Haversham
Coordinates: 52°04′44″N 0°47′24″W / 52.079°N 0.790°W
Haversham is a village in the Borough of Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, England. It is situated just north of Milton Keynes near Wolverton and about 4.5 miles (7.2 km) north of Central Milton Keynes, in the green belt. Haversham-cum-Little Linford is a civil parish in the Borough of Milton Keynes.
The village name is an Old English word that means 'Haefer's homestead'. In the Domesday Book of 1086, when it belonged to the Peverell family, it was listed as Hæfærsham. The ancient manor house in the village, which was fortified in 1304, was largely burnt down, but parts of it still remain in a farm house just outside the main village.
Haversham was once a north Buckinghamshire farming village before the building of the railway carriage works at Wolverton in 1833. As of 2012, only Hill Farm, Grange Farm, Field Farm and Crossroads Farm remain as active working farms. The village has two distinct settlements separated by farmland. The older part of the village contains the manor house and, at elevations between 60 metres and 65 metres above mean sea level, is close to the Ouse Valley and its flood plain. In the 1930s 'new Haversham' was built on the meadows just above the banks of the River Ouse to house managers working within the rail works at Wolverton. The modern part contains the primary school and is on ground at elevations between 65 metres and 75 metres, overlooking the Ouse Valley.
Behind Haversham lakes is the ruined church of St Peter's which belonged originally to the medieval village of Stanton Low, and which has for many years been associated with local werewolf legend.[2] The last house in Stanton Low fell into disrepair in the 1920s. In the 1950s the Norman chancel arch from St Peter's was removed to St James' Church New Bradwell, and St Peters is now a ruin. In the 1970s, ARC dug the river meadows near the site of the old village of Stanton Low for gravel extraction, leaving behind the large man made lakes that surround Haversham to the south today. These lakes are the home to the Hanson Centre and to the Haversham Sailing Club, one of the leading sailing clubs around Milton Keynes.
Near to Haversham, along the Ouse towards Wolverton, is the Wolverton Railway Viaduct of a 'typical' Stephenson's design, carrying the West Coast Main Line over the river Great Ouse. A little further west is the 'Iron Trunk' canal aqueduct, carrying the Grand Union Canal over the same river. There are also 'cattle creep' holes in the canal embankment, which allow cows to pass from one side of the canal to the other: one of these is also used to carry the riverside footpath.
The village gave its name to HMS Haversham, a Ham class minesweeper.
Civil parish
Haversham is in the civil parish of Haversham-cum-Little Linford,[3] which also includes Little Linford. This merged parish was formed in 1934 following a County Review order. It formed part of the Newport Pagnell Rural District until 1974, when it became part of the borough of Milton Keynes.
References
- ↑ Neighbourhood Statistics 2011 census; accessed 4 February 2013.
- ↑ "St. Peters Church and the curse of the werewolf". MysteriousMiltonKeynes.com. July 9, 2013. Archived from the original on August 8, 2013. Retrieved April 2, 2016.
- ↑ "Parishes in Milton Keynes". Milton Keynes Council.
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