Town Trail
Newport Pagnell Town Map
Newport Pagnell Map

There has been a settlement at Newport Pagnell since before the Iron Age, it being inevitable that a community should spring up at the junction of two rivers, the Ouse and the Lovat, both fordable at this point. It was a town of some importance at the time of the Doomsday survey and by the end of the 12th century was known by its present name--Newport (new town) Pagnell (after Fulk Paynell who was given ownership of the land by William the Conqueror).The Paynells founded Tickford Priory and through this the town grew in importance. By 1394 local burgesses had taken over the responsibility for maintenance of the town market.

During the Civil War, Newport was first a Royalist stronghold. The King's men were routed and the Parliamentary forces took charge, fortifying the town with earthworks, some of which can still be seen on the town Common, Bury Field. John Bunyan was said to have served in the Commonwealth forces here. There is a rumour that Oliver Cromwell's second son, Oliver, died of smallpox in the town in 1644 but this has never been proven. Civil War Map The map shown in the link is reproduced by the kind permission of Paul Woodfield and comes from the publication called "Stony Stratford the Last Skirmish" produced in 1994. Paul's map shows the Civil War defences superimposed over a modern day map but with the river as it was in 1644 (note the length of the river bridge at Tickford) . At that time there were buildings in the middle of the High Street (the town shambles) and it was here that the Parliamentary forces had their headquarters close to the Swan.The original map of 1644 is held at the Bodlean Library but a copy can be seen in the town museum Chandos Hall.

Newport Pagnell was at one time the centre of the lace industry, but it was through its importance as a transport centre that the town grew, being on direct routes between Leicester and London and Cambridge and Oxford. By the late 17th century over 180 goods and coach services a week passed through the town and it was well provided with coaching inns. Such was the importance of the coaching trade to the town that the Tickford Iron Bridge and the stone North Bridge were erected in 1810 to cater for the heavier traffic and able to avoid turning over through the river ford when the waters were swollen.

The coming of the branch of the Grand Union Canal in 1817 reduced the reliance on road traffic for heavy goods, but the railways dealt a death blow to coaches and narrow boats. The waterway link had already fallen into disuse when the branch railway line from Wolverton was opened in 1865. The town was by then a busy centre with a thriving coachworks owned by Salmons later the home of Aston Martin Lagonda Ltd, a focal point for the local farming industry and to some extent a dormitory for workers at the Railway Works at Wolverton.

Newport Pagnell's next major expansion took place in the 1950's when large housing estates were built to cope with the post-war population surge. This fact, coupled with the coming of the M1 in 1959 and the establishment of the new city of Milton Keynes, has seen the town's population rise from 4,500 to over 16,000.

Bury Field - the great 185 acre common whose grazing rights are still attached to certain properties in the town still attracts walkers today.

Newport to Wolverton Railway
Newport Nobby
North Bridge Toll House
Starting our Trail from the North Bridge Toll House (1), built in the 1810, we get a pleasant view of the town from the eastern approach on the Northampton / Bedford road. The Parish Church is on the highest point of the High Street and, to the right, is a panorama of small houses backing on to the River Ouse as it leaves the Mill race of the former corn mills, the last of which was destroyed by fire in 1899.
North Bridge Toll House
On the left, on the site of an ancient manor house, is the Royal British Legion Club (2), housed in a 17th century building which in it's time has been home to prominent local families, a private girls' school, a public library, and a doctors' surgery. The gardens of this lovely house are now publicity owned and if you walk down to the river you will find, on your left, the remaining stone arch of the medieval north bridge.
Royal British Legion Club
Royal British Legion Club
St. Peter & St. Paul

The Parish Church (3) of St Peter and St. Paul was built in the 14th century. The tower was erected during the 16th century and the crenellations (battlements) and pinnacles added in 1827. Inside the Church the galleries were built North side 1710 and South side1724. In 1866 local solicitor and Gent, Mr. George Cooch along with his sister Anne gave £500 for a new organ. The organ was fitted in August of that year and a brass plaque commemorates the gift. If you turn left by the north porch, the oldest part of the church, you will come across a row of almshouses, built in 1763 by John Revis a Charing Cross draper who made good in London and whose family came from Newport.

