Soulbury
| Soulbury | |
 All Saints Church |
|
 Soulbury Three Locks |
|
  Soulbury Soulbury shown within Buckinghamshire | |
| Population | 736 [1] |
|---|---|
| OS grid reference | SP885275 |
| Civil parish | Soulbury |
| District | Aylesbury Vale |
| Shire county | Buckinghamshire |
| Region | South East |
| Country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | LEIGHTON BUZZARD |
| Postcode district | LU7 |
| Dialling code | 01525 |
| Police | Thames Valley |
| Fire | Buckinghamshire |
| Ambulance | South Central |
| EU Parliament | South East England |
| UK Parliament | Buckingham |
| |
Soulbury is a village and also a civil parish within Aylesbury Vale district in Buckinghamshire, England. It is located in the Aylesbury Vale, about three miles south of the Milton Keynes urban area, three miles north of Wing. The village name is Anglo Saxon in origin, and means 'stronghold in a gully'. In the Domesday Book of 1086 the village was recorded as Soleberie.
The Parish
The parish contains the hamlets of :
- Hollingdon in the west,
- Chelmscote on the Stoke Hammond to Leighton Buzzard road,
- Bragenham to the east of the River Ouzel, and
- Stockgrove near Stockgrove Country Park on the border with Bedfordshire.
The parish extends as far as Rammamere Farm on Watling Street. Rammamere Heath is managed with King's Wood in Heath and Reach as a nature reserve.[2]
Liscombe Park
A 17th century mansion Liscombe Park, originally the seat of the Lovett Family was rebuilt in the 1920s by the Bonsor Family who live there today. The house is built of brick with small turrets and crennelations, in the style of an 18th-century pseudo gothic castle. The interiors are a mixture of panelling and some 18th century styles. Near to the house is the former much older chapel, this today has been converted to a billiards room. The house is not open to the public, but the gardens are sometimes used for fairs and fetes.
The stable block has been converted to a leisure and health complex, with a polo cross field. There is a riding stables, open to the public, adjacent to the complex.
An early mention of the name as Lyscombe appears in 1418, where Roger Stok & his wife Sara lived, suing people from Stewkley (appearing as Stucle) and Burcote [3]
Soulbury
Soulbury gave its name to Solebury Township, Pennsylvania, which was founded by Quaker settlers from Soulbury.
There is a public house in Soulbury called The Boot. Its pub sign features a boot of the Duke of Wellington, but the tradition of the Soulbury Boot is said to be much older than that. It is said that the Devil himself once came to the village, but the villagers came together to fight him off. One of them took his sword and cut off the Devil's foot and as it fell to the ground it turned to stone. The stone came to be known as the Soulbury Boot. This story is said by some to have been made up by a previous pub landlord in order to attract visitors.
Soulbury Millennium Green
This public greenspace is owned and run by a local charitable trust and was created as part of the celebrations for the turn of the Millennium in the year 2000. It is one of 245 such Millennium Greens throughout England.
References
- ↑ Neighbourhood Statistics 2011 Census, Accessed 3 February 2013
- ↑ Wildlife Trust, King's Wood and Rammamere Heath.
- ↑ Plea Rolls of the Court of Common Pleas; National Archives; CP 40/629; year 1418; http://aalt.law.uh.edu/H5/CP40no629/aCP40no629fronts/IMG_0007.htm; 5th entry
External links
Media related to Soulbury at Wikimedia Commons
