Gayhurst

Gayhurst is a village and civil parish in the unitary authority area of the City of Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, England.<ref name=BMK-parishes>Template:Cite web</ref> It is about Template:Convert NNW of Newport Pagnell, and Template:Convert north of Central Milton Keynes.

The village name is an Old English language word meaning 'wooded hill where goats are kept'.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In the Domesday Book in 1086 it was recorded as Gateherst; later names include Goathurst.<ref name=VCH /> At that time the manor was owned by Bishop Odo of Bayeux.<ref name=VCH>Template:Cite book</ref>

History

In 1582, Queen Elizabeth I made a grant of Gayhurst Manor "in the event of its reversion to the Crown" to Sir Francis Drake,<ref name=VCH /> but there is no record that he ever received it. The house once belonged to Sir Everard Digby (1578–1606),<ref>Template:Cite EB1911</ref> one of the conspirators in the Gunpowder Plot of 1605.<ref name=VCH /> His son, Sir Kenelm Digby (1603–1665), was an English courtier, diplomat, natural philosopher and astrologer.<ref>Template:Cite EB1911</ref> He was born at Gayhurst.

Gayhurst had an outstation from the Bletchley Park codebreaking establishment, where one of the Bombes used to decode German Enigma messages in World War Two were housed.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Listed buildings and structures

The parish has two buildings listed at Grade I,<ref>Template:NHLE;
Template:NHLE</ref> five at Grade II* and 20 at grade II.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The (Grade I listed) Church of St Peter was built in the classical style in 1728 to replace a medieval church; the designer is unknown.<ref>Betjeman, J. (ed.) (1968) Collins Pocket Guide to English Parish Churches: the South. London: Collins; p. 127</ref>

References

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