In search of Saint Peter’s, a ruined mediaeval church in the abandoned and lost village of Stantonbury

The ruins of Saint Peter’s Church, Stantonbury, now isolated in a park area between the River Great Ouse and the Grand Union Canal (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Patrick Comerford

I visited Christ Church, Stantonbury, earlier this week, so that I would not miss out on the first opportunity to visit the 50-year-old church, which is based on the Stantonbury Campus in North Milton Keynes.

Christ Church is the parish church for Stantonbury and Bradville and is part of the Stantonbury Ecumenical Partnership, the first Local Ecumenical Project (LEP) in Milton Keynes. It is part a group of six congregations in the north-east area of Milton Keynes and supported by the Church of England, the Baptist Union, the Methodist Church and the United Reformed Church.

Stantonbury is about 3.2 km (2 miles) north of Central Milton Keynes, between Great Linford and Wolverton, and south of Oakridge Park. The name Stantonbury comes from Stanton-, referring to the Old English for a stone-built farmstead, and -bury, referring to the Barre or Barry family who owned the land in 1235.

The ruins of Saint Peter’s Church in Stanton Low (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

After my afternoon visit to Christ Church, I went in search of the original Stantonbury and the ruins of Saint Peter’s Church, now isolated in a park area between the River Great Ouse and the Grand Union Canal.

The area of the deserted mediaeval village that gives its name to Stantonbury is 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, Bancroft, Bancroft Park, Blue Bridge, Bradville and Linford Wood.

Modern Stantonbury lies on land historically known as Stanton High. Stanton Low lies between the banks of River Great Ouse and the banks of the Grand Union Canal. The deserted village of historic Stantonbury was one of the villages in rural Buckinghamshire 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. The ruins of a Roman villa were discovered there in the late 1950s but were completely destroyed by gravel extraction.

The west end of the former parish church of Saint Peter in Stanton Low (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

The former parish church of Saint Peter in Stanton Low is Norman, with a mid-12th century nave and an earlier chancel. There was a squint in the south wall of the chancel, but this was later blocked up. Saint Peter’s was extensively rebuilt in the 13th century. The Decorated Gothic east window and piscina were added in the 14th century.

There had been a manor house in Stantonbury since the mediaeval period. Sir John Wittewrong (1618-1693), a Parliamentarian colonel, bought the decaying manor from Sir John Temple (1632-1705) in 1658. Wittewrong was High Sheriff of Hertfordshire that year, and after the Caroline restoration he was made a baronet in 1662. He began to remodel the manor house in 1664, and the house was completed in 1668.

The mansion was 28 metres long, 15 metres long, and portioned into three large rooms, including a great hall and two parlours. In addition, there were landscaped gardens, a large pond, footpaths and viewing terraces, a plantation of native and exotic trees, and a prospect mound with views across the Ouse Valley.

In the former chancel in the ruins of Saint Peter’s Church, facing west (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

By the latter part of the 17th century, Stantonbury was almost deserted, but the church was still in use. The Puritan poet and hymnwriter John Mason (1645-1694) was the Vicar of Stantonbury in 1668-1674. But by then the village was virtually deserted and had no vicarage, Mason may, in reality, have been chaplain to Sir John Wittewrong. He left to became the rector of Water Stratford, Buckinghamshire, in 1674, when he was presented by Anne Roper, wife of Thomas Roper, 2nd Viscount Baltinglass, and a daughter of Sir Peter Temple.

In Water Stratford, Mason ceased to administer the sacrament in the church, and preached on no other subject than that of the personal reign of Christ on earth, which he announced as about to begin in Water Stratford, and he predicted that the prophet Elijah and that he would be raised from the dead three days after his death.

On the other hand, Mason is also remembered as a hymnwriter. He wrote more than 30 hymns, including ‘How shall I sing that majesty’, which remains a popular hymn.

A geophysical survey has pinpointed the location of the 17th century manor house (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Meanwhile, Stanton Manor passed through a succession of Wittewrong baronets, each named Sir John Wittewrong, until the fourth baronet, Sir John Wittewrong (1695-1743) ran into financial difficulties. He never had a chance to live in the house and fled abroad after murdering a local con man. The house was sold to the Duchess of Marlborough in 1727, and Wittewrong later died fighting a fellow inmate in the Fleet debtors’ prison.

Only four houses remained in the village by 1736 – three farmhouses and the manor house. The manor house was badly damaged in a fire in 1743, and was eventually demolished in 1791.

The arrival of the railways brought some new life to the church. But by the late 19th century, Saint James’s Church in New Bradwell was more convenient for local people, and Saint Peter’s fell into further decline.

Over 1,000 marriages had taken place in Saint James’s by 1909, when the vicar discovered that the church had never been licensed to weddings. Two planned weddings were quickly moved to a crumbling Saint Peter’s. The unusual spectacle encouraged hundreds of parishioners and railway workers to fill the churchyard for what became a real community event. Soon after, hurried legislation was rushed through Parliament to legitimise the older weddings.

John Mason, was the Vicar of Stantonbury in 1668-1674, wrote the hymn ‘How shall I sing that majesty’ (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Saint Peter’s was still in use in 1927. John Piper (1903-1992), best-known for his Baptistry window in Coventry Cathedral, and who also designed the east window in the chapel of Saint John's Hospital in Lichfield, painted a watercolour of Saint Peter’s ca 1940. The church was in very poor condition by 1948, the windows were removed, and many of the fixtures and fittings were removed, stolen or vandalised.

By 1955, the church had been disused for a number of years, and when the roof collapsed in 1956, it was not repaired. Quarrying destroyed what was left of the village in the 1960s, and the east window and ornamented Norman chancel arch were removed in 1963 and placed in to Saint James’ Church, New Bradwell.

Saint Peter’s was a ruin by 1973, but the building is now a Grade II listed building. Because the civil parish boundary runs along the canal, Saint Peter’s is actually in Haversham-cum-Little Linford civil parish.

A geophysical survey in 2015 pinpointed the location of the long-lost manor house and excavations have continued since then. The ruins of Saint Peter’s Church and the archaeological dig at the site of the manor house are all that remain of the abandoned village of Stantonbury, although Saint Peter’s is also remembered in street names in New Bradwell.

