Clifton Reynes

Template:Short description Template:Use dmy dates Template:Use British English Template:More citations needed Template:Infobox UK place Clifton Reynes is a village and civil parish in the unitary authority area of the City of Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, England.<ref name=ONS>Clifton Reynes Office for National Statistics</ref> It is about a mile east of Olney. It shares a joint parish council with Newton Blossomville. It is situated roughly Template:Convert north of Central Milton Keynes and Template:Convert west of Bedford.

Extent

It is bounded, on the North, by the River Great Ouse, by which this parish is separated from Lavendon and Cold Brayfield; on the East, by Newton-Blossomville; on the South, by Petsoe and Emberton; and on the West, by the latter and by Olney.<ref name=ONS />

Origin of name

The village name comes in two parts: the former name 'Clifton' is Anglo Saxon in origin and means 'Cliff farm', referring to the village's position on a cliff on a bank of the River Ouse. The latter name 'Reynes' refers to the ancient lords of the manor of the village, whose family name this was.<ref name=VCH>Template:Cite book</ref> In the Domesday Book on 1086 Clifton Reynes was recorded as Cliftone.

Church of St Mary the Virgin

The parish church dedicated to St Mary is (unusually for a Buckinghamshire church) completely castellated: even the gables are embattled. The tower is thought to be Norman;<ref name=VCH /> however, the top is later probably 14th century.<ref name=VCH /> The majority of the building is of the 13th, 14th and 15th centuries and the nave is unusually tall. Features of interest include the 14th-century font and the medieval monuments of the Reynes family. These include two pairs of wooden effigies; one pair is of Ralph and Amabel de Reynes (ca. 1320–30) and the other is unidentified and slightly earlier.<ref>Betjeman, J. (ed.) (1968) Collins Pocket Guide to English Parish Churches: the South. London: Collins; p. 126</ref>

The building is Grade I listed.<ref>Template:NHLE</ref> Template:Clr