Stony Stratford / Stoney Stratford / Stony

No individual entry for Stony Stratford found in the Domesday survey. Sheahan (1862) writes: "In 1736, an accidental fire destroyed 53 houses in Stony Stratford; and on the 6th of May, 1742, a similar catastrophe consumed 146 houses and the Church of St Mary Magdalen, said to have been built about the beginning of the reign of King Edward I" [i.e., 1272-1307]. The Church of St. Mary Magdalen "was burnt, all but the tower [...] and not rebuilt"; instead the former 15th-century chantry chapel of St. Giles was re-built in 1776; its font was a donation from C.G. Perceval, Rector of Calverton, in 1850. The Victoria County History (Buckingham, vol. 4, 1927) notes: "There was apparently a church at Stony Stratford before 1202 and 1203 [...] The church of ST. GILES, consisting of a chancel, nave, north and south aisles, vestries and west tower, was built originally in the late 15th century as a chantry chapel, but having become dilapidated [...] was, with the exception of the tower, entirely rebuilt in 1776 [...] The font is modern." [NB: the font of the original St. Mary Magdalen church was probably destroyed in the early fire [cf. supra]].