St. Peter & St. Paul
The interesting building with a spire that you can see in the background is Cemetery Lodge (4) , built by local architect Richard Sheppard in 1860. Now called Spire Cottage it is a private house. This was originally the chapel of rest and a stone slab for the coffins can still be seen under the small bridge leading from the graveyard to the cemetery. (Also built by Sheppard)
Cemetery Lodge
Cemetery Lodge
Odells Restaurant
Back in the High Street, The Pin-Petch Restaurant (5), near the Church, is an early Victorian building that was for over 150 years an ironmongers' shop and workshops in the hands of the Odell family. The Ironmongers closed in 1991 after which it has been a restaurant. There was a wonderful aroma in the old premises and one is reminded of olden days before large commercial stores. An ancient well was discovered in the old shop which also contains several other unusual features. The old front step has worn after a century and a half of use and the entrance doors are curved. These were once covered with other solid mourning doors that were used during funerals at the Church. These old doors are on display at the town museum.
Odell Restaurant
On the opposite side of the road you will see the Post Office formerly Barclays Bank (6), built in 1872 for the oldest banking concern in Buckinghamshire, Bassetts Bank Ltd. The former bank was designed and built by local architect, Edward Swinfen Harris. A new modern Barclays was built further down the High Street during the 1990’s at the Market Hill.
Post Office
Post Office
The Swan Hotel
On the left hand side is the Swan Revived Hotel (7), once one of the town’s principal coaching inns dating back to at least 1597. The White Swan as was once known competed for hundreds of years with the Saracens Head Inn that once stood next door to it but was destroyed by a fire in 1880. In the 1820’s the Swan Inn was updated with a Georgian frontage. The renovation also included a new front entrance, the former being through the centre of the Inn, the building now becoming a Hotel. It has had many famous guests over the years including the famous diarist Samuel Pepys.
The Swan Hotel

Almost opposite is an early 17th century half-timbered shop, 38, High Street (8) lately Upstairs Downstairs now a Bridal Shop. For many years of the 20th century it was an antique dealer's premises. The shop belonging to Austin’s then for many years the Clare family. Said to date back to the early 1600’s this ancient house stands on a prominent site in the High Town. The old timber framing now exposed after being covered for many years by heavy rendering.

38, High Street
38, High Street
Ye Olde Kiosk At Cannon Corner (named after a cannon believed to have been left there after the Civil War) we turn left into St. John Street, so named after a medieval hospital. The western side has altered little over the centuries, but similar buildings on the opposite side were demolished in a road widening scheme in the 1950s.

Facing you on the corner with Silver Street is a Music Shop formerly Pandora's Pet Shop which was for almost 130 years, the offices of the town's newspaper, the Bucks Standard. Next door is the entrance to the Tickford arcade of shops, built into the town's former cinema, The Electra, which was opened in 1912 by the proprietor of Salmons Coachworks to provide entertainment for his employees and their families. Sadly the cinema closed in 1983 and the Arcade built in 1991.

A little further down on the same side we come to what is one of Newport Pagnell's oldest houses, 26, St John Street, given the name Ye Olde Kiosk (9) when it became a sweetshop in 1971. This narrow-fronted building of timber and brick infill is certainly early 16th century possibly Tudor was occupied for many years during the 20th century by shoemaker and cobbler, Mr. Albert Lyon.

Ye Olde Kiosk
A few doors down is No. 32 (10) , an ancient stone house that was the Vicarage until 1875. At the rear of this house there is medieval stone wall, once part of a Tudor structure. Next door are the almshouses known as Queen Anne's Hospital, the fourth such premises on this sight (the original being 13th century). There is an interesting plaque above one of the front windows dated 1615, dedicating the hospital to the people of the town from Queen Anne, wife of James I.
32 St Johns Street
Iron Bridge
Then we come to one of the town's greatest claims to fame the Tickford Bridge(11), the oldest cast iron bridge in the world, still carrying main road traffic. Details of its history can be read on a stone plaque erected by the Historical Society close to the pedestrian bridge. 2010 being the Bi-centennial year of the erection of the bridge. The bridge spans the River Ousel sometimes known as Lovat and replaced a slightly longer wooden structure. This takes you into Tickford Street once a separate settlement on the outskirts of the town.
Iron Bridge
If you carry on down Tickford Street past The Bull Inn public house you will find the home of the Service Department of Aston Martin. The production side of the company was demolished in 2007. Salmons and Sons founded in the 1830’s by local man Joseph Salmons built his coachworks on the site of an old farm. In the 20th century the site was owned by Aston Martin Lagonda Ltd (12) , makers of the famous sports cars. The cars famed by James Bond films are now built in Warwickshire. Our photograph shows Sunnyside once the Chairmans Office and formerly one of the homes of the old Salmons family.
Aston Martin Factory 1990
Aston Martin
Retracing your steps to the High Street, you will see facing you the Cannon public house, originally called the Wine Vaults. The Wilmer family from Gayhurst established a brewery at the rear of the premises in 1860 and it was not until 1980 that the last of the buildings belonging to brewery including the tall chimney were demolished. Keeping to the left hand side of the High Street down towards the Market Hill you will notice opposite,at No. 60 (13) an excellent example of an early 18th century town house. Its Queen Anne frontage is deceiving however, as the interior detail indicates a much older property. There is a beautiful front door-case with a fanlight above, three storeys and a hipped tile roof. It was for most of the 20th century the home of the Newport Pagnell Urban District Council.
60, High Street
60, High Street
The Old Manse

