultivate. The rents from such land formed an important part of the Rector's income as late as the end of the nineteenth century, and the field was then nicknamed Calley (short for California) where the tenants dug for 'gold' in the form of vegetables!Now make your way along towards the Swan...
Abbotts Close
This was never part of a monastery neither the resident of an abbott - but the cottage was named after the Abbott family who held the property in the eighteenth century. It was quite a large property - one of the small-holdings of the village in the past. The house has since been much extended. Many of the Abbott family are buried in the churchyard. Today, most of Abbotts Close's original land is occupied by Hopkins Close, the road of new houses behind.During WW2 and after the house was occupied by Brigadier Richard Gambier-Parry KCMG, who was a senior member of SIS - the Secret Intelligence Service - also known as MI6. He was responsible for their clandestine wireless systems, communicating with SIS agents across Europe. This section operated out of Whaddon Hall in cooperation with the information provided by codebreakers at Bletchley Park.He ran a network of secret listening stations after the war, and was appointed Director of Government Communications at Hanslope Park, about 8 miles north of here. He was active in the local community while living here, serving as president of the Bletchley Conservative Club and also president of the Milton Keynes Cricket Club. He retired in 1955 and died here in Abbotts Close in 1965.Coming from a pretty distinguished family, his most famous uncle was Sir Charles Hubert Hastings Parry, 1st Baronet (1848 – 1918) the English composer, teacher and historian of music, who amongst other works is known as the composer of "Jerusalem" and the hymn tune 'Repton' (Dear Lord and Father of Mankind). You can find out more about the family online on "Wiki...".
Old Post Office and Squire Finch's Houses
Numbers 4 and 5 Milton Keynes Village are now one dwelling. This is one of the older cottages in the village and dates from the fourteenth or at the latest fifteenth century. The evidence for this is the cruck truss which supports the centre of the roof (and is thus not visible from the outside). The stone fireplace with brick chimney was probably inserted in the sixteenth century, and smoke blackening inside the roof tells of a period before this was done. Number 4 was used as the post office before the present modern structure was built, and the sign board (now painted out) at the extreme left, and the post box in the wall (hidden behind a rose bush) still remain.This picture taken in about 1963 shows the old post office as it was when in operation. The sign and the post box are clearly visible. Despite the age of the building the post office had only been in the house for a comparatively short time, and had moved there from other locations in the village. In 1963 there were only two dormer windows - one in each cottage. A third dormer was inserted when the cottages were combined into one house. The gate in the foreground no longer exists, and the garden path has been combined with the vehicle access between numbers 5 and 6.This pair of houses to the right was erected in 1890 by Squire George Henry Finch probably for farmworkers of a status slightly higher than the basic farmhand since they are substantial and well built houses. Earlier maps show a row of three smaller houses on the site. It is likely that these would have been thatched as the houses to each side were (and in the case of the house on the left, still is). The Squire was obviously proud of his handiwork because a stone carrying his initials and the date is let into the front wall.The ivy grew on these houses quite fast because this is how they looked when they were not more than forty years old. The right-hand house later had a lean-to extension which was added to provide accommodation for the post office (one of at least five positions for the post office in the village in the last century). Behind the left hand house it is just possible to make out a thatched barn belonging to Abbott's Close, and to the right one can see the thatched roof of the house which once stood behind the school house (see position X).Now walk up the narrow path alongside the bus shelter and through the Village Garden to Bird's Cottage...
Bird's Cottage
Although it does not look it, this is one of the oldest houses in North Buckinghamshire. It was restored in 1993 after a long period of standing empty following the death of the last of the Bird family who had been the local builders working for the Finch family estate for many generations. When the roof timbers were inspected, they revealed construction techniques dating from about 1300 including the use of a Cruck. It is thought that it was originally an 'open hall' house, and this is borne out by the considerable smoke blackening found on the inside of the old roof timbers above the likely position of a central hearth. It seems that this was one of the two manor houses of Milton Keynes, the other being behind the church and visible only as an ill-defined moat ditch in the field.This is how the cottage looked in the Birds' day. The right hand end of the building housed a separate 'one up, one down' cottage, and this became derelict long before the part occupied by the Bird family. As builders for the estate, they carried out every kind of repair or new work required by the local farms, and must have been familiar with almost every building in the village. Over the years, they must also have made considerable modifications to their own house, which probably partly explains its comparatively modern appearance. This, ironically, did not assist the preservation of the house, since it disguised its true age, and it was not listed until it had been unoccupied for a number of years. After the second world war, when the estate had been bought by the Society of Merchant Venturers, the Birds continued to work to maintain the estate, but they also did business with many other property owners in the area.At the end of the yard, stood a thatched timber barn which housed the carpenter's shop. The barn was constructed in the eighteenth century and was 'listed' even before Bird's Cottage. Sadly, this did not save it from deteriorating so badly that it eventually had to be dismantled. Of especial interest were some drawings found in the loft of the barn which were identified as being of some of the timber fittings of the House of Lords. The speculation is that some of the work on the rebuilding of the Houses of Parliament was subcontracted to skilled carpenters in the Home Counties, and this is how the drawings came to be there. They are now held in the library of the House of Lords.Today the builders' yard has been transfromed into a beautiful garden. It would not have been so tranquil in the Birds' day. Behind the shrub at the right of the picture, there is a brick-lined saw-pit (now covered for safety reasons) where huge baulks of timber and sometimes whole trees were sawn from top to bottom with one man above and one below in the pit. In other sheds around the yard there were timber-working machinery, a forge and metal-work shop. The Birds undertook every kind of maintenance work needed by the farmers and householders of the village estate except thatching. Most of the machinery was taken to the Milton Keynes Museum when the house was first acquired by the Milton Keynes Development Corporation.If you need a break here, go back into the "Village Garden" just to your right, where there are benches. Otherwise you can continue around Bird's cottage and the Village Hall return to the start point in the Car Park.
