Stewkley is a village and

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 ...

in the

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-e ...

district of the ceremonial county of

, England. The village is about east of Winslow and about west of

Leighton Buzzard Leighton Buzzard ( ) is a market town in Bedfordshire, England, in the southwest of the county and close to the Buckinghamshire border. It lies between Aylesbury, Tring, Luton/Dunstable and Milton Keynes, near the Chiltern Hills. It is northwe ...

. The civil parish includes 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 North End and Stewkley Dean. The

toponym Toponymy, toponymics, or toponomastics is the study of ''toponyms'' ( proper names of places, also known as place names and geographic names), including their origins, meanings, usage and types. Toponym is the general term for a proper name of ...

Stewkley is derived from the

Old English Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlers in the mid-5th ...

for ''woodland clearing with tree stumps.'' 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 manusc ...

of 1086 records it as ''Stiuclai''.

History

The principal manor in Stewkley was once held by the son of

Geoffrey Chaucer Geoffrey Chaucer (; – 25 October 1400) was an English poet, author, and civil servant best known for '' The Canterbury Tales''. He has been called the "father of English literature", or, alternatively, the "father of English poetry". He w ...

, who was an occasional visitor to the village. The

Church of England parish church A parish church in the Church of England is the church which acts as the religious centre for the people within each Church of England parish (the smallest and most basic Church of England administrative unit; since the 19th century sometimes ca ...

St Michael Michael (; he, מִיכָאֵל, lit=Who is like El od, translit=Mīḵāʾēl; el, Μιχαήλ, translit=Mikhaḗl; la, Michahel; ar, ميخائيل ، مِيكَالَ ، ميكائيل, translit=Mīkāʾīl, Mīkāl, Mīkhāʾīl), also ...

and All Angels is one of the least-altered of England's 6,000 Norman churches. There is a

Methodist Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a group of historically related denominations of Protestant Christianity whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's ...

chapel in High Street South. St Michael's Church of England Combined School teaches children aged 4–11. Stewkley has one of, if not, the longest village high streets in Britain at 2 miles long, a title also claimed by

Combe Martin Combe Martin is a village, civil parish and former manor on the North Devon coast about east of Ilfracombe. It is a small seaside resort with a sheltered cove on the northwest edge of the Exmoor National Park. Due to the narrowness of the ...

in Devon, whose 1.5 mile (previously thought to be 2 miles) long high street is not as continuously populated as Stewkley's high street. Southeast of the village is Aylesbury Vale Golf Club. In World War 2, the village was a popular destination for personnel serving at nearby

RAF Wing Royal Air Force Wing or more simply RAF Wing is a former Royal Air Force Bomber Command Operational Training Unit station, situated just west of the village of Wing, in the Aylesbury Vale district of Buckinghamshire. History Construction RAF ...

Campaign against London's third airport

In 1968 the Roskill Commission was charged with looking into finding a site for London's third airport. The report was published in 1970, with the proposal that Stewkley would be destroyed along with some other nearby villages. However two local residents, Desmond Fennell and Bill Manning, set up the Wing Airport Resistance Association (WARA), which successfully campaigned against the proposal. A Monument, known as the Airport Monument and Spinney was erected in Stewkley to mark the successful campaign.

Notable people

Alastair Cook Sir Alastair Nathan Cook (born 25 December 1984) is an English cricketer who plays for Essex County Cricket Club, and played for England in all international formats from 2006 to 2018. A former captain of the England Test and One-Day Intern ...

, England cricket captain, was married at the Methodist Chapel on 31 December 2011. * Arthur Hughes, actor, known for his roles in ''The Innocents'' (2018) and ''The Archers''. *The Earl and Countess of Orkney lived at Tythe House. *

Darren Gough Darren Gough (born 18 September 1970) is a retired English cricketer and former captain of Yorkshire County Cricket Club. The spearhead of England's bowling attack through much of the 1990s, he is England's second highest wicket-taker in one-da ...

, former England cricketer, previously lived in and played football for the village. *

Al Murray Alastair James Hay Murray (born 10 May 1968) is an English comedian, actor, musician and writer from Hammersmith. In 2003, he was listed in ''The Observer'' as one of the 50 funniest acts in British comedy, and in 2007 he was voted the 16th gre ...

stand-up comedian Stand-up comedy is a comedic performance to a live audience in which the performer addresses the audience directly from the stage. The performer is known as a comedian, a comic or a stand-up. Stand-up comedy consists of one-liners, stories, ...

, best known for his persona "

The Pub Landlord Alastair James Hay Murray (born 10 May 1968) is an English comedian, actor, musician and writer from Hammersmith. In 2003, he was listed in ''The Observer'' as one of the 50 funniest acts in British comedy, and in 2007 he was voted the 16th gre ...

", was born in Grove Cottage on High Street South. * Emeline Pankhurst Lived on Ivy Lane, Stewkley for a period of time

References

External links

St Michael and All Angels Church.

Stewkley Village Website

Stewkley Players

Stewkley Village Hall

Stewkley Film Archive & Movie site
{{authority control Villages in Buckinghamshire Civil parishes in Buckinghamshire

History

Campaign against London's third airport

Notable people

References

Further reading

External links