Great Brickhill

Great Brickhill is a village in Buckinghamshire, England. It is located in the very north of the county, about two and a half miles south-east of Fenny Stratford.

The village name is a compound of Brythonic and Anglo Saxon origins, which is a common occurrence in this part of the country. The Brythonic breg means 'hill', and the Anglo Saxon hyll also means 'hill'. In the Domesday Book of 1086 the village was recorded as Brichelle. The affix 'Great' was added in the 12th century to differentiate from nearby Bow Brickhill and Little Brickhill, though since that time Little Brickhill has far outgrown the other two.

Great Brickhill was described in 1806 in "Magna Britannia" as follows:

GREAT-BRICKHILL, in the hundred and deanery of Newport, lies about two miles and a half to the south-east of Fenny Stratford. The manor was anciently in the Beauchamps, from whom it passed by female heirs to the Bassets and Greys. Richard Grey, Earl of Kent, sold it in 1514 to Sir Charles Somerset, of whose son, Sir George it was purchased in 1549, by the Duncombes: from this family it passed, by female heirs, to the Bartons and Paunceforts, and is now the property of Philip Duncombe Pauncefort esq.

The manor of Smewnes-Grange, in this parish, became the property of Woburn Abbey, in the year 1293. King Edward VI granted it to Edward Stanton esq. of whose descendant it was purchased in 1792, (under an act of parliament which had passed the preceding year,) by the present proprietor, Edward Hanmer esq. of Stockgrove. This manor extends into the parish of Soulbury: the manor-house, which was built by Edward Stanton, the grantee, within a moated site near the Ousel, has long been suffered to go to decay.

In the parish church are memorials of the families of Duncombe, Barton, Pauncefort, and Chase. The advowson of the rectory is annexed to the manor. This parish was inclosed by an act of parliament, passed in 1776, when an allotment of land was assigned to the rector, in lieu of tithes, and an allotment to the poor in lieu of their right of cutting furze.

That Great Brickhill survives today as a village is due in no small part to the objections of its residents to the ever-increasing development of Milton Keynes. This new city on the doorstep of Great Brickhill comes closer every year: already parts of the parish have been swallowed. It may be that this will one day be Great Brickhill's fate too. At the moment Great Brickhill is still a typical English village with a thriving community, church, pub and Squire.

Many people notice when entering Great Brickhill for the first time the high brick wall, reminiscent of that at nearby Woburn, which runs for some distance adjacent to the road. This wall, now neglected and ruined in places, surrounds the 70-acre (280,000 m²) park which once housed the principal seat of the Duncombe family Great Brickhill Manor. The last manor house to occupy this park was built circa 1835, a large square brick stuccoed building of no particular architectural merit - old photographs show a slight italienate influence in the design, a style later made popular by Queen Victoria at Osborne House. This house was demolished in 1937 after serving for a time as Stratton Park Preparatory School.

The Duncombe family (the head of whom since 1859 has been a Baronet) continue to live in the village and own the estate, however, they now reside at what used to be the old Rectory near the church. Ironically the rectory is shielded from the empty site of the family's former more splendid home by a battlented folly wall, built by a former Duncombe who disliked the vicar so much that he did not wish to see him or his home!

The parish church dedicated to St Mary the Virgin is a Grade 2* listed building dating back to the 13th century. It is a fairly large church, able to seat 300. The south aisle and chapel were erected in 1460 and the north aisle and chapel were added circa 1500. In 1865 the church was heavily restored, the exterior being faced with the local green sand rubble with limestone dressings.

In 1643 Great Brickhill was touched by the English Civil War. The Parliamentarian Earl of Essex and his army camped in the village for a month. Great Brickhill was considered a strategic site due to its elevation and proximity to Watling Street (now the A5 road), at the time the main approach road to London from the north. However, there were no battles or even skirmishes here.

Another large house in the area was Stockgrove, built in the 1920s on the site of a much older mansion (see Magnus Britannia above) this Georgian-style house was built by the industrialist Sir Ferdinand Kroyer-Kielberg. The estate was divided and sold in the 1950s. The house for a time became a 'Special School' and in the 1990s was divided into luxury apartments.

Great Brickhill today has only one shop: like so many other villages its bakery and Post-Office are long closed. The local public house the 'Red Lion', however, continues to provide a much-needed service and has a flourishing trade.

Great Brickhill, with its mixture of old and new houses, quaint road names such as Rotten Row, Duck End and Pound Hill, is the epitome of the true English village. How long it can remain so and fight the advances of a new city remains to be seen.