Patrick Comerford
I was in Holy Trinity Church, Old Wolverton, earlier today at a lunchtime meeting of clergy in the Milton Keynes area. This was our first meeting after the busy time of Christmas, New Year and Epiphany. Originally, the meeting was arranged to make place in Christ Church, Stantonbury, but the venue was changed at the last time.
This would have been my first time to visit Christ Church, which is based on the Stantonbury Campus in North Milton Keynes. Rather than miss the opportunity of a first-time visit to the church this, I decided to visit Stantonbury yesterday to see Christ Church and to search for the nearby ruins of the earlier Saint Peter's Church,
Christ Church is the parish church for Stantonbury and Bradville and is part of the Stantonbury Ecumenical Partnership, a group of six congregations in the north-east area of the city of Milton Keynes.
When Milton Keynes was designated as a new town, the Church of England, the Baptist Union and the Methodist Church had a common vision to work together in the new area. Christ Church was set up as the first Local Ecumenical Project (LEP) in Milton Keynes, enabling the three denominations to worship, work and plan together right from the start. The United Reformed Church joined as a sponsoring denomination a little later.
The first service was held in the Community House in Stantonbury on Easter Day 1975. By the end of the year the fellowship had moved to its present location on the Stantonbury Campus – although the building was not officially opened until February 1976. In those early years, the building was also home to the local Roman Catholic congregation, and they shared a monthly evening worship service together.
In 1982, the seven worshipping congregations in that north-east part of Milton Keynes formed the Stantonbury Ecumenical Parish, now the Stantonbury Ecumenical Partnership.
An extension to the building was opened at Easter 1990, providing for the first time a purpose-built sanctuary and baptistry, alongside the existing community hall.
The partnership involves four denominations – Anglican, Baptist, Methodist, and United Reformed Church. But the members come from a diversity of backgrounds and worship together, and a wide variety of community and Christian groups use the building extensively throughout the week.
Stantonbury is about 3.2 km (2 miles) north of Central Milton Keynes, between Great Linford and Wolverton, and south of Oakridge Park. It is largely residential, and includes two secondary schools, Stantonbury School and the Webber Independent School, a theatre, a leisure centre with a 25 metre swimming pool and an all-weather athletics track. Webber Independent School was named in honour of the urban designer Melvin M Webber (1920-2006), who was described by the architect Derek Walker as the ‘father of the city’ of Milton Keynes.
The name comes from Stanton-, referring to Old English for a stone-built farmstead, and -bury, referring to the Barri or Barry family who owned the land in 1235. The original Stantonbury is a deserted mediaeval village now known as Stanton Low, and the name Stantonbury has become the name of the modern district at the heart of the civil parish, which includes Stantonbury itself and the districts of Bancroft and Bancroft Park, Blue Bridge, Bradville and Linford Wood. The population of the parish of Stantonbury grew from 19 at the 1971 census to 3,938 in 1981, 9,010 in 2001 and 10,084 in 2011.
Modern Stantonbury lies on land historically known as Stanton High. Stanton Low lies near the River Great Ouse and is the deserted village of historic Stantonbury, one of the rural Buckinghamshire villages that were included in the area designated in 1967 to become Milton Keynes. Today it is an uninhabited agricultural area near the river. Little if anything remains of the deserted village other than the ruins of the parish church of Saint Peter, and I hope to describe Saint Peter's in a separate posting on another day. The ruins of a Roman villa discovered there in the late 1950s were completely destroyed by gravel extraction.
The foundations of a Romano-British farm known as Bancroft Roman Villa are in what is now the North Loughton Park, overlooking the Shenley Brook. Rescue excavations in 1957 identified a group of perhaps four buildings, traces of a hypocaust and sherds of Iron Age pottery. A section of mosaic flooring recovered from the site is in the ‘guest services lounge’ in Central Milton Keynes shopping centre.
Blue Bridge is a small, mainly residential district near the West Coast Main Line and the Grand Union Canal, which separates it from Stonebridge. The ‘Blue Bridge’ (1834-1835), now restricted to pedestrian and cycle traffic, is one of the oldest bridges over the West Coast Main Line and is a Grade II listed structure.
Bradville district, between Bradwell, New Bradwell and Stantonbury itself, is mainly residential. Bradwell Windmill is a Grade II listed building. Linford Wood includes the ancient woodland that gives the district its name, was originally part of the Linford demesne. The district is known for high-tech industry, and is the site of a telecommunications tower, chosen for its high elevation.
Oakridge Park is a small district of private housing development, dating from about 2010.
The Revd Rev Phil Dunning is the minister at Christ Church, Stantonbury. He moved to Milton Keynes and started working with Christ Church and the Stantonbury Ecumenical Partnership in September 2024. He trained forthe ministry in Bristol and was the pastor of a Baptist church in Cardiff for the 20 years.
The Rev Canon Chi Okpala is the Team Rector in Stantonbury Ecumenical Partnership.
Today, Stantonbury Ecumenical Partnership includes six churches in the areas around Bradwell, New Bradwell, Stantonbury, Great Linford, Downs Barn and Willen. The partnership brings together the Anglican, Baptist, Methodist and United Reformed traditions, but welcomes people of all denominations and people still exploring the Christian faith.
There are six churches in the Partnership – some modern and some old. The four centuries-old churches are Saint Lawrence’s Church, Bradwell; Saint James’ Church, New Bradwell; Saint Andrew’s Church, Great Linford; and Saint Mary Magdalene Church, Willen; the two modern buildings are Cross and Stable Church, Downs Barn, and Christ Church, Stantonbury.
Canon Chi Okpala oversees Saint Andrew’s, Great Linford, Saint James’, New Bradwell, and Saint Mary Magdalene, Willen, with the support of the Revd Dr Sam Muthuveloe at Willen. The Revd Phil Dunning has pastoral responsibility for Christ Church, Stantonbury, Saint Lawrence’s, Bradwell, and Cross and Stable, Downs Barn, with support from Dr Muthuveloe at Downs Barn. In addition, the Revd Dave Haseldine, a Methodist, provides support at Saint Andrew’s, Great Linford.
After my first-ever visit to Christ Church, Stantonbury, I went in search of the ruins of Saint Peter’s Church and the deserted village of historic Stantonbury by the banks of the Great Ouse – but more about these on another evening, I hope.
• The congregation at Christ Church, Stantonbury, holds services at 10:30 am each Sunday and the services are livestreamed on its Facebook page.
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