Fleet Marston

The course of the former Akeman Street Roman road passes northwest – southeast through the parish. A "heavy scatter of Roman pottery" has been found in the parish on the course of the former road, indicating the site of a former Romano-British settlement.[5]

Excavations carried out between 2007 and 2016 uncovered evidence for a late prehistoric territorial boundary, a middle Iron Age settlement and the agricultural hinterland of the putative nucleated Roman settlement of Fleet Marston.[6] The latter included a "remarkable collection" of organic finds, included four hen's eggs (one of which survived excavation intact), leather shoes, wooden tools and a basketry tray made of woven oak bands and willow rods, in addition to evidence of malting and brewing, other roadside trades and crafts, burials and a possible pyre site.[7][8]

The toponym "Marston" is derived from the Old English for "marsh farm". The prefix "Fleet" refers to the stream along eastern side of the parish,[9] and was added to distinguish the village from nearby North Marston. The Domesday Book of 1086 records the village as Mersetone.[1] In the 13th century the village name was recorded as Flettemerstone.[1]

Churches Conservation Trust plaque on St Mary's church porch

The oldest parts of St Mary's parish church are 12th-century.[10] There are records of parish rectors from 1223 onwards.[1] The baptismal font may be 13th-century and the present chancel arch and north porch were added in the 14th century.[1] One of the windows is 15th-century.[10]

Parish registers from 1630 onwards survive.[1] John Wesley is known to have preached his first sermon at Fleet Marston shortly after his ordination as deacon in 1725.[11][12] The building was restored in 1868–69 under the direction of George Gilbert Scott. It is now a Grade II* listed building.[10] It is also a redundant church in the care of the Churches Conservation Trust.[11]

Some buildings in the village, including Fleet Marston Farm, are 17th-century.[1] The manor house referred to below stood near the church, and was demolished in 1772.[1] In 1806 Daniel and Samuel Lysons described Fleet Marston in their Magna Britannia:

FLEET-MARSTON, in the hundred of Ashendon and deanery of Waddesdon, lies about three miles from Aylesbury, on the road to Bicester. The manor, which was for many years in the Lees, has been lately purchased of their representative, Lord Dillon, by James Dupré esq. of Wilton Park. The advowson of the rectory being then the property of John Tirrel-Morin esq. was advertised for sale in the month of May 1805.[9]

By 1851 the parish was in decline. The religious census of 1851 recorded its population as 30, with just eight attending church on Sunday 30 March.[13] By 1871 the population had fallen to 23, living in five houses.[14]

Little remains of the village today. In the south of the parish is the farm at Putlowes and Putlowes Cottages just to the southwest of the A41 road. In the centre of the parish, just northeast of the A41 are some smaller farms and St Mary's church. In the north of the parish are Fleet Marston Farm, Fleet Marston Cottages and Lower Fleetmarston Farm. The latter can be reached only via Berryfields Road in adjoining Quarrendon parish (another deserted village).

• Legg, Edward, ed. (1991). Buckinghamshire Religious Census 1851. Aylesbury: Buckinghamshire Record Society. p. 79.
• Page, WH, ed. (1927). "Fleet Marston". A History of the County of Buckingham. Victoria County History. Vol. 4. London: The St Katherine Press. pp. 74–76.
• Pevsner, Nikolaus (1973) [1966]. Buckinghamshire. The Buildings of England. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books. p. 136. ISBN 0-14-071019-1.
• RCHME, ed. (1912). "Fleet Marston". An Inventory of the Historical Monuments in the County of Buckinghamshire. Vol. 1–South. London: Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England. pp. 158–159.

Media related to Fleet Marston at Wikimedia Commons