Population 1,840 (2011 Census) Civil parish Stewkley Country England Local time Tuesday 12:30 AM District Aylesbury Vale UK parliament constituency Buckingham | OS grid reference SP853261 Region South East Sovereign state United Kingdom Shire county Buckinghamshire Dialling code 01525 | |
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Weather 6°C, Wind NE at 8 km/h, 93% Humidity | ||
Stewkley is a village and civil parish in the Aylesbury Vale district of Buckinghamshire, England. The village is about 5 miles (8 km) east of Winslow and about 4 miles (6 km) west of Leighton Buzzard. The civil parish includes the hamlets of North End and Stewkley Dean.
Contents
- Map of Stewkley Leighton Buzzard UK
- History
- Campaign against Londons third airport
- Notable people
- References
Map of Stewkley, Leighton Buzzard, UK
The toponym Stewkley is derived from the Old English for woodland clearing with tree stumps. The Domesday Book of 1086 records it as Stiuclai.
History
The principal manor in Stewkley was once held by the son of Geoffrey Chaucer, who was an occasional visitor to the village. The Church of England parish church of St Michael and All Angels is one of the least-altered of England's 6,000 Norman churches. There is a Methodist chapel in High Street South. St Michael's Church of England Combined School teaches children aged 4–11.
Stewkley has one of the longest village high streets in Britain, a title also claimed by Combe Martin in Devon, whose 2 miles (3 km) high street is not as continuously populated as Stewkley's 1.7 miles (2.7 km) high street. Southeast of the village is Aylesbury Vale Golf Club.
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.