The east end of Saint Peter’s Church, Stantonbury (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Visiting two former Methodist chapels in Stoke Bruerne and Shutlanger in Northamptonshire

The former Methodist Chapel on Chapel Lane in Stoke Bruerne, Northamptonshire, close to the Canal Museum (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Patrick Comerford

During my walks through the villages of Stoke Bruerne and Shutlanger and through the Northamptonshire countryside last week and the week before, I also visited the former Wesleyan Methodist in both Stoke Bruerne and Shutlanger.

A Wesleyan Methodist chapel was built at Shutlanger in 1844 and a chapel was built in Stoke Bruerne two years later in 1846. Both chapels were registered in 1854.

The chapel in Shutlanger had seating for 130 people in 1873, but the chapel in Stoke Bruerne could only accommodate 80 people.

The smaller chapel in Stoke Bruerne was replaced in 1879 by a new chapel, built at a cost of £250 on land given by George Savage, whose nearby brickyard supplied the bricks. It was built by local labour, mainly by men who worked on the land during the daytime.

The foundation stone for the chapel in Chapel Lane was laid on 13 August 1879, and it opened for worship on New Year's Day 1880. The new chapel in Stoke Bruerne which could hold 150 people. The façade displays the date 1879 carved in stone, although any other words that might have been around it have been obscured. The earlier chapel, built in 1846, was later used as a schoolroom.

The trustees of the Stoke Bruerne chapel in 1922 were drawn from Stoke Bruerne and Shutlanger, and from neighbouring communities, including Blakesley, Greens Norton, Bradden, Hartwell, Silverstone, Alderton, Caldecote and Towcester.

Major repairs were carried out on the chapel and the schoolrooms in 1947-1952, including the installation of electricity. However, it was agreed in 1961 to sell the schoolroom and use the proceeds to improve the chapel.

The Methodist Chapel in Stoke Bruerne opened for worship in 1880 and closed in 1975 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

The closure of the chapel in Stoke Bruerne and the transfer of members to Roade or Shutlanger was first suggested by the circuit quarterly meeting in May 1974. This was opposed by people who wished to keep a free church presence in what was an expanding village. But the decision to sell the building was carried by a majority of one, with two abstentions, at a meeting of seven trustees in November 1974.

The chapel closed as a place of worship in 1975 and was sold for £4,550 early in 1976. By then, the remaining members had moved to Shutlanger.

The former chapel was converted to a Farm Museum, displaying old farm equipment and live demonstrations of its uses. The Farm Museum was closed in 1993 and was converted into tea rooms and a café, expanding later into the fully licensed restaurant.

It is now called ‘The Old Chapel’ and offers boutique bed and breakfast accommodation. The property has been restored by the owners Elaine and Nadia Pieris and offers three individual suites. It boasts a garden and is next to the Canal Museum, and the Grand Union Canal provides a backdrop for exploring the local countryside and the local pubs and restaurants.

‘The Old Chapel’ in Stoke Bruerne offers boutique bed and breakfast accommodation (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

The chapel in Shutlanger was enlarged in 1889, with seating for 160 people.

The trustees of the Shutlanger chapel in 1917 included trustees were from Shutlanger and Stoke Bruerne, as well trustees from Ashton, Roade, Silverstone, Towcester, Wood Burcote and Greens Norton.

The congregation moved for a time in 1922 to the school-chapel belonging to the Church of England while the chapel was closed for major repairs, costing nearly £100.

Further work on the chapel ceiling began in 1933 and was completed five years later. By 1938, all the trustees were from Shutlanger and none from neighbouring communities.

The roof continued to cause problems and in 1948 the congregation agreed to take down the 1889 extension, then used as a schoolroom, and to restore the chapel to its original size and shape. The interior was redecorated and electricity was installed. During these works, the congregation once again worshipped in the Anglican church room. The chapel reopened in June 1949, with seating for 100 people.

The chapel in Shutlanger continued in use over the following 30 years. It was joined by members of the former Stoke Bruerne chapel when it closed in 1975. A decade later, however, Shutlanger also closed. The carved communion table was presented to the Methodist Church in Roade.

The former Methodist chapel in Shutlanger was later used as a book repository, and is now a private house.

The former Wesleyan Methodist chapel in Shutlanger (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

A tranquil afternoon by the canal in Stoke Bruerne, enjoying the barges and searching for family links

Stoke Bruerne is a pretty in West Northamptonshire village along the banks of the Grand Union Canal, half way between Stony Stratford and Northampton (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024; click on photographs for full-screen viewing)

Patrick Comerford

Stoke Bruerne in West Northamptonshire is a pretty village along the banks of a canal, half way between Stony Stratford to the south (13 km or 8 miles) and Northampton to the north (11 km or 7 miles). I had wanted to visit it for many years, mainly to explore its past connections with the Comberford family in the 15th and 16th centuries, and I finally got there last week.

Stoke Bruerne is a small village with a population of fewer than 400 people. Its pretty setting by the Grand Union Canal, the many canal locks in the area, the thatched cottages on the Green, the well-signed public walks, and its welcoming pubs and museum all combine to make it an attractive place for visitors throughout the year.

There are frequent short trips on barges on the canal, and the Blisworth Tunnel is a major attraction. The Blisworth Tunnel, which re-opened ten years ago (22 August 2014), is 2,812 metres (3,075 yards) long and is the longest wide, freely navigable tunnel in Europe.

The canal is busy with boats going through the locks constantly and in and out of the tunnel regularly. During the summer days, a variety of boat trips are available along the canal. The village attracts many visitors all year round and especially during the summer months, and there are two canal-side pubs in Stoke Bruerne – the Boat Inn on the west bank, and the Navigation on the east bank.

Three of us took a half mile barge trip on the ‘Charlie’ north along the canal as far as the south entrance to the Blisworth Tunnel, before enjoying lunch and the Navigation.

‘Charlie’ is one of the barges offering trips on the canal as far as the Blisworth Tunnel (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

The parish is divided into two hamlets, Stoke Bruerne in the east and Shutlanger in the west. Both hamlets were inclosed in 1844 and the modern boundary between the two was settled in the mid-19th century, with Stoke Bruerne civil parish containing 1,270 acres, and Shutlanger 1,363 acres.

Stoke Bruerne is named in the Domesday Book in 1086 as ‘Stoche’, meaning ‘an outlying farmstead or hamlet’. A water-mill, recorded in 1086, stood on the stream to the north of the village, alongside the lane leading towards Blisworth.

But Stoke Bruerne is much older, and a large Roman villa near the road from Stoke and Ashton was partially excavated in the 1960s. The site of the earliest post-Roman settlement in the parish is indicated by the position of the parish church, which stands on high ground on the west edge of Stoke village, near an Iron Age settlements and also close to a burial site, assumed to be Saxon, was found ca 1910.