END ??
This completes the main part of the tour. Return to the car park.However, if you wish to explore further, I can take you round the north end of the village.So return to the church gate. Note the fine Walnut tree with circular bench. It is not a good idea to sit here when squirrels are busy above - you may get bombarded with nutshells! Now walk up Willen Road alongside the Rectory wall, keeping to the right as there is no footpath. Take care on the bend! Arrive at the corner of Manor Close.
Ivy Cottage
Looking north up Willen Road the view is today mostly suburban, but it is immediately obvious that Ivy Cottage on the right belongs to an earlier age. It was originally built at the beginning of the seventeenth century, and was extended in the nineteenth century to both north and south. However it is not the only old building in sight. The garage in the middle distance is the sole surviving farm building of Northend Farm which was occupied by the Waite family in the first half of the twentieth century. This was one of the smaller farms of the village, with buildings on both sides of the road. The farmhouse, which now exists as Northend House, was on the left. The modern bungalow to which the garage belongs is called Waite's Barn to commemorate its past (as a farmyard).In the same view seventy years earlier, Ivy Cottage looks much the same although in those days the brickwork was not painted white. It also had no upstairs window facing the road. It was then known as Ivy Homestead, or just The Homestead. Further up the road on the right, you can see Waite's Barn before its conversion to a garage. Beyond that, also on the right stands a pair of cottages (Nos.18 & 19) which were demolished early in the 1960s (the materials were used to erect the modern cottage-style "Lambourne House" on the same site, but set well back from the road). Opposite these cottages you can just glimpse Northend Farmhouse through the trees. This was also extended in the nineteenth century, but the addition (which is considerably taller than the original) is obscured by the roadside tree in this picture. It was extended again in 1986, but this time at the west end - away from the road.
View down Willen Road
Looking south along Willen Road, back into the village, the view is once again suburban. The church tower is visible in the centre of the picture, but the modern garages and lamp-post on the right give no hint of what it was like earlier in the twentieth century or even before that. Ivy Cottage's hipped gable end is just visible on the left.In the early twentieth century, there was a group of much older buildings on the right of the picture opposite Ivy Cottage. There were three cottages in a block with a further one attached at the back. These were probably of seventeenth century origin, although much modified. They were all set back a short distance from the road, and were thus able to have cottage gardens at the front. There were small barns also on the right, and in the middle distance (just behind the car) you can see the Victorian villa called Sunnyside, which was used for a time as the Estate Office by the Society of Merchant Venturers. This still exists (although not visible because of trees on the modern photograph). As today, the church dominated the view and the flagpole has been replaced.
Footpath/Short-cut
On the left side Nos 14-26 of Finch Close (named after the Finch family who owned the Village) were built in the 1970s to provide housing for firemen based at Broughton Fire Station just up the path ahead. Each house was fitted with an alarm bell activated directly from the Station when a 'shout' or emergency call came in. Today they are all privately owned.It is possible to continue along the redway path ahead and then turn left on meeting the road (Noon Layer Drive).Otherwise make a left turn here along the public footpath behind Finch Close, which brings you out onto Noon Layer Drive at point 18.
Noon Layer Drive
Tun left along the footpath.
Enter the Park
Turn off the roadside footpath and enter 'Middleton Park' here. This just one of the green areas in Milton Keynes owned and managed by The Parks Trust, a self-financing registered charity.Follow the gravel paths around the shallow ponds.
Medieval Fish Ponds
This wet and willowy area to the north west of the church shows the most obvious of the medieval fishponds, but the outlines of several others in the complex are clearly visible. It is thought that these, together with the moated manor house site behind the church were constructed by Philip de Aylesbury in the early fourteenth century. Philip held several manors in the area, namely Bradwell, Broughton, Milton Keynes and Drayton Beauchamp. Fishponds like these are quite common in the Milton Keynes area, and other examples can be found at Bradwell Abbey, Loughton, Simpson, Tattenhoe and Woolstone.Fish were kept here in the different ponds, so as to be easily caught for 'Fish Friday' meals.We are indebted to the Buckinghamshire Archaeological Society's Monograph No. 5 by R.A. Croft and D.C. Mynard "The Changing Landscape of Milton Keynes" for the information contained in this section.As there is no old picture of the fishponds, we have included a map of the area to show their extent. The red cross on the map corresponds with the white cross on the present day picture. There were three large ponds and three smaller ponds (which were probably used as breeding areas for the fish). Fish formed an important part of the diet in medieval times, and it was particularly necessary at times such as Lent when the church forbade the consumption of meat. Fishponds were sited close to both ecclesiastical and lay domestic buildings to prevent poaching, and were often surrounded by a moat. The ponds were fed from the surrounding water table, and of course the whole site is not far from the river Ouzel. There is a watercourse or 'leat' connecting the fishponds to the moat of the Manor house site behind the church.
Site of Medieval Manor House
You should be able to identify the location of Philip de Aylesbury's Manor House, surrounded by its moat. This location due west of the church occupies a central place in the village and is ideal for any Lord of the Manor. From the Manor House, he would have been able to oversee the rebuilding work on the church in 1330, which he spent much of his money on.The 'LIDAR' aerial view image enhances the site layout and the line of the moat can be picked out (green line).From here you can return to the car park or maybe call in at The Swan if you've developed a thirst. If the church is open you may wish to explore further. Details of keyholders are available inside the porch. You can also read more on our website http://www.mkheritage.org.uk/tva/all-saints-church/
