Stone, Buckinghamshire

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Stone
St John The Baptist, Stone.jpg
St John the Baptist parish church, Stone
Buckinghamshire UK location map.svg
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Stone
Location within Buckinghamshire
Population2,698 (Stone with Bishopstone and Hartwell parish, 2021) [1]
OS grid reference SP783123
Civil parish
  • Stone with Bishopstone and Hartwell
Unitary authority
Ceremonial county
Region
Country England
Sovereign state United Kingdom
Post town AYLESBURY
Postcode district HP17
Dialling code 01296
Police Thames Valley
Fire Buckinghamshire
Ambulance South Central
UK Parliament
List of places
UK
England
Buckinghamshire
51°48′16″N0°51′54″W / 51.8044°N 0.8649°W / 51.8044; -0.8649

Stone is a village in the civil parish of Stone with Bishopstone and Hartwell, in Buckinghamshire, England. It is located southwest of the town of Aylesbury, on the A418 road that links Aylesbury to Thame. As well as Stone, the parish also includes the settlements of Bishopstone and Hartwell. At the 2021 census the parish had a population of 2,698.

Contents

The architect Clough Williams-Ellis designed the village hall in 1910. The original dedication stone with his name on is on the south eastern corner of the building.

Description

The village name is Old English in origin, and refers to a boundary stone or marker stone. In the Domesday Book of 1086 the village was recorded as Stanes.

The village of Stone adjoins the village of Hartwell.

The parish church is dedicated to St John the Baptist, and is dated 1273. The graveyard contains the grave of Admiral William Henry Smyth.

1806 description

In 1806, Magna Britannia [3] described Stone as

STONE, in the hundred of Aylesbury and deanery of Wendover, lies nearly three miles west of Aylesbury, on the road to Thame. The manor was anciently in the family of Braci, afterwards in that of Whittingham. It has been since held for many years by the Lees with the adjoining manor of Hartwell, and is now the property of the Rev. Sir George Lee bart.
The parish church which was consecrated in 1273, retains some vestiges of the architecture of that period. The rectory was given by the Braci family to the priory of Oseney. By the act of parliament which passed for inclosing this parish in 1776, it appears that the Lees were entitled to the great tithes of Southwarp in Stone, and the earl of Chesterfield to those of the remainder of the parish. Allotments of land were then assigned to the impropriators and to the vicar, who was entitled to the tithes of hay. Sir George Lee is patron and incumbent of the vicarage.

Astronomical observatory

In 1839, John Lee and the Royal Astronomical Society jointly owned the advowson of the parish. They appointed amateur scientist and Fellow of the Royal Society, Joseph Bancroft Reade as vicar. Reade served as incumbent until 1859, establishing a school and an astronomical observatory, and performing pioneering work in the early development of photography. [4] [5]

Village school

Stone Church of England Combined School is voluntary controlled, mixed primary school with approximately 200 pupils aged between four and eleven. The school's catchment area includes the nearby villages of Bishopstone and Hartwell, and children transfer to the school from Dinton Church of England School, at the age of seven. The school dates from 1871, but most of the present buildings date from 1973 when a major programme of building work provided a hall, new classrooms, a library, changing rooms, offices and an extended playground. In 2019 the school achieved a 'Good' rating from Ofsted, a rating confirmed in a 2025 inspection. [6] [7]

St. John's Hospital

In the early 19th century an asylum (later known as St. John's Hospital) was opened in Stone for people with disabilities or mental illnesses. It was closed in 1991, and the vast expanse of land has since been given over to a new housing estate. [8] All that remains are the staff houses and the grade-II asylum chapel.

World War II prisoner of war camp

During World War II, a Prisoner of War camp was located in Sedrup, a hamlet near Stone (Camp No. 36 Hartwell Dog Track).

The camp housed Italian prisoners from 1942 to 1946 and consisted mostly of tents with one hut. [9] [10] [11] [12] A 1946 RAF aerial photo of the site shows camp buildings at Grid reference SP797121 51°48′06″N0°50′43″W / 51.8018°N 0.8454°W / 51.8018; -0.8454 , on what is now the Meadoway housing estate adjacent to Sedrup Lane. [13] Remains of the camp were still evident on the site in the 1950s.

Governance

There are two tiers of local government covering Stone with Bishopstone and Hartwell, at parish and unitary authority level: Stone with Bishopstone and Hartwell Parish Council and Buckinghamshire Council. The parish council meets at both the Jubilee Pavilion in Stone and at Bishopstone Village Hall. [14]

Stone was an ancient parish. In 1986 the parish merged with the neighbouring parish of Hartwell to form a new civil parish called Stone with Bishopstone and Hartwell. [15] [16] At the 1971 census (one of the last before the abolition of the parish), Stone had a population of 2138. [17]

References

  1. "2021 Census Parish Profiles". NOMIS. Office for National Statistics. Retrieved 31 March 2025. (To get individual parish data, use the query function on table PP002.)
  2. "Parliamentary 2024 Constituency Map for Mid Buckinghamshire". streetguide.co.uk. Retrieved 7 September 2025.
  3. Magna Britannia: Buckinghamshire, Lysons S. and Lysons D., 1806
  4. The Stone observatory included both a transit room and a 14-foot (4.3 m) diameter equatorial room and is described in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society (1853)
  5. Wood (2004)
  6. "Stone Church of England Combined School – Inspection Reports". Ofsted . Retrieved 7 September 2025.
  7. "Stone Church of England Combined School – Key Stage 2 achievement and attainment Tables 2007". Department for Children, Schools and Families . Retrieved 18 February 2019.
  8. "St John's Hospital, Stone". National Register of Archives. The National Archives. GB/NNAF/C53394. Retrieved 11 October 2009.
  9. "Camp 36 - Hartwell Dog Track Camp, Hartwell, Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire" (pdf). English Heritage. 2003. Retrieved 24 November 2024.
  10. England, Historic (1 November 2003). "Prisoner of War Camps (1939 - 1948) - Twentieth Century Military Recording Project" (pdf). Historic England . Retrieved 3 September 2017.
  11. "POW Camps in UK - 1 to 50". Archived from the original on 21 January 2012. Retrieved 3 September 2017.
  12. "Unlocking Buckinghamshire's past – Prisoners of war". Buckinghamshire County Council . Retrieved 3 September 2017.
  13. "Heritage Portal: Monument record 0668300000 - Hartwell Dog Track – including RAF aerial photo: Images (1)". Buckinghamshire County Council . Retrieved 9 October 2021.
  14. "Stone with Bishopstone and Hartwell Parish Council" . Retrieved 5 October 2025.
  15. "The Aylesbury Vale (Parishes) Order 1985" (PDF). Local Government Boundary Commission for England. The National Archives. Retrieved 5 October 2025.
  16. "Aylesbury Vale Registration District". UKBMD. Retrieved 9 August 2023.
  17. "Population statistics Stone through time". A Vision of Britain through Time . Retrieved 5 October 2025.