Stoke Hammond

Several enclosures of unknown date are known in this parish, for instance from Moat Farm, but with an Iron Age farmstead turning up in excavation and geophysical survey at Stoke House Farm and some Late Iron Age pottery found in fieldwalking near Southlands Farm, it is likely the enclosures are prehistoric. Iron Age, Roman and Saxon pottery has also been found in the churchyard and Roman and medieval pottery at Mount Pleasant Farm.

Medieval pottery was also found in the garden of 6 Fenny Road. There are historical records of a medieval watermill and a fourteenth to sixteenth century dovecote attached to Stoke Hammond Manor. The oldest surviving building, however, is St Luke’s church. This is mostly a fourteenth century build, with a fifteenth century porch. Most of the other listed buildings are seventeenth to eighteenth century and timber-framed. Grove Farm may contain a cruck truss, however, that may date back to the fifteenth century.

Several now vanished buildings are known from nineteenth century maps, such as a farmstead and field barn close to Common Farm. Quarries can also be seen on these maps, one close to the Recreation Ground and one near Southlands Farm. There are also historical records of nineteenth century brickworks at the Bell Inn. Many of the nineteenth century buildings of interest relate to the Grand Union Canal, such as lock-keepers cottages, bridges and pumping stations. Another interesting nineteenth century monument is the tomb of the Fontaine family in St Luke’s churchyard. For the twentieth century, we have a World War II radio station recorded on aerial photographs near Dorcas Farm.