Stoke Goldington is a village

Village

A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet with the population ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand , Though often located in rural areas, the term urban village is also applied to certain urban neighbourhoods, such as the West Village in Manhattan, New...

 and civil parish in the Borough of Milton Keynes

Milton Keynes (borough)

The Borough of Milton Keynes is a unitary authority and borough in south central England, at the northern tip of the South East England Region. For ceremonial purposes, it is in the county of Buckinghamshire...

 and ceremonial county

Ceremonial counties of England

The ceremonial counties are areas of England to which are appointed a Lord Lieutenant, and are defined by the government as counties and areas for the purposes of the Lieutenancies Act 1997 with reference to the metropolitan and non-metropolitan counties of England and Lieutenancies Act 1997...

 of Buckinghamshire

Buckinghamshire

Buckinghamshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan home county in South East England. The county town is Aylesbury, the largest town in the ceremonial county is Milton Keynes and largest town in the non-metropolitan county is High Wycombe....

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

. It is located about four miles NNW of Newport Pagnell

Newport Pagnell

Newport Pagnell is a town in the Borough of Milton Keynes , England. It is separated by the M1 motorway from Milton Keynes itself, though part of the same urban area...

, on the B526, the old road to Northampton

Northampton

Northampton is a large market town and local government district in the East Midlands region of England. Situated about north-west of London and around south-east of Birmingham, Northampton lies on the River Nene and is the county town of Northamptonshire. The demonym of Northampton is...

.

The village name 'Stoke' derives from an Old English language

Old English language

Old English or Anglo-Saxon is an early form of the English language that was spoken and written by the Anglo-Saxons and their descendants in parts of what are now England and southeastern Scotland between at least the mid-5th century and the mid-12th century...

 word 'stoc', which means 'place' (Wiki). It came to be used in the context of either a religious or a secondary settlement, and is one of the most common place names in England (see Stoke (disambiguation)). In the Domesday Book

Domesday Book

Domesday Book , now held at The National Archives, Kew, Richmond upon Thames in South West London, is the record of the great survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086...

 of 1086 the village was recorded as Stoche. The affix 'Goldington' came later and refers to "Peter of Goldington" (from Goldington

Goldington

Goldington is an electoral ward and former village within the town of Bedford, Bedfordshire, England.The boundaries of Goldington are approximately Norse Road and Cemetery to the north and east, Goldington Road to the south, with Church Lane and Haylands Way to the west...

 in Bedfordshire

Bedfordshire

Bedfordshire is a ceremonial county of historic origin in England that forms part of the East of England region.It borders Cambridgeshire to the north-east, Northamptonshire to the north, Buckinghamshire to the west and Hertfordshire to the south-east....

) who was the principal tenant

Leasehold estate

A leasehold estate is an ownership of a temporary right to land or property in which a lessee or a tenant holds rights of real property by some form of title from a lessor or landlord....

 in the village in the medieval period.

Annual Steam Rally

Every year, at the beginning of May, a steam rally is held, over the Saturday and Sunday selected. When the weather is nice, there is a massive turnout each year, and the little village has become quite respected for that. Even when the weather isn't so good, there are always the faithful village goers who trundle up there, determind to have fun. On the Saturday evening, there is a magnificent firework display, with rides and a beer tent. The Steam Rally reallyis worthwhile going to, as it has such a variety of stalls, there is something for everyone.
The steam rally was one of the first steam rally's to introduce a country fayre to its list of attractions and now the whole thing covers many fields in Stoke Goldington.

Flooding

Stoke Goldington has been flooded at least three times. The first flood was very minor, and didn't really cause that much trouble, so it is not really heard of. In June 2007, Stoke Goldington was hit by a second flood. There are lots of little streams and brooks round the area, and heavy rain caused them to burst their banks and flow over the land. The flood wasn't as bad as the later one, but still caused 40 people to have to be evacuated from the area.

The third flooding was by far the worst. It rained heavily again, in July 2007, and caused almost all the rivers nearby to swell. Even some of the houses that had been untouched by the first flood actually witnessed the dirty mudwater creeping up towards their home. The whole village was almost three feet underwater, and many homes were extremely badly damaged by the dirt and mud that swirled up. It took up to 2 years for the last people to be able to move back into their homes. Precautions were taken, and for many months after the flood, sandbags were to be seen outside people's doors.

External links

• Stoke Goldington Association web site History, census data, old photographs and more.
• Stoke Goldington Steam Rally web site For information on the steam rally.

• 'Parishes : Stoke Goldington', Victoria History of the Counties of England - A History of the County of Buckingham: Volume 4 (1927), pp. 466–470.