A few doors down on the same side at No.68 are the offices of the Nationwide Building Society once a sixteenth century dwelling the timbers are about the only original building material remaining. Its neighbours either side were demolished in 1969 but the County Council restored this property copying the original detail as best they could. Adjacent to the pedestrian crossing is No.73, The Old Manse (14) , for many years a solicitor's office. The house was built in 1702 and housed an academy run by the Rev. William Bull, a friend of the Olney Vicar, The Rev. John Newton. One of the unusual features of this property is secret priest hole housed within the interior.

The Old Manse
Through the archway by the Manse can be seen the United Reformed Church (15) built by nonconformists around three hundred and fifty years ago on the site of an ancient meeting barn. The first preacher at the Church (or Chapel as it became) was the Rev John Gibbs who had been the town’s Vicar until 1659 but had been ejected for not administering Sacrament to a notorious local drunk. The drunk however was a man of influence and wealth and caused Gibbs demise as Vicar. Gibbs then secretly preached to an Independent Congregation at the old barn and many times evaded the clutches of the authorities by escaping out of the back door and through a gate into Paggs Court. As the Independents following grew stronger they eventually erected their own new Chapel. The Bull family came into the town in 1768 and for many decades preached at the church.
United Reformed Church
United Reformed Church
Methodist Church
If you cross at the pedestrian crossing you find, set back between Nos. 78 and 80 High Street (home of the Town Council) the Methodist Church (16) . Built in 1815 it has typical chapel architecture of the period--strong and severe, but with a touch of elegance about the frontage. The Methodists founded by John Wesley now came to compete with the other churches in the town including the Parish Church, the Independent Chapel and the Baptists. It is said that Wesley did come into Newport but only passing through on his horse, probably on his way to Stony Stratford where he definitely did preach.
Methodist Church
Brewery House Two more buildings on this side are of note, the 16th century Dolphin Inn(17), public house is another of the town's ancient inns. A real gem next door is Brewery House (18), a Queen Anne period house, as can be seen from the shell porch and door-case. It was home to the owners of the brewery which once stood alongside and whose buildings were used by Cooper's the agricultural engineers, for more than half a century. They were demolished in 1990 and replaced by the present Boots Pharmacy and Medical Centre.
The Dolphin Inn
Brewery House
The Dolphin Inn
Walk to the other side of the traffic roundabout and across the road you will see Town Hall Chambers (19), a building which has seen many occupants. It was built in the early 19th century as a British School. Later it became the Town Hall, and from 1937 was known as Church House. Though owned by the Parish Church it continued for many years as the main meeting place in the town. The largest room upstairs would hold over 200 people. Public meetings, dances, local dramatic and operatic performances, school activities, which overflowed from the Bury Street Schools, all took turns. Several years ago the Parochial Church Council sold Church House to the Baptists and after they moved to their new building at Lovat Hall the property was sold for redevelopment. The building has an interesting frontage designed by local architect Richard Sheppard in 1845.
Church House
Church House
St Bedes Church
Across the small car park is a similar building to the former also built in 1845 by the same architect. It became a new town lock up and magistrates court replacing an earlier building. By 1881 it had become the Temperance Hall home to the Plymouth Brethren non conformists, of which Sheppard was a founder member. The Temperance Hall became the Mission Hall and is now the Roman Catholic Church dedicated to and called St. Bedes (20).
St Bedes Church

Adjacent to you is another early 17th century stone and timber building, the Coachmakers Arms. The stone-walling of this property is enormously thick in places, sometimes up to four feet. Continuing down Bury Street with Cedars School on your right you will reach Silver Street which, if you turn right, will lead you to Caldecote Street, originally part of Green End. This end of the town was always prone to flooding and even as recently as 1998 the lower end of Silver Street was under two feet of water for the best part of 24 hours. A flood defence has since been built around the town. Almost opposite the junction you will find Lovat Crest (21), the towns only remaining exposed thatched house part of which is a genuine Tudor building.

