Haversham is a community made up of two parts, the ‘old village’ and ‘the estate’. It is built above the Great Ouse valley and has stunning scenery of water meadows, weeping willows, kingfishers, swans and the bubbling, meandering river that is a mecca for anglers. When the new town of Milton Keynes was being developed, much of the sand and gravel was extracted from the valley around Haversham so now we are left with lovely lakes, wetlands and walks in protected sanctuaries where many different kinds of birds, flowers and insects thrive.

 

The original ‘old village’ is mentioned in the Domesday Book and in it stands the medieval St Mary's church, standing on a hill looking down the High Street towards the village inn, The Greyhound. Most of the village houses are made of stone, built following the High Street through the village that would have linked the old town of Wolverton to Olney and then on to Northampton. The ‘estate’ was started in 1936, halfway between the old village and the town of Wolverton, originally on land owned by the Manor Estate, hence its nickname, and then on Field Farmland. It was built to house managers and workers for the large railway works based in the ‘Railway’ town of Wolverton, just a mile away on the other side of the river. Once the estate was complete, over a period of 30 years, it more than doubled the number of residents of the village and so a new school was also built within the estate.

 

Little Linford was once a traditional estate village, owned and maintained by the Knapp family until the 1960s. Its name derives from a ford over a brook, ‘Lin’. It was mentioned in the Domesday Book as a Manor and was bought by the Knapp family in 1684. The last Lord of the Manor to live at Linford Hall died in the 1950s by which time the building had deteriorated both as a result of WWII and the reduced rental income from 1930 inwards. By the 1960s Linford Hall had fallen into disrepair. It was demolished and the estate split up and sold. Several derelict farm cottages were knocked down and in the 1970s six new houses were built in the old wilderness. Bury Court was built on the site of the old Linford Hall. The only old houses that remain are Hall Farm, Walnut and Amen Cottages and East and West Lodges. Importantly the small church of St Leonards, dating from the early 13th century, has survived.

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For more information about heritage in Milton Keynes visit http://www.mkheritage.org.uk/ 

 

There are many beautiful walks around the parish and beyond, taking in the countryside, many woods, including the ancient Little Linford Wood dating from the Middle Ages, the river, lakes and the Grand Union Canal.