A thatched cottage on the Green in Stoke Bruerne … the older part of the village is to the east of the church (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

The older part of the village lies entirely to the east of the church, on either side of a stream that flows south from Blisworth Hill to the Tove, where the four roads leading to Ashton, the London road, Shutlanger and Blisworth meet.

Earthworks on the east edge of the existing built-up area, to both the north and south of the Ashton road, suggest that in the Middle Ages settlement extended a little further in that direction than was the case by the early 18th century, when the community was mapped for the first time.

The name ‘Stokbruer’ is used in 1254, being a suffix by the ‘Briwere’ family of the Manor House. In 1301, 43 households were assessed to the lay subsidy in Stoke Bruerne and 40 in Shutlanger. The two townships remained much the same size in the 1520s.

The mediaeval lords of Stoke Bruerne including members of the de Harrowden, de Combemartin and Knightley families. But Stoke Bruerne lacked a resident lord, both in the Middle Ages and later, and there is no evidence for a capital messuage associated with the manor in the village.

The Old Dower House on the Green is dated 1636 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

The older cottages and former farmhouses were originally all thatched, as a number are today.

A park was created to the south of the village in 1529-1530, and more land was added to it after the manor was annexed to the honor of Grafton in 1542. In the following years, crown tenants in both Stoke and Shutlanger were compensated for lost common arable and the rector offered a composition for lost tithes.

The manor of Stoke Bruerne descended with the rest of the honor of Grafton until 1987, when it was among the manorial titles from the honor offered for sale. The manor of Alderton was not included in this sale and was retained by the Duke of Grafton.

A house on the Green known as the Old Dower House is dated 1636, and many of the other older houses in the village seem to date from the same period.

The lane leading to Saint Mary’s Church is still recognisable as an ancient hollow way (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

The lane leading to the parish church, Saint Mary’s, is still recognisable as an ancient hollow way. The church, was described in both 1254 and 1291, but dates mainly from the 14th and 15th centuries.

The church consists of a nave, chancel, west tower, north and south aisles and south porch. The tower, except for its Perpendicular top stage, seems to date from the early 12th century. The arch between tower and nave dates from ca 1200.

The nave and both aisles were rebuilt together in the later 14th century. The chancel screen is 15th century; there is a rood-loft entrance on the north side and external access by a staircase. Although the church was locked when we visited, I understand the interesting internal features include a late mediaeval squint, a piscina adjoins, and the nave clerestory.

The plain octagonal font is perhaps of the 13th or 14th century. The chancel stalls are 19th century, incorporating two late medieval bench ends and 18th century altar rails. There are several late mediaeval wall monuments and ledger-slabs.

The church was repaired in 1843 and restored in 1865. A new east window was installed in 1877 in memory of a former rector, the Revd Philip Henry Lee. A vestry and organ-chamber designed by the Stony Stratford architect Edward Swinfen Harris, were added on the south side of the chancel in 1881. A new baptistry designed by Matthew Holding was added in 1901, and the interior was restored.

Saint Mary’s Church dates mainly from the 14th and 15th centuries (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

There was a priest at Stoke Bruerne in 1086 who held land there of Swain son of Azor. The first-known incumbent, Richard de Rof, took office in 1217, when the patron was William Briwere. The advowson descended with the manor until the death of William de Combemartin in 1318 and the division of Stoke between his three daughters. Some of the medieval incumbents were drawn from local gentry families and on occasion were members of the same families as the lords of Stoke Bruerne.

The whole of the manor and advowson were acquired by the Crown in the early 16th century, and in 1551 the advowson was granted to William Parr (1513-1571), Marquess of Northampton, the only brother of Queen Catherine Parr, sixth and final wife of Henry VIII. It reverted to the Crown when he was attainted by Queen Mary two years later, and Queen Elizabeth I presented to the living in 1559.

The advowsons of Stoke, Blisworth, Cottingham and Great Billing were granted to Sir Christopher Hatton in 1579. These interests then passed through the Hatton family until 1676, when they were sold to Brasenose College, Oxford.

Saint Mary’s Church and the grave of the Revd Philip Henry Lee, rector for 40 years from 1836 to 1876 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

The most notable Rector of Stoke Bruerne was probably Peter Gunning (1614-1684), rector from 1660 to 1669. He was a staunch royalist during the Civil War and both a noted theologian and prolific author. From 1660, he was also Master of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, and was appointed Lady Margaret’s Professor of Divinity. He became Master of Saint John’s College, Cambridge, in 1661 and was elected Regius Professor of Divinity (1661-1674). During those years, he was also Rector of Cottesmore, Rutland, and a canon of Canterbury Cathedral. He became Bishop of Chichester in 1669 and Bishop of Ely in 1674.

Edward Cardwell (1787-1861), Rector from 1828 to 1831, was Camden Professor of Ancient History at Oxford (1825-1861). In 1831, he succeeded Archbishop Richard Whately of Dublin as the principal of St Alban Hall, later merged with Merton College. He edited Aristotle’s Ethica and wrote several works on Greek and Roman coinage and theology.

Cardwell’s successor, the Revd Philip Henry Lee, was rector for 40 years, from 1836 to 1876. During his lengthy incumbency, he established infant schools in Stoke Bruerne and Shutlanger. A schoolroom was built in Stoke Bruerne in the late 1830s was enlarged in 1880-1882.

The parish of Stoke Bruerne was united with Grafton Regis and Alderton in 1953, and later with Blisworth. The parish is in the Diocese of Peterborough.

Canon Richard Stainer has been the Rector of Blisworth, Alderton, Grafton Regis, Milton Malsor and Stoke Bruerne with Shutlanger (the Grand Union Benefice) since 2019. Sunday services in Saint Mary’s are at 9:30 on the second Sundays (Family Eucharist) and fourth Sundays (Family Service).

The Old School House in Stoke Bruerne … a schoolroom was built in Stoke in the late 1830s was enlarged in 1880-1882 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

The Grand Junction Canal, which began in 1793 as an improved trunk route between London and Birmingham, was completed in 1805. It enters the parish by an aqueduct over a tributary of the Tove half a mile north of Twyford Bridge and continues north to Stoke village. Beyond, it enters Blisworth Tunnel, through which the canal passes beneath the high ground between Stoke and Blisworth.

