Old Wolverton The town name is an
Old English language word, and means 'Wulfhere's settlement'. It was recorded in the
Domesday Book of 1086 as
Wluerintone. The original Wolverton was a
medieval settlement just north and west of today's town. This site is now known as
Old Wolverton, although the medieval village is all but gone. The
ridge and furrow pattern of agriculture can still be seen in the nearby fields. The site of the village, castle and church is a
scheduled monument. view of the site of a motte and bailey castle, deserted village and monastic grange at Old Wolverton The site of an Anglo-Saxon building has been dated to the 400s at Wolverton Mill, with further buildings coming into use in the 600s and early 700s. An Anglo-Saxon cemetery dated to the 600s was discovered in Wolverton and is the largest discovered in Buckinghamshire containing 83 people. The 12th century
Church of the Holy Trinity (rebuilt in 1819) still sits next to the
Norman Motte and Bailey site. Only the earth mound remains of the Norman castle, though the Saxon tower still stands as central to the rebuilt church, clad in the early 19th century 'Anglo-Norman' style. Next door to the church is a house built in 1729 which later became the vicarage; the front door has stonework from the nearby, demolished manor house of the 16th century including the
de Longueville family coat of arms, and pieces from the earlier church building. A
talbot (dog), another symbol of the family, once graced the side entrance which now marks the boundary between the ground floor of the house and its downstairs toilet. The manor of Wolverton was held by the de Wolverton family until the mid-fourteenth century. The elder daughter Margaret or Margery, married
John le Hunt,
Lord Chief Justice of Ireland, and had, in turn, one daughter, Joan le Hunt, who married John Longueville of
Billing, Northamptonshire. They had at least one son, John, through whom Wolverton passed by inheritance to the Longueville/Longville family. In 1846 the became part of the
London and North Western Railway, who subsequently decided that locomotives would be built and repaired at
Crewe. The last locomotives at Wolverton were built in 1863 and repaired until 1877, after which it concentrated on carriages including railway-owned road vehicles. The Works has been the home of the
Royal Train fleet. During the
Second World War, the Works built parts for Lee–Enfield rifles, bomber plane timber frames,
Hawker Typhoon wings,
Horsa Gliders, and ambulances. Like many older industrial sites, camouflage paint from the period can still be seen on the factory buildings. A
pillbox remains opposite the Works Wall. The railway company built some 200 houses for its workers by 1844 along with schools, a church and a market. L&NW also invited
George McCorquodale to establish what became a substantial printing works in the town.
Church of St George the Martyr A new
Anglican parish church was built in 1843 to serve the new town centre: like the Church of the Holy Trinity in Old Wolverton, it is a
listed building rated a II*. The development went ahead and a replica stand now sits on the original site to mark the significance of the original construction, painted green as it used to be.
The Wolverton Agora The Agora Centre was built by the Milton Keynes Development Corporation in 1978 to replace the old market hall on Creed Street. The Agora Centre was known for its shops as well as regular roller-disco events throughout the 1980s. The building was either loved or hated by residents who either viewed the building as a community asset or as a blight on the town that split the town in two (due to the size of the site). The building was often called a "spaceship" and, when redevelopment plans were released, a "farewell" ceremony was held for the building at the 2019 Wolverton Lantern Festival where the "Agoran" aliens (represented by remote-controlled robots) returned to the Agora and shut the shutters for the final time. The Agora Centre was demolished in 2022 and is due to be replaced with a development that reinstates the original Victorian road structure and plans to include 86 new properties and 8 shops. Another Agora Centre is currently open for business in
Bletchley's high street, Queensway.
Listed buildings and structures , Wolverton and Greenleys civil parish has two scheduled monuments and two Grade II*
listed buildings. There are a further 38 Grade II listed buildings or objects in the parish. ==Green spaces==