Playing The Simpson Name Game (15 December 1978)

I had not been in North Bucks many weeks when I found there was something distinctly odd about the local ecclesiastical parish boundaries. I think it was the late Mr Leopold Durran who first brought the matter to my attention in the form of a mild rebuke. Mr Durran described himself as an ophthalmic optician and spectacle maker, but this time it was not a question of eyesight. His premises, now demolished were at one corner of what were popularly known as Fenny Stratford crossroads diagonally opposite the Swan Hotel.

One morning he was sweeping his bit of pavement when he grabbed me ”I have a bone to pick with you,” he said. “You keep writing that this or that event took place at the Swan Hotel, Fenny Stratford. But that hotel is not in Fenny Stratford and never has been, according to the highest authority in the land.”

In due course I made inquiries and found that what he had told me was literally true. Fenny’s eastern border with Simpson began at or near Denbigh Bridge in the north and continued all the way down the Watling street to the point south of the crossroads where the street formerly “diverged” down to the Ouzel at Belvedere, the boundary following that ancient route.

One effect of this which was still current was that if you lived only a few yards from St Martin’s Church, Fenny Stratford, but on the Simpson side of the main road, and wished to marry at St Martins you had to have your banns called a mile away at the church in Simpson (or “Sympson” as it is called ecclesiastically).

In ordinary affairs the position gave rise to some curiosities of nomenclature. Fenny Stratford Town Hall stood in Simpson. The railway habitually named stations with gay abandon, so it was not surprising to find Fenny Stratford in Simpson or that the part of Simpson Road between the crossroads and the station used to be known as Station Road.

The Fenny boundary next went southwards along the Ouzel until it reached the confluence of Cottingham Brook with the river, whereupon it followed the brook as far as Water Eaton Road, the parish of Bletchley lying on the opposite bank. Then it proceeded along the road as far as the main line railway bridge.

So far so good. But then it kept to the road as far as Buckingham Road, went across the road at or near the Freeman Chapel, cut into Church Green Road behind the properties on the corner and followed the road as far as the lane which now runs along the back of Wilton Hall. From here it continued along the lane, skirting the Bletchley Rectory orchard and the churchyard and thence in a more-or-less straight line so the Shenley boundary, which it followed to the starting point at Denbigh.

It has never been quite clear to me how or when Fenny was carved out of Bletchley to form an entirely separate parish.

Personally I like to think that the carving was done before the closing years of the 18^th century, as the boundary took notice of some man-made objects, such as the Watling Street and part of the Water Eaton Lane, but totally ignored those other formidable, but more recent man-made objects, the canal and the railway. For the rest, it confined itself as far as possible to natural water courses.

We do not know that Browne Willis ever reckoned on this problem arising when he placed Fenny’s churchyard not much more than a cat-jump from Simpson. Nor do we know that he ever reckoned on only the width of a fence separating Fenny from the Bletchley churchyard at the other end.

REPUTATION

At any rate one effect was that Bletchley station , Bletchley Park and Bletchley general post office came to be not in Bletchley at all , but in Fenny Stratford –“and don’t you forget it, ” people like Mr Durran would say – ever zealous for their native parish. In fact, at one time Bletchley and Fenny had a reputation for being at loggerheads. It is curious that as late as the 1920s Fenny’s early closing day was listed as Wednesday, but Bletchley’s was listed as Tuesday.

Most of these fun and games came to an end in the summer of 1951 when his Majesty George VI, in Privy Council, made an order for the alteration of all three boundaries. This followed four years of discussion between the affected parties and was unanimously agreed.

Today the Fenny boundary does not go to the top of Water Eaton Road. It reaches to the main line only and then follows that line to Denbigh. But instead of proceeding down the Watling Street it penetrates into “Simpson side” for about 200 yards, then keeps a distance from the road until it reaches a small un-named stream – I think the one running along-side Ward Road.

Then, by making use of both the canal and the Bedford branch railway, it manages to encompass all of what we have previously called Fenny and rejoins the old boundary line near Belvedere.

So Bletchley gained the park and the station from Fenny and Fenny gained Simpson. What Simpson gained they are not telling. Maybe it was a bit of peace and quiet until the new city bulldozed in.