The arrival of the canal was important in both reshaping the layout of Stoke and bringing new economic activity. After the opening of the canal, Stoke continued to grow more modestly to a peak of 469 in 1851; Shutlanger’s 19th-century growth peaked at 403 a generation later in 1881. The canal continues to play an important part in the life of the community.

Stoke Bruerne once had its own railway station – which was misnamed Stoke Bruern. The station on the line from Towcester to Olney opened in 1891, but the line finally closed in 1958, and the former station building has been converted into a private house.

The Blisworth Tunnel is 2,812 metres long and is the longest wide freely navigable tunnel in Europe (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

The nearby country estate of Stoke Park is on Shutlanger Road. Stoke Park was the first English country house to display a Palladian plan. The house was destroyed by fire in the late 19th century, and was replaced with a large Neo-Jacobean building.

It was bought in 1928 by an Irish aristocrat, Captain Edward Brabazon Meade (1878-1963), a son of Richard Meade, 4th Earl of Clanwilliam. He borrowed heavily to restore the estate, but found it a financial burden and left Stoke in 1937.

The mansion and grounds were requisitioned by the army during World War II. Meade later moved to the Bahamas, and sold the estate in 1946. The Neo-Jacobean mansion was empty and in poor condition and was largely demolished in the late 1940s.

The new owners refused to carry out repairs to the 17th century pavilions, instead offering to sell them to the National Trust or the county council. Stoke Park is occasionally open to the public in August, but all that remains of the main house are the two east and west wings known as Stoke Park Pavilions.

One of the many pretty thatched cottages in the centre of Stoke Bruerne (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

One of my reasons for wanting to visit Stoke Bruerne for so long is a Comberford family connection dating from the 15th and 16th centuries. William Comberford was entrusted with keeping the estates in Northamptonshire of Margaret Catesby, the widow of John Parles (1419-1452), when she died in 1459.

Those estates included lands in Watford, Stoke Bruerne and Shutlanger, near Stoke Bruerne, and her daughter Johanna Parles became William Comberford’s ward. Later Johanna Parles married William’s son, John Comberford (1440-1508), and the Comberford family estates and wealth were enlarged and enriched. Their son, Thomas Comberford, sold the former Parles estates, including over 364 acres in Stoke Bruerne, Shutlanger, Alderton and Wappenham, to Richard Empson of Easton Neston.

The Parles family had a lasting influence on the fortunes of the Comberford family, reflected even in the changes made to the Comberford family coat of arms over the generations.

However, to see any remaining signs of the former Parles and Comberford estates in the Stoke Bruerne area, I needed to visit the neighbouring small village of Shutlanger.

Four Minutes on the Canal at Stoke Bruerne (Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Wolverton Park, a 300-year-old house, railway sports grounds and a Victorian gate lodge

Wolverton Park, near Old Wolverton, was built over 300 years ago, ca 1720 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Patrick Comerford

I was writing on a recent evening about Martin Heron’s public sculptures ‘Reaching Forward’ along the canal banks at the Wolverton Park development, close to the railway lines and the former railway works.

Wolverton Park is originally the name of a much older house, built ca 1720, standing in its own spacious grounds just off the old Wolverton to Stony Stratford road and close to Holy Trinity Church, Old Wolverton.

When a new road was cut through to Wolverton Station, the house at Wolverton Park found itself on a corner with Mill End, isolated from much of the land on which it once stood. The house still stands there, and – although it has been enlarged and added to over the years – there have been few visible exterior changes over the last 50 or 60 years.

Wolverton Park is an early to mid-18th century two-storey house with an attic and a slightly older two-storey extension to the right. The house has a steep early tiled roof with a dormer to the rear. A mid-19th century addition at the rear links with the stables. Inside, the house has a staircase that dates from ca 1720, with heavy turned balusters and a moulded handrail, and that rises by short flights in the central well.

The mid-19th century addition at the rear of Wolverton Park (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Wolverton’s leading local historian Bryan Dunleavy, who has known the house since his childhood, has researched the history of Wolverton Park. For much of the 19th century, it was the home of James E McConnnell (1815-1883), the locomotive engineer who designed the famous ‘Bloomers’ that were built at Wolverton Works. He succeeded Edward Bury as Works Superintendent in 1847 and remained at Wolverton until 1862.

McConnell was born in Fermoy, Co Cork, on 1 January 1815, the son of a Scottish father, Quentin McConnell, and an English mother, Elizabeth (Bradbury). His father died when James was a four-year-old, and at the age of 13 he was apprenticed to an engineering firm in Glasgow in 1828.

McConnell was working at Edward Bury’s locomotive works in Liverpool by 1837, and he became the locomotive superintendent for the Birmingham and Gloucester Railway in 1842. The L&NWR recruited him to take over from Edward Bury in Wolverton in 1846. By then, he had married Charlotte Bowton Addison (1822-1886). The McConnells moved with their children into Wolverton Park, and were soon followed by Charlotte’s widowed father, Dr James Addison (1774-1852), a surgeon from Burnham in Essex.

James McConnell was paid £700 a year, a salary that allowed the family could to live in style at Wolverton Park. Bryan Dunleavy suggests this also made McConnell the highest paid man in Wolverton at the time.

McConnell’s locomotives were among the most successful of the time. But he clashed with some board members, resigned in March 1862 and moved to Great Missenden where he practised as a civil engineer. The board never replaced McConnell in Wolverton. Instead, engine building was consolidated at Crewe and Wolverton specialised in carriage building.

In the mid-20th century, Wolverton Park was the home of the military historian and journalist Sir Basil Henry Liddell Hart (1895-1970). He died in 1970 and his library formed the nucleus of the Liddell Hart Centre, the military studies library at King’s College, London.

Wolverton Park opened in 1885 as the railway company sports grounds (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Wolverton Park is also the name of the former railway company sports grounds, opened on the other side of the railway tracks, on the north-east fringe of Wolverton in 1885. James McConnell came to Wolverton after the London and Birmingham Railway, later part of the London and North Western Railway, established its works in the town in 1838.

Wolverton was chosen because it was a midway point between the two cities and a place where engines could be changed conveniently, refuelled and repaired. Wolverton began to grow close to an older village by the side of the Grand Union Canal and locomotives were made in Wolverton until 1861. After that, carriage building largely took its place. The works covered 37 acres in 1886 and employed 2,000 people, figures that had more than doubled by 1907, and remained at that until the early 1960s.

At first, the area was referred to as Wolverton Station and was described as the London & Birmingham’s ‘grand central station and locomotive depot,’ making it the world’s first Grand Central station.

