Monument record 0059000000 - STOWE VILLAGE

Stowe village stretched S from the church along a road called Hegway (B5).
In 1720 had 32 houses & 180 people, but had nearly disappeared by 1927 due to encroachment of park (B1).
Settlement moved to Dadford? (B2).
Only trace of village (in 1989) are tile fragments (B5).
NGR to park centre (B1).
The National Trust's survey for Stowe undertaken in 1989 makes reference to the village which seems to have included ancillary buildings of the great house. The village included a vicarage, a mill and there may have been fishponds on the site of the 11 acre lake (B8).
In 1712, the village contained only 31 houses and 80 inhabitants; consisting of a few detached farms, and other habitations, which have been since so completely and entirely merged in the gardens and demesnes of Stowe, the modern and magnificent seat of his Grace the Duke of Buckingham and Chandos, that it can not be, with any degree of precision, attempted to be separately described (B11).


SP678374. Stowe DMV. In 1710 there were 32 houses and a population of 180. The settlement seems to have moved to Dadford out of the park (B14).

Browne Willis indicates that the housing and population figures (authy 1) refer to the Parish of Stowe, not just the village (B1).
Jenkinson in VCH states that the gardens of Stowe Park were first laid out in 1713 and it seems likely that the village was absorbed at that time. (B1 and B15)

Landscaping of the park has virtually obscured all traces of the village, but the site must have been near the 13thc. Church now standing alone in the park. Part of the southern extent may be indicated by the edge of rig and furrow on Aps (B16)

No definite traces but almost certainly adjacent to the church (B17).

According to this article, evidence suggests that it was Peter Temple (1592-1653), not his grandson Richard Temple, Viscount Cobham (1675-1749) who was responsible for the depopulation of Stowe. It describes how it was Peter Temple's decision in the late 17th century to enlarge the estate's deer park into land used as common pasture which led to inhabitants being resettled elsewhere. Previously it had been assumed that the depopulation of Stowe took place in the early 18th century as a result of the creation of landscape gardens. The reason that it was assumed that the resettling took place in the 18th century is that population figures for Stowe in the 18th century actually related to the parish of Stowe, and not the village. There were four villages within the parish of Stowe, however this had been overlooked until recently. It is believed that some of the inhabitants may have been resettled in Dadford, however some may have left the parish altogether (B18).

NRHE Insert 1997, Update 2002, 2004, 2010 (B19)