HS2 project home | places affected | Stoke Mandeville deserted village

Stoke Mandeville deserted village and church PART OF THE HS2 HISTORIC IMPACT ASSESSMENT PROJECT READ OUR PAMPHLET – in print or download for free.

Stoke Mandeville was included in the society's
Response to the HS2 Environmental Statement in February 2014.
Click here to read the section on Stoke Mandeville. .

THE SITE of the deserted village of Stoke Mandeville has been a major focus for society members active around the HS2 issue for two reasons: First because this was an important Saxon settlement well before it appeared in Domesday Book in 1086, and the remains of its church and churchyard may encapsulate 800 years of village history. And secondly because the scale of destruction planned by HS2 will be total: four parallel rail lines on a low embankment will remove all traces of the village, church and churchyard.

LEFT: The derelict old church of St Mary the Virgin as it was in the late 19th century. BELOW: This heap of rubble is all that remains today – but beneath it will be vital archaeological evidence.

THE VILLAGE SITE TODAY

The deserted village site stands among fields half a mile south of today's Stoke Mandeville. A heap of rubble is all that remains of the 12th-century church of St Mary the Virgin. Around it are earthbanks, watercourses and silted-up ponds – showing where once were buildings, mill races and fishponds... perhaps a moat.

The county council's ‘Blueprint for HS2’ has suggested that this is ‘one of the most archaeologically important [sites] along the entire phase 1 route’ of HS2 between London and Birmingham.

The construction plans for the HS2 high-speed rail line require all this to be swept away by the bulldozers. The line itself will pass exactly through what remains of the Saxon chancel arch of the church, then over the most likely site of the village mill.

WHAT SOCIETY MEMBERS HAVE DONE

Since plans for HS2 were announced in 2011, members of the society have been working first to try to save the deserted village site from destruction, then at a minimum to ensure that there is a full, professional investigation and excavation before bulldozers move in.

View the following pages to see the work we have done:

• The History of the deserted village
  Our first task was to trace the history of the settlement by research in the county records.
• Surveys of the site
  Surveys were conducted to look for the foundations of earlier buildings and try to identify the likely site of the mill mentioned in Domesday book.
• The effects of HS2
  We watched plans for the line where it crosses the deserted village site, attempting unsuccessfully to persuade HS2 to minimise the damage.
• The Wills of local people
  Over the past 500 years local Wills, researched by the society's documentary research group, have provided evidence for the shape of the village.
• Plans for a Stoke Mandeville Legacy Garden
  We are working with the parish council, parochial church council and local community to persuade HS2 Limited to provide an appropriate site for the estimated 2,600 burials that will have to be moved from the old churchyard.