The company built railway sheds and a locomotive works and laid down streets of slate-roofed, red-bricked terraced houses on a grid plan for their workers. Workers from across Britain were attracted to work in the new town, and the facilities they were provided with included a park, educational facilities and allotments. When locomotive building was moved to Crewe, Wolverton became a centre for building and repairing railway carriages.

Wolverton Park, an LNWR company sports ground, opened on the north-east fringe of the town in 1885. The facilities included a football ground, a running and cycling track, a bowling green, and grandstand.

The park was one of the finest company sports grounds in Victorian England, alongside those in Bournville (1887) and Port Sunlight (1889). It was laid out with an elegant a gatekeeper’s lodge, and included a bandstand, a running track, a cycle track, a football pitch, tennis courts and a bowling green.

The lodge at Wolverton Park is an integral part of the park (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

The lodge is an integral part of Wolverton Park. It was built at the park entrance in 1885 as part of the original scheme, and may have been designed by an in-house architect at the LNWR. It was built in the Old English style and is a similar lodge at Queen’s Park, Crewe, another LNWR town.

The former Victorian gatekeeper’s lodge at the entrance of Wolverton Park is on a busy corner close to Wolverton train station and between the two railway bridges that cross Old Wolverton Road.

The two-storey house is built of brick, with some elevations now painted, and it retains many of its original features and windows, including timber framing, some tile-hanging on the first floor, and a red tile roof with ornamental ridge tiles.

The house has a projecting gabled front façade with a bay window on the ground floor, and jettied window with a long four-light window on the first floor above. There is a timber-framed first floor and gable, and the gable has two small attic windows. A tall brick stack rises from the centre of the roof, and there is a prominent lateral stack at the rear of the house.

The decorative details include a stucco plaque with an urn, and the interior may still have the original fireplaces, joinery and staircase.

The lodge at Wolverton Park was built in the Old English style and may have been designed by an in-house architect at the LNWR (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Wolverton was incorporated in the new town of Milton Keynes in 1967. But the railway workforce was reduced to under 1,000 in 1986. As Wolverton declined, its buildings fell into disrepair and dereliction, the works became largely vacant and some of the buildings were demolished.

Milton Keynes Partnership and Places for People worked to revitalise the old industrial area, and the brownfield site became an award-winning showcase of how to invigorate a historic site, with shops, offices and homes bringing new life to the area.

Wolverton Park accommodates 290 homes that are a mix of one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments, duplexes, penthouses and townhouses. A key part of the project was refurbishing the Royal Train Shed and the Triangular Building that date back to 1845, creating 80 homes and commercial space.

The site and park are bisected by the Grand Union Canal, and most homes have either park views or canal-side frontages (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

The site includes the park originally built for the works’ employees. It is bisected by the Grand Union Canal, which means that most homes have either park views or canal-side frontages.

The architects RPS Design worked to incorporate the new homes into the existing structures. Construction work was managed by Willmott Dixon Housing, with Rolton Group providing civil and structural engineering services.

The original park area at Wolverton Park has been retained for public use, although the football club, model car club and bowls club were all relocated to new venues, and the old gatekeeper’s lodge has recently been restored and refurbished and was let on the open market.

The decorative details at Wolverton Park Lodge include a stucco plaque with an urn (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Public sculpture and art in Old Wolverton could inspire similar works in Stony Stratford

Martin Heron’s ‘Reaching Forward’ in Wolverton Park is in two parts … a tribute to the town’s railway heritage (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Patrick Comerford

Milton Keynes has a collection of over 230 public artworks located throughout the city. The collection includes sculptures, installations and art in the public realm, often reflecting the people, place and time when they were commissioned.

From the very early days of the development of the city, Milton Keynes placed public art at the heart of its design and communities. In recent months, I have enjoyed discovering, exploring and blogging about these works, include numerous sculptures in the city centre, in shopping centres, in parks like Campbell Park, and in open spaces.

But they are not confined to the centre of Milton Keynes. There are sculptures too in the satellite towns and villages and their parks, and I have blogged about sculptures in a variety of locations, including Bletchley, Great Linford and Bradwell Abbey.

It is regrettable that more of these sculptures and installations are not seen on the streets and in the corners of Stony Stratford. Yet neighbouring Wolverton has an interesting collection of works of public art.

Martin Heron’s ‘Reaching Forward’ in Wolverton Park is in two parts … a super hero by the banks of the Grand Union Canal (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

As I was strolling around Wolverton earlier this week, I noticed the attention given to providing publicly accessible art even in private developments such as Wolverton Park, in among the apartment blocks.

Martin Heron’s two figures of ‘Reaching Forward’ stand on either side of the pedestrian bridge over the Grand Union Canal. They have been part of the award-winning Wolverton Park development since 2012, and they reflect the distinctiveness of each of the waterway.

Martin Heron carried out extensive research into the Wolverton area and met many groups and individuals to understand the identity of the place and the aspirations of the community. Through a series of workshops, he explored and tested ideas, all of which informed his final proposal for ‘Reaching Forward.’

With ‘Reaching Forward’, the artist captures both the past and the future of Wolverton. He responds to place by the way the new development takes forward the old railway buildings into a new life as modern and contemporary homes.

Martin Heron’s ‘Reaching Forward’ by the Grand Union Canal in Wolverton Park recalls the town’s railway heritage (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

The figure on the heritage or south side of the canal is made from steel that is rusting and aging in harmony with the qualities of the old brickwork of the railway building. a A steam train is running along his arm, reminding viewers of the heritage of the site. This is a model of a 19th century Bloomer locomotive of the type once built at the railway works. The supporting columns represent railway tracks in a design inspired by the railway works.

The old railway buildings behind this sculpture were in use when steam trains stopped to be refuelled with coal and water. While the trains were being refuelled at Wolverton, Victorian passengers would alight and retire to the reading rooms to spend time and to enjoy the refreshments.

It is said that when the London to Birmingham railway was being built, Northampton declined to have a station with these facilities, fearing it would attracted the ‘riff raff’ from London. So, the tiny rural village of Wolverton was chosen instead and it grew into being a thriving railway centre. The Reading Room remains but it now part of a development that includes offices, cafés and restaurants beside the canal.

On the north bank of the canal bridge, atop a straight pole set at an angle, a spring-heeled stainless steel superhero bursts through ribbons of metal as he sprints forward. On the upper side of his outstretched left arm, a row of seven cyclists ride assorted bicycles, a theme inspired by the velodrome that was once located nearby.