Lovat Crest (Thatch)
Lovat Crest (Thatch)
No, 84 Silver Street
Retracing your steps back along Silver Street you will find No. 84 (22), a Georgian house built in brick with stone quoins and a stucco finish. Take a look at the roof, the large slates were specially imported from Belgium. Also on this side is another old pub, The Rose and Crown (23), originally called the Blue Boar this premises once had a large malting to the rear. Two other ancient properties, brick, timber and thatched were demolished in 1966 to make way for the car park. The name Rose and Crown is second only to the Red Lion as favourite pub name in England. The Rose and Crown
No, 84 Silver Street
The Rose and Crown
Lovat Bank
Opposite the Rose and Crown is Lovat Bank (24), a Victorian mansion designed by Edward Swinfen Harris and built for Frederick James Taylor in 1877 a chemist and member of the family of mustard and mineral water manufacturers in the town. The original weather vane with the initials F.J.T can still be seen on the tower of the building. Another unusual feature of the property are the bottles cemented into the wall motifs. Lovat Bank was used by the Territorial Army in the 1960’s after that by the local council but is now private offices.
Lovat Bank
Just before the Bury Street junction, down an alleyway called Chandos Court between two houses, 52 and 54 Silver Street is the Historical Society's Museum, Chandos Hall (25). built as the United Brothers Chapel in 1866. Look at the dates in the stone panels of the Silver Street houses. One number is the construction date, the other is the number of the local Oddfellows Friendly Society branch who built the houses and used what is now Chandos Hall as its headquarters and chapel. The Historical Society purchased the property in 1993.
Chandos Hall (Museum)
Chandos Hall (Museum)
As you start to climb Silver Street hill toward St John Street there is, on the left, the Workman's Social Club, and nearly opposite, at No 19, The Hermitage (26). This large imposing building dates from the 17th century, through extensively modified over the subsequent centuries. Originally this would have been two houses and the brick work gives away the position of the doorways. Another unusual feature of this three storey house is the old water pump in the kitchen. One time this would have been outside. Two 17th century cottages contemporary with the Hermitage adjoin to it and have timbered interior rooms and exposed beams. This photograph shows the Masonic Hall at the top of the hill that burned down in a fire in April 1934.
The Hermitage
Hatt House

Next to the cottages on the corner with the car park stands Hatt House (27) . Eighteenth century in date the property in Victorian times belonged to a local doctor and its southern extension housed the surgery. Opposite Hatt House is 16, Silver Street another well preserved 17th century half timbered house that until the 1960’s sported a striped barbers pole. The rest of Silver Street hill narrows to one-way, and with Tickford Arcade on your right, you emerge into St. John Street again and your tour of the oldest part of our town is over. We hope you enjoyed it.

Tickford Arcade
Hatt House
Tickford Arcade
Other places of interest in Newport Pagnell not included in our Town Trail

Tickford Abbey (28), in Priory Street, is now a private nursing home. This large property was erected on the site an ancient Priory. Around c1767 Thomas Hooton built the house that stands today. There is a family vault to rear of the premises in the grounds of the Priory Burial Ground also a tall Obelisk which was erected by Thomas Hooton in memory of his wife Sarah. Another feature of the Abbey is the Gazebo, recently modernized, that stands by the River Ouse in the extensive grounds of the house. The Obelisk and Gazebo are both listed ancient monuments. The Parchment Works (29), in Willen Road off Caldecote Street are the only surviving such premises in the whole of England. They were built on the site of an old tannery in 1879 by the founder William Cowley. The parchment is now supplied mainly to the United States but another customer is our own Government who still use the parchment for important documents.

Tickford Abbey
William Cowley wearing large hat
Parchment Works
William Cowley wearing the large hat
Parchment Works