Grove

A document describing the boundary between Grove and Linslade in the tenth century AD mentions a ford, called Ythinga Forda, and a named tree, called Tumbaldes Treowe, as markers. Otherwise little is known about the Saxon history of the parish.

Remains of the medieval Grove Priory were found in excavation in advance of quarrying. The parish church has since been turned into a house but was St Michael’s, mainly built in the fourteenth century but incorporating earlier work. It was the smallest church in Buckinghamshire. During work on the church, two human burials were found, one in a twelfth to thirteenth century coffin, and were reburied under the floor.

West of the church there are some earthworks that are probably from the medieval village and to the north-east of the old church are two arms of a possible moat, which may have enclosed the medieval manor house. There are similar earthworks at Broughton and an eighteenth century map of Great Broughton shows a farmstead that has since disappeared, possibly the same one as recorded in a document of 1261.

Grove Mill, which was pulled down in 1890, probably stood on the same site since the twelfth century, when the first mill was recorded.

More recent buildings include the Grand Junction Canal, which was constructed in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century. Grove Farm had a windmill, as recorded on an eighteenth century map and in a fire insurance policy, but it has since disappeared. Grove Hospital was an infectious diseases hospital opened in the early twentieth century, but that has also closed now.