A brightly coloured mural at the corner of Cambridge Street and Stratford Road in Wolverton (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Nearby, in the Secret Garden in Wolverton, a couple on a couch are the creation by art pupils from the Radcliffe School under the direction of Phil Smith and Bill Billings. The sculpture was unveiled in October 2007 shortly before Bill died on 26 December 2007.

There are interesting, locally inspired works of public art at the entrance to Tesco in Wolverton, and a photograph of a brightly coloured mural on a wall at the corner of Cambridge Street and Stratford Road attracted favourable responses when I posted it on Facebook and Instagram earlier this week.

So, why are there fewer works of public art on the streets and corners of Stony Stratford to date?

Luke McDonnell’s mural of Queen Eleanor on the corner of New Street and High Street in Stony Stratford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Luke McDonnell’s mural of Queen Eleanor on the corner of New Street and High Street always attracts attention. The mural was painted in August 2018 and is a reminder of the town’s long lost Eleanor Cross.

A fading mural on the gable end at the corner of London Road and Horsefair Green represents the legend of ‘Cock and Bull’ stories and the coaching heritage in Stony Stratford, but is as far south of the Cock Hotel and the Bull Hotel on the High Street as one can get.

But there are many suitable sites for more murals in Stony Stratford, including the gable walls of the Library on Church Street, facing the door of Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church, where the statue of Saint Giles must be one of the earliest sculptures in the town.

There are up to a dozen sculptures in the Sculpture Park beside York House in Stony Stratford (Photographs: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

After enjoying Martin Heron’s two figures of ‘Reaching Forward’ in Wolverton earlier this week, I returned that afternoon to the interesting Sculpture Park in Stony Stratford. Ten or twelve sculptures in a green area beside the car park at York House recall Edward Hayes and his Watling engineering and boat works.

Sadly, only one of these sculptures is immediately visible to passers-by on London Road, and the others are almost hidden in a secret and overgrown green area, squeezed between the car park at York House and a modern housing development off London Road.

In Galley Hill, Ian Freemantle’s beautiful carved oak leaves and poetic words on his bench in Galley Hill are a reminder of a gib and gallows in the past that give Galley Hill its name.

Only one of the sculptures remembering the boat works is immediately visible from London Road in Stony Stratford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

There are so many places in Stony Stratford I see as suitable locations for modern sculptures and art. I can see how new sculptures and murals along the High Street, in Market Square or on Church Street, in the front of the library, in Cofferidge Close, on Horsefair Green, or, say, at the junction of London Road and Wolverton, would add to the attractions of the town, make it more interesting for residents and visitors alike, and retain and increase footfall for shops and businesses.

And there so many appropriate, potential themes too, beyond the old ‘Cock and Bull’ themes. Those that suggest themselves include:

• the town’s old tanneries;
• the ‘Princes in the Tower’;
• the former light railway between Wolverton and Stony Stratford;
• the colourful Prince Louis Clovis Bonaparte, a grandnephew of Napoleon Bonaparte, who once lived in Stony Stratford;
• Stony’s possible links with the family of William Penn of Pennsylvania;
• the supposed connections through the Shell House with Sir Christopher Wren and John Radcliffe; • long-standing business like Odell’s, Cowley's or Cox and Robinson;
• a celebration of Stony featuring in the 1987 film Withnall and I;
• or even Sir Herbert Samuel Leon of Bletchley Park, the man who was singularly responsible for once saving the tram line between Stony Stratford and Wolverton and effectively saving the town’s economy.

The ‘Cock and Bull’ mural on the corner of the corner of London Road and Horsefair Green in Stony Stratford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

From Geoffrey Chaucer to Graham Greene, finding the literary and cultural legacy of Berkhamsted

From Geoffrey Chaucer to Graham Greene, Berkhamsted has a rich literary and cultural heritage (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Patrick Comerford

There was so much to see in Berkhamsted during my visit earlier this month that I returned again this week. Apart from the castle and Saint Peter’s Church, which I described in a blog posting earlier this week, I was interested to learn more about the town’s many literary and cultural associations, from Geoffrey Chaucer and the ‘Physician’s Tale’ to Maria Edgeworth, William Cowper and Peter Pan, and to Graham Greene, Claud Cockburn and the early days of the BBC.

Geoffrey Chaucer, the author of the Canterbury Tales, is said to have visited Berkhamsted in 1389 to oversee renovations at the castle after he was appointed the clerk of the king’s works. During his time in office, Chaucer organised most of the king's building projects, including repairs to Westminster Palace and Saint George’s Chapel, Windsor, and work on the wharf at the Tower of London.

It is not known whether Chaucer spent much time working at Berkhamsted Castle. It is claimed by some sourves that while Chaucer was at Berkhamsted he got to know – or least know of – John of Gaddesden, who lived nearby in Little Gaddesden and who became the model for the Doctor of Phisick in the Canterbury Tales, written between 1387 and 1400.

Berkhamsted Castle … did Geoffrey Chaucer ever spend any time working there? (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

However, Chaucer could never have met John of Gaddesden (1280-1361), who died almost a generation before Chaucer is said to have visited Berkhamsted. Indeed, the ‘Physician’s Tale’ is usually seen as an early work by Chaucer, probably written before much of the rest of the Canterbury Tales. The long digression possibly alludes to an historical event that may date it to 1386, three years before Chaucer is said to have visited Berkhamsted.

John of Gaddesden was a writer in his own right too. He was born near Berkhamsted, but spent most of his academic life in Oxford. He was the author of Rosa Medicinae (‘The Rose of Medicine’), or Rosa Anglica (‘The English Rose’). It was written between 1304 and 1317, and regarded as the first English textbook of medicine.

John of Gaddesden was a theologian, a fellow at Merton College, Oxford, a physician to kings and princes, and the most celebrated medical authorities of his day. It is said his medical works, alongside those of Gilbertus Anglicus, formed part of the core curriculum that underpinned the practice of medicine for the next 400 years.

The hymn writer William Cowper (1731-1800) was born in Berkhamsted Rectory, where his father, the Revd John Cowper, was the Rector, and was baptised in Saint Peter’s Church.

Although William Cowper moved from Berkhamsted when was still a boy, there are frequent references to the town in his poems and letters, and two windows in Saint Peter’s Church commemorate his life and writing. His popular hymns include ‘Oh! for a closer walk with God,’ and he give the English language the phrase ‘God moves in a mysterious way.’

