Contents Buckinghamshire  Nearby Places Woughton on the Green "Area, according to local estimation, 1191 acres; rateable value, £2253; population, 337 souls. The soil is clay, with a gravelly sub-soil, and the surface is varied. The Grand Junction Canal, and the Bedford Branch (from Bletchley Junction) of the London and North-Western Railway, intersect the parish. The Village is large, and built in the form of an oblong square, with a "green" in the centre, in the middle of the east end of which stands the church. It is on the road between Fenny Stratford and Newport Pagnell, 2 1/2 miles N. of the former, and 4 miles S. from the latter town. The parish was inclosed in 1769. The river Ousel bounds the parish to the east." [History and Topography of Buckinghamshire, by James Joseph Sheahan, 1862]

Bibliography

The following reference sources have been used in the construction of this page, and may be referred to for further detail. Most if not all of these volumes are available in the Reference section of the County Library in Aylesbury.

"Buckinghamshire Contributions for Ireland 1642", Wilson J., 1983.
"Buckinghamshire Returns of the Census of Religious Worship 1851", Legg E. ed., 1991, ISBN 0 901198 27 7.
"History and Topography of Buckinghamshire", Sheahan, James Joseph, 1862
"Magna Britannia: Buckinghamshire", Lysons S. and Lysons D., 1806.
"The Place-Names of Buckinghamshire", Mawer A. and Stenton F.M., 1925.
"The Victoria History of the Counties of England: Buckinghamshire", Page W. ed., 1905-1928
"War Memorials and War Graves: Milton Keynes & Wolverton area, Volume 6", Peter Quick.

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Cemeteries

• War memorials in Woughton on the Green have been transcribed by Peter Quick, and published in a booklet entitled "War Memorials and War Graves: Milton Keynes & Wolverton area, Volume 6", available from the Buckinghamshire Genealogical Society.
• War memorial details are also available online on the Roll of Honour web site.

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Census

In 1642 there were 82 people named in the tax returns for contributions for Ireland. Between them they were assessed at £2.15.6 of which sum Richard Campton rector contributed £0.15.0

In 1798 the Posse Comitatus listed 47 men between the ages of 16 and 60 in Woughton on the Green.

In the earliest government census of 1801, there were 311 inhabitants in 58 families living in 53 houses recorded in Woughton on the Green.

* = No names were recorded in census documents from 1801 to 1831.
** = Census documents from 1911 to 2001 are only available in summary form. Names are witheld under the 100 year rule.

Microfilm copies of all census enumerators' notebooks for 1841 to 1891 are held at the Local Studies Libraries at Aylesbury and Milton Keynes, as well as centrally at the PRO. A table of 19th century census headcount by parish is printed in the VCH of Bucks, Vol.2, pp 96-101.

Availability of census transcripts and indexes.

• 1851 - Full transcripts and indexes for Buckinghamshire are available on CD-ROM, hard copy and microfiche from the Buckinghamshire Family History Society.
• 1861 - Available on CD-ROM with advanced search and mapping capabilities etc. from the Buckinghamshire Genealogical Society.
• 1881
  • Available on CD-ROM from the Church of the Latter Day Saints, as part of the National 1881 Census Index.
  • Available on CD-ROM for Buckinghamshire, with advanced search and mapping capabilities etc. from Drake Software.
• 1891 - Available on CD-ROM with advanced search and mapping capabilities etc. from the Buckinghamshire Genealogical Society.

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Church History

• Rectors of the Parish Church of Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary

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Church Records

The original copies of the parish registers for Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Woughton on the Green have been deposited in the Buckinghamshire Record Office in Aylesbury, and they hold the following years:

Copies or indexes to the parish registers are available from societies as follows:

* = material held in a Society library is generally available for loan to all members either via post, or by collection at a meeting

An ecclesiastical census was carried out throughout England on 30 March 1851 to record the attendance at all places of worship. These returns are in the Buckinghamshire Record Office and have been published by the Buckinghamshire Record Society (vol 27). The returns for Woughton on the Green showed the following numbers:

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History & Descriptions

Woughton on the Green was described in 1806 in "Magna Britannia" as follows:

WOUGHTON, in the hundred and deanery of Newport, lies about four miles and a half south of Newport-Pagnell, on the road to Fenny-Stratford. The manor was anciently in the family of Verley, from whom it passed by heirs female, to the Muxons, Botetorts, Greys, and Longuevilles. A third part of the manor continued for some time in the last-mentioned family, and having been sold with Wolverton by Sir Edward Longueville, is now vested in Dr. Radcliffe's trustees. The other two parts passed to the families of Vavasor, Nicholls, and Troutbeck; they are now the property of the Rev. Mr. Dreyer, who is patron and incumbent of the rectory. The parish has been inclosed by an act of parliament, passed in 1768, when an allotment of land was assigned to the rector in lieu of tithes: it was provided by the act that the proprietors of the inclosed lands should deliver yearly to the poor a certain number of faggots (to be determined by the commissioners) in lieu of the right to cut furze on the waste lands. In the church are some memorials of the family of James.

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Names, Geographical

The name of Woughton is believed to derive from old english, being a persons name + tun, and means 'farmstead of a man called Weoca'. The affix of 'on the Green', is descriptive of the fact that the village has grown up round a large central green.

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Photographs

• Buckinghamshire Church Photos by Kevin Quick.
• Buckinghamshire Village Photos by Kevin Quick.
• Buckinghamshire Records and Local Studies Service - large collection of old photos of Buckinghamshire

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[Last updated: 1st February 2004 - Kevin Quick]