Welcome to
Newport Pagnell
Buckinghamshire, England
Welcome to
Newport Pagnell
Buckinghamshire, England
This
web site was founded in 1993.
AML are Newport Pagnell's most famous company. Although they have only been here about 50 years a link with the past exists, the oldest buildings on the site were the premises of Salmon's coachbuilders. The modern company was founded by Lionel Martin, who built successful cars for the Aston Clinton (near Aylesbury) hill trials. Lagonda is an American Indian word allegedly meaning "smooth running river". Only the hand-built V series are made here, the Jaguar clones are made in the neighbouring - and grossly inferior - county of Oxfordshire. The company has had a roller-coaster history, and is now part of the Ford empire, at least until some runty accountant decides otherwise.
The mock-tudor gingerbread cottage is the management building, the bottom photo is of the service department. Since the service department photo was taken, in early 2001, the facia has been remodelled, though whether by a small child or a particularly ungifted architect is not clear.
Update 11th March 2007
The runty accountants have now determined that Aston Martin is to be sold to Prodrive. Dave Richards will be the front man, and we are told that jobs are safe - cue cynical chuckles. Jaguar and Land Rover workers should take note of just how commited Ford are to prestige marques.
Update 13th September 2009
Well golly-gosh, is your host prescient or not? Following the inevitability of my predictions, Jaguar and Land Rover now belong to the Indian company Tata. Money and jobs are being lost, what a surprise. We all know how the story will end. Hint: Rover
Right: A view of the Southern end of the High Street.
Below: The Coachmakers Arms, one of the town's 12 pubs.
Parting Shot
Our final view is the Southern end of town seen from Bury Field.
Note that the sky over Newport Pagnell is not always so gloomy, only when I go out with my camera.
Gone forever - the photos I never took
Newport Pagnell is the only place in England where parchment is still made, by William Cowley & Co. This grisly trade is a relic of the lace industry, the lace was produced on parchment patterns. The firm also produces vellum parchment, made from calf (ugh!) skin, the Domesday ( sic) Book is currently bound in Newport Pagnell vellum.
Top right: The Old Firestation (now a private house).
Bottom right: the New Firestation.
Below: The (part-time)
Police Station. 
Lovat Bank is considered to be one of the finest buildings in town. It was built in 1877 for a mustard and mineral water magnate, a certain Mr. Taylor. Production of Taylor's Mustard was moved from the town to Cheshire in the 1980's.
Having had various uses over the years, Lovat Bank is now used as offices, the lawns are open to the public.
Above: View from Silver Street
Right: View from
lawn
Most of the names on this memorial are of men who were killed in World War 1, termed 'The Great War' on this and countless other memorials.
Dominating this view of the Northen end of the High Street is the town's last remaining coaching inn. The earliest reference to this inn is dated 1597, we do not know how old it was then. Up until the mid 19th century, when the coaching trade was wiped out by the railways, there were about 30 coaches stopping in Newport Pagnell every day. Not all called at The Swan , there were several other inns.
Our photo shows its year 2000 yellow paintwork.
Connected to the church grounds by a footbridge is the New Cemetery.The photo at left is a view of the footbridge from the old churchyard. A correspondent tells me that the bridge is haunted, and that she has seen the apparition staring down at her as she drove under the bridge.
At right: After crossing the bridge we come to the 1860 Cemetery Lodge. In this rather sinister building - now a private house - was a chapel where funeral services for non-conformists were conducted.
Having passed Cemetery Lodge we come directly into the New Cemetery; as sad, lovely, and disturbing as any graveyard.
The area in the foreground of the top left photo is the Old Churchyard. Most
of the gravestones were removed in 1966, a remaining tomb dated 1788 bears
an epitaph by the poet William Cowper. Cowper lived in nearby Olney, see Ian
Burnside's excellent Unofficial
Olney Homepage
Next to the church stood a medieval castle. The castle, like many of the period,
was made of wood, and no trace of it remains. The meadow opposite has been
called Castle Meadow ever since.
Above: This gateway is at the bottom of the old churchyard. The flooded roadway is Riverside, which is quite frequently under water.
Queen Ann's Hospital
Left:
Immediately adjacent to the Iron Bridge is Queen Ann's Hospital. Originally
built in 1615 as The Hospital Of St John The Baptist, the structure we see
now dates only from the 19th century.. The inscription on the front of the
building is on an original beam, the wording is "Al you good Cristians
that here dooe pas by give soome thing to these poore people that in St.
Johns Hospital doeth ly".
Right: Moving past Queen Ann's Hospital, we come to The Kiosk which is said to be the oldest house in Newport Pagnell.
Immediately adjacent to the Iron Bridge is Queen Ann's Hospital. Originally built in 1615 as The Hospital Of St John The Baptist, the structure we see now dates only from the 19th century.. The inscription on the front of the building is on an original beam, the wording is "Al you good Cristians that here dooe pas by give soome thing to these poore people that in St. Johns Hospital doeth ly. An. 1615"
Our tour starts at the iron bridge, correctly called Tickford Bridge, over the tiny River Lovat. This structure dates from 1810, when it replaced an earlier stone bridge. It is known that there was a bridge here as early as 1167. In 1809 there was an accident to the Manchester stage on the decrepit North Bridge over the Ouse, in which the driver and guard were hurled into the river. An act of Parliament then permitted the building of replacement toll bridges, both toll houses survive to this day. Extensive strengthening work was completed in 2000, the appearance of the bridge has not been affected.
Newport Pagnell began as a pre-Iron Age settlement at the confluence of the Rivers Ouse and Lovat, on high ground dominating a point where the Ouse is fordable. Except when in flood the Lovat has never been much more than a stream, but the Ouse is a more serious obstacle. In Saxon times the town was known as Newport, meaning New Market. After the Norman Conquest, ownership of the land was given to Fulk Paynell (sic), and the town's present name was in use in the 1100's, when your host was just a boy.
The Ouse crossing gave the town some strategic importance, and it was fortified in the civil war. Some of the earthwork fortifications still exist on Bury Field, the town's 185 acre common. It later became a centre of the English lace and parchment industries and a hub of the coaching trade. The town (50 miles north of London) was until recently* the home of supercar makers Aston Martin Lagonda , and has the world's oldest iron bridge in use by motorised traffic.
It is probably fair to say that Newport Pagnell is now a dormitory town, there being few employment opportunities locally.
* Aston Martin production in Newport Pagnell ended on 19th July 2007
Last modified on 13th September 2009
In the photo above (Jan 2001) the Lovat is in flood.
The Electra closed in 1986. The shell of the building remains, and now houses a small shopping arcade. These two photos were supplied by Martin Tapsell, to whom much gratitude is extended.
This maternity hospital in Westbury Lane where generations of Newport Pagnell families were born was demolished in the 1980's. Many thanks to Eliot Mansfield, who was born there in 1970, for this photo. Sheltered housing for the elderly has been built on the site, where those in their twilight years can contemplate the fleeting nature of life.