Cowper was an active abolitionist in the anti-slavery movement. In the Victorian era, Cowper became a cult figure and Berkhamsted was a place of pilgrimage. He was quoted by the Revd Martin Luther King in his protest speeches in the 1960s.

Dean Thomas Charles Fry was the headmaster of Berkhamsted School for almost quarter of a century (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Maria Edgeworth (1768-1849), a prolific writer of adults’ and children’s literature, was a significant figure in the evolution of the novel in Europe. She lived in Berkhamsted as a child in the 18th century. She spent her early years with her mother’s family, living at The Limes, now known as Edgeworth House, in Northchurch, Berkhamsted.

Her mother died in 1773 when Maria was five. Later that year, her father, Richard Lovell Edgeworth (1744-1817) from Lichfield, married his second wife Honora Sneyd, and Maria went with them to live on his Irish estate af Edgeworthstown, Co Longford.

Between 1904 and 1907, the five Llewelyn Davies boys were the inspiration for the author and playwright JM Barrie’s Peter Pan. Their grandfather, the Revd John Llewelyn Davies, was outspoken on social issues like poverty and inequality, and active in Christian socialist groups.

Their parents, Sylvia (1866-1910) and Arthur Llewelyn Davies (1863-1907), moved out of London and went to live in Egerton House, an Elizabethan mansion in Berkhamsted, in 1904, the year when Barrie’s play had its debut. The brothers were first cousins of the writer Daphne du Maurier.

The Revd Dr Thomas Charles Fry (1846-1930), was the headmaster of Berkhamsted School in 1887-1910. He was one of the pioneers in the work of the Christian Social Union, and was the author of Old Testament History for Schools, Social Policy for the Church and Sermons on Social Subjects. Later, as the Dean of Lincoln (1910-1930), Fry worked devotedly to raise funds for the restoration of the cathedral.

Saint John’s House, Berkhamsted … the birthplace of Graham Greene (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

While Fry was headmaster of Berkhamsted, his wife’s cousin, Charles Henry Greene (1865-1942), was second master and the housemaster at Saint John’s House. When Fry became Dean of Lincoln in 1910, Greene succeeded him as headmaster of Berkhamsted.

Greene’s brother, Edward Greene, once a highly successful coffee merchant in Brazil, also moved to Berkhamsted, and lived in some splendour at the Hall or Berkhamsted Hall, near the Rectory. Edward Greene bought the house in 1917 and was the last private resident there. The Hall was used by Berkhamsted School as a prep school from 1928, while the former gardens were sold off for housing development. By then, however, the house was suffering from dry rot, and finally it was demolished in 1937.

Both Charles Greene and Edward Grene each had six children and this influential generation of cousins were key figures in literary and cultural life in 20th century.

Graham Greene (1904-1991), one of the ‘School House’ Greenes, is the best known of these cousins. He was a bestselling novelist by the age of 28 and he was often tipped for the Nobel Prize for Literature. He was also known as a politically contrarian, anti-American, a Catholic convert, a sometime publisher, a spy and a friend of Kim Philby.

In The Human Factor (1978), Graham Greene describes a scene in Saint Peter’s Church, Berkhamsted, when a sonic boom suddenly ‘shook the old glass of the west window and rattled the crusader’s helmet which hung on a pillar.’ The helmet is that of Sir Adolphus Carey – who lived 300 years after the crusades.

Sir Hugh Carleton Greene (1910-1987), Graham Greene’s youngest brother, first made his name as a journalist in pre-war Nazi Germany. During World War II, he was in charge of BBC broadcasting to Germany. He later became the director general of the BBC from 1960 to 1969, modernising the BBC at a time of great social change.

After retiring from the BBC, Greene published several books, including a collaboration with his brother Graham Greene, and made television programmes both for the BBC and ITV.

Their oldest brother, Herbert Greene, is often seen as the ‘black sheep’ in the family, and he became the model for several of Graham Greene’s antiheroes, such as Anthony Farrant in England Made Me.

Another brother, Dr Raymond Greene (1901-1982), was a doctor and mountaineer who took part in two Everest expeditions. He chaired Heinemann Medical Books from 1960 to 1980, and his autobiography, Moments of Being, was published in 1974.

The ‘Hall’ Greene cousins included the journalist Felix Greene (1909-1985), a creative figure in the early history of the BBC who set up its American offices in the 1930s. He first visited China for the BBC in 1957, and he was one of the first Western reporters to visit North Vietnam when he travelled there for the San Francisco Chronicle in the 1960s. He published books on China, Vietnam in 1960s and 1970s.

His brother Ben Greene (1901-1978) was a fellow pacifist, a Quaker and a key figure in the pre-war Labour Party. But he moved to the far-right politically, and during World War II he was imprisoned without trial along with the fascist Oswald Mosley.

The literary contemporaries of the Greene cousins at Berkhamsted School included Claud Cockburn (1904-1981), who lived later at Myrtle Grove in Youghal, Co Cork, from 1947, and in Ardmore, Co Waterford, in 1980. For many years, Claud Cockburn was a columnist with The Irish Times while I worked there, and some of his sons, including Patrick Cockburn, also contributed to The Irish Times.

Other writers and literary figures in school with the Greenes at Berkhamsted include Sir Peter Quennell (1905-1993); the diplomat Humphrey Trevelyan (1905-1985), who wrote a number of books about his career, including The India We Left and The Middle East in Revolution; and the diplomat and writer Sir Cecil Parrott (1909-1984), known for his translation of Jaroslav Hašek’s The Good Soldier Švejk and The Red Commissar, his biography of Hašek, The Bad Bohemian, and his autobiographical books, The Tightrope and The Serpent and the Nightingale.

The children’s authors HE Todd, author of the Bobby Brewster books, and Hilda van Stockum have also lived in Berkhamsted.

Greene's Court … place names are reminders of the literary legacy of Berkhamsted (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

The Bridge of Sighs and the length of canals link Venice and Victorian Birmingham

The ‘Bridge of Sighs’ in Birmingham … older than the bridges in Oxford and Barcelona, younger than the bridges in Cambridge and Dublin (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Patrick Comerford

I have been told that there are more canals per kilometre or per mile in Birmingham than in Venice.

You might think that the comparisons end there when it comes to Venice and Birmingham. But I also found out last week that Birmingham has its own ‘Bridge of Sighs’ and that there are more works than I expected by the mosaic and glass artist Salviati of Venice and Murano.

