Patrick Comerford
After our visit to Milton Keynes University Hospital earlier this week to mark the second anniversary of my stroke (19 March), Charlotte and I went to the nearby village of Woughton-on-the-Green, to the east of the hospital, for lunch in Ye Olde Swan, to walk around the mediaeval village, and to see Saint Mary’s Church, beside the Village Green.
Woughton-on-the-Green was listed in the Domesday Book in 1086. Fifty years ago, the village had a population of 100; today, the parish has a population of 28,000, and is part of the city of Milton Keynes. The civil parish of Old Woughton in south central Milton Keynes was established in 2012 by the division into two parts of Woughton parish. The undivided civil parish was itself originally called Woughton-on-the-Green.
Saint Mary’s Church dates from the 13th century, if not earlier, and the entrance to the churchyard is through a Victorian lychgate, which is also a war memorial to villagers who died in World War I.
The formal mediaeval dedication of Saint Mary’s is the Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin. The church includes a chancel (38 ft by 17 ft), north vestry, south organ chamber, nave (46 ft 6 in by 19 ft), south aisle (9 ft 6 in wide), west tower 10 ft square, and south porch. The north vestry and south organ chamber are modern additions.
The parish church has 11th century pillars but was built mainly in the 13th, 14th and 15th centuries, and it was restored in the 19th century. It is built of coursed limestone. The nave and aisle were built in the 13th and 14th centuries, the 15th century 60 ft west tower is embattled and has three stages, and the porch dates from the 19th century. The north vestry was added in 1867 and the organ chamber in 1891.
The 14th century south porch has an outer archway with chamfered jambs that have half-octagonal pilasters and moulded capitals but no bases. An empty image niche over the arch has with a trefoil-shaped head, and at the sides are square openings with two lights with trefoil-shaped heads.
Inside, the church has are a single arcade of four bays with piers of clustered shafts and plain moulded capitals, a chancel arch, a 13th century tub-shaped font that – said by some sources to have Saxon origins – with a Victorian wooden counter-weighted cover, and traceried windows. There is a 14th or 15th century piscina with a cinquefoil-shaped head.
The south aisle has a rood stairs with upper and lower doors, and the lower door has a carved decoration above. The present rood screen and the pulpit are Victorian.
The so-called Monkston tomb is in an ogee-headed recess in the chancel and probably dates from the 14th century. The recumbent effigy is of a priest in mass vestments, with his feet resting on an animal, and it lies on a slab raised above the floor with a panelled front of tracery.
The Buckinghamshire antiquarian Browne Willis (1682-1760) was mistaken when he identified the figure with William de Mokelestone, at one time lord of the manor in Woughton, but who may have given his name to Monxton's Bridge, linking the parishes of Walton and Woughton.
The church also has many memorial tablets, particularly to past vicars.
The tower has six bells in the chamber, the earliest dating from 1743.
The church was extended in the 19th century, adding the north porch and organ loft. The church was re-ordered in 1974, in the early days of Milton Keynes. Although this involved removing traditional church furnishings, the church has tried to adapt to the needs of a modern congregation it serves.
The churchyard includes the graves of many village families, including the Levi family who lived next door in what is now the Parkside Hotel. A ridged coffin lid in the churchyard has remains of an incised cross from the 13th or 14th century.
As Milton Keynes continues to grow, Saint Mary’s Church has seen many changes and has been adapting to the needs created by urban expansion.
Woughton Ecumenical Partnership consists of five churches south of central Milton Keynes: Saint Mary’s Church, Woughton-on-the-Green; Christ the Vine Community Church, Coffee Hall; Saint Thomas’s Church, Simpson; Trinity Church, Fishermead; and Holy Trinity Church, Woolstone.
Woughton is an Ecumenical Parish, combining Anglican, Baptist, Methodist and United Reformed churches. It includes Woughton, Woolstones, Coffee Hall, Leadenhall, Simpson, Ashland, Tinkers Bridge, Netherfield and Beanhill, and also draws in people from other parts of Milton Keynes.
The ministry team includes: the Revd Ian Herbert (Church of England), the Revd Nicola Vidamour (Methodist), the Revd Charmaine Howard (Baptist) and the Revd Paul Norris (Church of England).
The regular Sunday services in Saint Mary’s are at 10 am, and include Café Style Worship and Junior Church (first Sunday), Ecumenical Communion and Junior Church (second Sunday), Worship and the Word with band and Junior Church (third and fifth Sunday) and Traditional Holy Communion and Junior Church (fourth Sunday). In addition, there is a traditional said Holy Communion at 8:30 am on the first Sunday.
