The name Fenny Stratford literally means a fenny street ford, a marshy ford on a Roman Road, in this case Watling Street. This was a major route north from London but it was generally in poor condition as most parishes could not afford the maintenance costs.

When the first stagecoaches appeared in 1658 traffic began to flow through Fenny Stratford but its prosperity did not really grow until two acts of Parliament were passed in 1706 ad 1740. These enabled parishes to charge tolls for use of the road which went towards its repair. The improvement to the road increased traffic and Fenny Stratford began to prosper. By the heyday of coach travel in the early 1800s there were forty alehouses and coaching inns in the village.

Denbigh

At 3-45am on New Year’s Day a taxi driver arrived outside the Sanctuary Night club (now gone and replaced by an Ikea store) in the district of Denbigh in Milton Keynes, to pick up a pre-booked fare. A young woman with pink hair got into the back of the taxi and started talking to the taxi driver as they set off towards Bedford. As the approached Bedford the driver looked in his mirror and found that he could not see the woman. Thinking she had fallen asleep and slipped off the seat he stopped the car but when he looked he found there was no one there. Luckily she had paid for the fare in advance.

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The Old Bull

A number of years ago the landlord of the Old Bull in Fenny Stratford would open up the locked cellar to find that the heavy barrels had been moved around. This always happened during the night. Once they tried to catch the culprit by scattering cleaning powder on the floor, in the morning the barrels had been moved but there were no footprints.

We can not find The Old Bull in Fenny Stratford so the map link points to the nearest likely site, The Bull and Butcher.

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River Ouzel

An old local legend tells of a phantom horse seen in the valley near the river Ouzel. Some people believe that it may be associated with Dick Turpin as he frequented the area.

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