Indeed, I wondered, could ‘Big Brum’ been inspired the campanile in Saint Mark’s Square, Venice? After all, the city’s other clock tower, the Joseph Chamberlain Memorial Clock Tower, or ‘Old Joe’ at the University of Birmingham in Edgbaston, is modelled on the Torre del Mangia in Siena.

Big Brum is the local name for the clock tower on the Council House. It was built in 1885 as part of the first extension to the original Council House of 1879 and stands above the Museum Art Gallery.

The clock tower, the Museum and Art Gallery and the Council House form a single block and were designed by the architect Yeoville Thomason. When it opened, the clock-tower and the lofty entrance portico were considered the ‘most conspicuous features.’

The clock on ‘Old Brum’ was donated by Follett Osler, a local pioneer in measuring meteorological and chronological data, while the clock mechanism was supplied by Gillett & Co of Croydon.

Perhaps my mental searches for links with Venice were too fanciful. The nickname of ‘Big Brum’ is, after all, an allusion to ‘Big Ben’ and the clock tower at the Palace of Westminster, both ring out the Westminster Chimes.

But there is certainly Venetian inspiration in the ‘Bridge of Sighs,’ the bridge that links the original Art Gallery facing Chamberlain Square and the Art Gallery Extension, built in 1911-1919 and containing the Feeney Art Galleries.

The Bridge of Sighs in Venice was given its name by the poet Lord Byron in the 1812 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2022)

The original Bridge of Sighs in Venice is an enclosed bridge built of white limestone, with two pairs of small, rectangular windows with stone bars. It is 11 metres wide and crosses the Rio di Palazzo, linking the New Prison to the interrogation rooms in the Doge’s Palace. It was built in 1600-1602, was designed by Antoni Contino, whose uncle Antonio da Ponte designed the equally famed Rialto Bridge.

Legend says convicted prisoners snatched their last sight of Venice from the Bridge of Sighs, sighing at the scene through the windows before being taken to cells, or sighing stifled claims to innocence. It was never known as the Bridge of Sighs to Venetians – or to anyone else – until the poet Lord Byron named it so in 1812 in his epic poem Childe Harold.

Since Byron’s poem was published, the Bridge of Sighs in Venice has inspired or given its name to similar bridges in Cambridge, Dublin, Birmingham, Oxford and Barcelona.

The oldest of these five is the Bridge of Sighs in Cambridge. This covered bridge in Saint John’s College was built in 1831. It was designed by Henry Hutchinson and crosses the River Cam, linking the college’s Third Court and New Court.

Although it is named after the Bridge of Sighs in Venice and both are covered, the two have little in common architecturally. Queen Victoria is said to have loved the bridge more than any other place in Cambridge, and the bridge is now a major tourist attraction.

The charming covered bridge linking Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin, and the former Synod Hall was built in 1875 during the George Edmund Street’s restoration of the cathedral. At an early stage in his career, Street was influenced by Ruskin and The Stones of Venice.

This bridge has been compared with the Bridge of Sighs in Venice and the bridges in Cambridge and Oxford. Roger Stalley says it is Street’s ‘final touch of genius’ in the restoration of the cathedral.

These bridges in Venice, Cambridge, Dublin and Birmingham long pre-date Hertford Bridge in Oxford, which is also known popularly as the Bridge of Sighs. This bridge, linking two parts of Hertford College over New College Lane, is a distinctive landmark in Oxford. It is often called the ‘Bridge of Sighs,’ although Hertford Bridge was never intended to be a replica of the bridge in Venice and has a closer resemblance to the Rialto Bridge.

The Hertford Bridge was built after the site on the north side was acquired by Hertford College in 1898 and was designed by Sir Thomas Jackson. The proposals for the bridge were strongly opposed, particularly by neighbouring New College, but despite those objections it was completed in 1913-1914.

It features in Evelyn Waugh’s Brideshead Revisited and today it is one of the most photographed and visited sights in Oxford, partly because it is so close to the Bodleian Library, the Sheldonian Theatre and the Radcliffe Camera.

The neo-gothic Pont dels Sospirs in Barcelona is modelled on the Bridge of Sighs in Venice. It connects the eastern wall of the Palau de la Generalitat, the seat of provincial government, and the western wall of Casa del Canonges, or the House of Canons of Barcelona Cathedral.

In the past, there were many similar bridges along Carrer del Bisbe but they have been destroyed. These bridges were built so that Barcelona’s civic and ecclesiastic elite could travel between official buildings without interacting with the citizens and so they could avoid any physical contact with the people below.

After other similar bridges had been destroyed in Barcelona, Pont dels Sospirs was rebuilt in the 20th century. The Barri Gòtic or Gothic Quarter was transformed from a sombre neighbourhood to a tourist attraction through during a major massive restoration project in advance of the 1929 International Exhibition, and the Pont dels Sospirs was built by Joan Rubió in 1928.

Below the bridge today, buskers and street musicians who add to the mystery and charm of this corner. The bridge is now a ‘must-see’ place in Barcelona, and many tourists go home believing it is part of the city’s architectural heritage from the Middle Ages.

So the ‘Bridge of Sighs’ in Birmingham may be younger than its counterparts in Cambridge and Dublin, but it predates the equivalent bridges in both Oxford and Barcelona.

Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery and the clock tower ‘Big Brum’ (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

The Council House on Victoria Square is one of the fine splendid works of architecture in Birmingham. The side facing Chamberlain Square is the entrance and façade of the Museum and Art Gallery. The site of the Council House and the Museum and Art Gallery was bought in 1853, and included a building where the last tenants were the Suffield family, ancestors of JRR Tolkien.

The building was designed by the Birmingham architect Yeoville Thomason, who also designed the extension for the art gallery and museum.

The main façade faces Victoria Square and the tympanum contains a mosaic by Antonio Salviati of Venice, who revived the mosaic and glass industry in Murano, and in postings last month I have described some of his other works in Tamworth and Birmingham.

However, the Victoria Square façade of the Council Houseis covered in cladding and fenced off at the moment, and I was unable to get close enough last week to photograph the tympanum and mosaic or the pediment the depicts Britannia receiving the manufacturers of Birmingham.

Instead, I had to content myself with exploring the urban myth that Birmingham has more canals than Venice. In fact, Birmingham does not have more canals than Venice, but it certainly has more miles of canals, and has 56 km (35 miles) of waterways, compared to 42 km (26 miles) in Venice – and it also has more trees than Paris.

Does Birmingham have more canals than Venice? (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)