Bow Brickhill - how it got its name

It has nothing to do with bricks, hills or bows - read about it here.

Bow Brickhill Stables, Milford, Hunterdon County, New Jersey USA
Owners of these stables enjoyed riding through Bow Brickhill woods so much that they decided to name their equestrian business after the village and feature a picture of it on their web site .... more

London End Lane

Markham's History of Milton Keynes, Volume One p278 says that constables in 1700 were paid by the mile for conveying prisoners from Stony Stratford jail to Little Brickhill Assizes. Watling Street was a turnpike with tolls charged. Therefore the route taken by the constables was through the fields via Woughton. The Simpson men were bitter, as they were responsible for the upkeep of the turnpike from Fenny Stratford to Loughton, and therefore had reduced income from the tolls. So they decided to prove that the direct route of Stony Stratford to Little Brickhill was along the toll road, much shorter.

Geoff Shouler (grandson of May Annie Wootton) says that right up to the 1960s it was possible to follow the bridlepaths and lanes route from Old Bradwell Common down through Woughton over the river, taking a direct line west of the Open University up the lane behind Walton Church, and after that (he surmises) the route went up to Bow Brickhill, turned right at the lower part of the hill, through London End Lane, across the lower part of the hill to Little Brickhill. 

Those condemned to hang were taken down the hill to the Great/Bow Brickhill crossroads -- hence the name Gallows Lane.  [NB. - that might instead be a derivation of 'galous' (spelling?) meaning a hard or steep route.]

Bow Brickhill Heath - the Blackground

The overseers sold the heath in 1844 much to the disagreement of many in the village .... more. 

W R Shephard OBE

W R Shephard OBE signed someone's autograph book (dated 1919) - see image below - and contributed the rather fine watercolour of Warwick Castle, shown opposite.  If you know any more of W R Shephard, where he/she lived and why the OBE was awarded please do let me know.

Lt Gerald Featherstone Knight

Lieutenant Gerald Featherstone Knight, born in 1894 was the grandson of the vicar of Bow Brickhill. He  volunteered at the outbreak of World War I, escaped from a German Prisoner of War camp in 1917 and wrote his account of that escape in "Brother Bosch" - an airman's escape from Germany (1919) - which can be downloaded here. His MC was awarded after his death from cancer in 1919. 

Eric Porter

The actor and director, 1928-1995, who achieved fame when he played Soames in the Forsyte Saga in the 1967 26 episode TV costume drama, lived for a short time in Bow Brickhill at Farm Cottage, 74 Station Road.

Kings Thursday Halt
The Decline and Fall of a Birdwatcher, a film made in 1968, was based on Evelyn Waugh's first published and satirical novel, Decline and Fall.  Bow Brickhill Halt was transformed into the fictitious railway halt of Kings Thursday and made a very brief appearance in the film, about one third of the way through.

All Saints Churchyard 

There are at least 125 different plants in the churchyard - read what they are here.