Stewkley

Prehistoric artefacts have been found by chance in Stewkley, such as Neolithic flint flakes found on ploughed fields or by footpaths. A Mesolithic flint flake was also found during stripping for the Kingsbury to Buncefield oil pipeline. A little Roman material has also been found including pottery on the stream bed near Stewkley Lane and a possible Iron Age or early Roman spindle whorl near Walducks Farm. One crop-mark enclosure north of Soulbury Road seen on aerial photographs cannot be closely dated but may be prehistoric or Roman. It has been suggested that a Roman road runs southwest to northeast through the parish, passing close to the Norman church, though there is some doubt about the possible route. Inhumations found at Pitch Green could be early Saxon or Civil War.

Large areas of medieval ridge-and-furrow remain around the parish. An enclosure ditch has been surveyed at Upper and Lower Dean Farms, where nearby there are earthworks of a medieval settlement. West of the Mursley Road there is a medieval moat which, with earthworks including fishponds, is the former site of Stewkley Grange, once held by Woburn Abbey, where medieval roof tiles have been found. At Nuneham Hill Field there is another medieval moat (Scheduled Monument) and a hollow way running beside it which linked the Norman church with the deserted medieval settlement at Littlecote. There are earthworks and fishponds of the the abandoned medieval hamlet at Littlecote (Scheduled Monument). There are also thirteenth century records of a watermill at Littlecote, and the name of Mill Way Field in the northeast of the parish suggests the existence of a windmill at some time.

The Norman church of St Michael and All Angels is the oldest building in the parish, dating to the twelfth century and the only Grade I listed building. It is a fine example of original Norman ecclesiastical architecture of national significance. 22 High Street South, 7 High Street North and 28 High Street North incorporate fifteenth century cruck trusses. Most of the other listed buildings are sixteenth to seventeenth century and timber-framed. Manor Farm is late sixteenth century and was the manor house for one of the four manors of the parish of Stewkley. Dovecote Farm has a dragon beam at its northeast corner and a sixteenth century wall painting.

A limestone quarry at Warren Farm, sand and gravel pits and clay fields were the source of local building materials. Nineteenth century brickworks are known on Dunton Road at Kilnholm and at Old Brick Farm, and on Wing Road at The Croft. Eighteenth and nineteenth century buildings along the village High Street show the warm orange tones of the locally fired bricks. There was a nineteenth century smock mill at Kings Street. At Grange Farm there was a pest house or infectious diseases hospital. Opposite the church in the centre of the village the National School, built in 1860, has been converted into dwellings but the exterior has been little altered.

Many thanks to John Sheldon and Jill Scott who updated this page in 2022.