Slapton, Buckinghamshire
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Slapton is a village in Buckinghamshire, England. It is located between the Grand Union Canal and the border with Bedfordshire, about three miles south of Leighton Buzzard, three miles west of Edlesborough.
The village name is Anglo Saxon in origin, and means "farm by a slippery place". It is a common place name (see Slapton). This village was recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 as Slapetone.
The manor of Slapton once belonged to a convent in Barking, Essex, though it was seized by the Crown in the Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1547. The manor was for some time after that the property of the Earl of Bridgwater.
Today Slapton contains few old buildings of any architectural merit. The church, dedicated to the Holy Cross, is of plain design with tower, nave and chancel. The chancel is probably the oldest part of the building. The church yard contains many memorials to the Turney and Buckmaster families.
The "Carpenter's Arms", the village public house, is one of the most attractive buildings in the village. It is a half timbered construction begun in the 16th century under a thatched roof.The pub is now run by the owner of Buryfarm which has recently ceased trading as the UK's only buffalo farm and is due to be converted into a world class equestrian centre. It is also rumoured that Frank Bruno now lives on the outskirts of Slapton and has frequented the Carpenters Arms but this is only a rumour.......
The village contains one or two older cottages such as "Woodbine Cottage" and "Chiltern Cottage" from the 18th century. The remainder of the older properties in the village were built by the Buckmaster family in the 19th century. The Buckmasters were a prosperous farming family from Ivinghoe, who at one time owned Bury Farm in the centre of the village. Until recently the remainder of the houses (approximately 30) in the village were owned by the local authority who built them immediately following World War II. Since 1990 there have been a few developments of "executive style" homes built in the village.
The village hall was built and given to the village by the Griffin family of Bury Farm in memory of Elizabeth Griffin in the 1950s. The Griffin family still own Bury Farm, and had the unusual distinction of farming buffalo in the village. Slapton once had a splendid 18th century rectory of classical design. This was demolished in the 1960s and a development of 4 bedroom terraced and semidetached houses in the style of that era was built on its site.
There was a farm (Church Farm) immediately next to the church, until the mid 1970s; this property had been in the ownership of one family since 1086, having originally been given to the de Tournai's by William the Conqueror. The family survived in Slapton, spelling their name in various ways, until the death of William Turney in circa 1975. He was childless, so the farm was sold for the first time in 900 years. The new owners demolished the farm-house and buildings, and on the site built a development of houses and flats known as Tournay Court.
The village once contained a water mill known as Slaptonbury Mill; the ruins of this were finally cleared in the 1980s. There is a legend relating to it. The ghost of a young girl is said to ride through the village on her pony from Slaptonbury Mill to a farm on the other side of the village, sent on an errand to the mill by her father. Both she and the pony drowned in the flooded mill stream, and still today she attempts to return home! The hooves of the pony are heard during the hours of darkness only. Whatever the truth of the legend, the mill stream still regularly floods.
The village today has a thriving community in spite of the closure of the small village school in the early 1990s and later the closure of the one village shop and post office. And should you venture into the village of Slapton in early September then you may see the results of the yearly scarecrow competition! which is held prior to the annual Slapton Village Fete.
