A walk through Great Linford in 1949

The grounds of Great Linford Manor, photographed 1949. Note the thatched building to the rear of the pavilions, once home to the Bucks Otter Hunt, and since replaced by the Radcliffe Building.

I can never pass a second-hand bookshop without looking for the local history shelf, and though I always convince myself there is nothing more to be found, occasionally I still chance upon a book that contains some fascinating new insight into Great Linford's past. The latest discovery is a lovely little book by John Hugh Brignal Peel (writing as J. H. B. Peel) called Buckinghamshire Footpaths. This short book of just over 150 pages is, as the title implies, the author's reflections as he walks about the county. Written in 1949, it contains the following wonderful account of a visit to Great Linford, along with several photographs, reproduced here.

From Willen take the by-lane to Great Linford, leaving a small covert to your right, and climbing slowly until, at Grange Farm, you stand 300 feet above the sea. Thereafter the way crosses a stream. A mile and a half of pleasant, gentle going awaits you before this lane crosses the canal and bears right into Great Linford. Great Linford is an inland port, not so prosperous now as during last century, when the canal trade was at its zenith, but evidently a place of some importance still, and an attractive village in its own right.

It is worth while to spend a little time on the quay, where you will find a good inn alongside the jetty, and some business-like mooring rings. A land-bound mariner will feel at home here, the more especially because sundry gentlemen in peaked caps and blue sweaters lounge against the quayside and, amid puffs from clay pipes, gaze wistfully across the water - several yards of it - to the green bank opposite. From time to time a barge will draw alongside, and her motley crew will leap ashore – father and son in trim caps, to be about their mariners' business; mother, very bronzed and shawled and crisp-tongued; and some children without shoes but with a very healthy glow upon their faces.

If you are fortunate the barge will not be motor-driven, but will have instead a plodding horse for motive power, pleasantly bejangled and brassy about the mane, massively strong and inhumanly patient, gathering depth, as it seems, from the blinkered narrowness of his vision, and manifestly having wise things to utter, had he but the gift of speech.

If you care to ask the captain, you may even enjoy the experience of going on board, and then of examining the snug quarters below decks - marvellously clean, as clean as a Dutch merchantman, glowing with bright brass and speckless glass and dazzling paintwork, everything ship-shape-and-Bristol-fashion, neat enough to delight a Pay-master Commander.

In 1066 there were two manors in Linforde, each held by Hugh de Bolebec, one of the tenant-in-chief, Walter Giffard, the other of the Crown. These two manors passed to Hugh's son, who founded the Abbey of Woburn in 1145, and thence to many families - the Earls of Ormonde In the Saint Legers, Princess Elizabeth, Richard Campion. The ancient family of Andrewes of Lathbury were at one time lords of the manor of Great Linford.

The Church of Saint Andrew has many fine features in the Early Decorated style, but was painfully restored during the last century, when most of the tracery in the windows was spoiled and the ceilings covered by an unlovely plaster.

At the eastern end of the churchyard are some quaint grey-stone buildings, each designed to contain seven tenements, one being three storeys high and the others one storey.  These buildings were erected by a former lord of the manor, Sir William Pritchard, as almshouses for six of the village poor, the centre home being reserved for a school and its teacher.

In the past, before charity came to be nationalized, various picturesque charities were bestowed upon Great Linford by its local gentry. One pound sterling was given to the rector, upon condition that he did not allow any beasts to graze in the churchyard; and the same sum was awarded to the parish clerk, for keeping the pews and windows clean. Six times that amount was given at Christmastime, to be spent upon breeches and a gown for six almsmen, and upon a gown and petticoat for six almswomen.

Your sojourn at Great Linford may be prolonged to coincide with the arrival (and subsequently the departure) of the single line railway into Newport Pagnell. ​