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Written in 1838 this description by the Assistant Tithe Commissioner forms an apt introduction to this chapter;

"Pitstone village is seated, at the foot of the high range of Chalk hills near Ivinghoe and is about 33 miles from London. Two works of vast magnitude and importance in their respective eras and in their actual or anticipated consequences to social life traverse the vale in which it is situated on the Icknield Way of the Romans along which their Legions travelled, impelled by the love of conquest and dominion but diffusing in their rear the arts of civilised life amongst the bold but uncultured natives of their newly acquired province - and the other the London and Birmingham Railway, where under the more genial influence of Peace, the mature lights of science beaming on the enterprising minds of modern Britons have enabled them to subdue and apply to the purposes of travelling a power unknown to the former Masters of the World."

The Icknield Way probably linked Wessex with East Anglia and is generally accepted as being roughly 4000 years old. In this vicinity it ran on or near the start of the Chiltern Hills. When the Romans came it was doubtless improved by them and would have provided a useful East-West link between Tring on the Akeman Street and Dunstable on the Watling Street. According to the Viatores, there appeared to be another road running through Pitstone in a roughly North-South line, with the crossing of the Icknield Way in the vicinity of Folly Farm. They put forward the theory that the road may predate the Watling Street and may have been the route of the Claudian invasion in A.D.43.

Doubtless there would have been other tracks and maybe paved roads in the area but time has obliterated all traces of these.

After the Romans left, their roads formed the nucleus of the transport system, local tracks being added by the new settlers as and when circumstances required. Some of the track ways were most likely used as drove roads over which livestock were driven long distances to the larger centres of population. This hotch potch remained virtually unchanged until the coming of the Industrial Revolution.

In England generally the Turnpikes were the first major improvement to long distance road travelling, but in this area no such innovation appears t have been introduced, though the local roads were gradually improved in the century by the Highway Surveyors appointed by the Justices of the Peace. By the end of the l8th century some roads were improved to cater for long distance fast coaches, an example of which was the changing of the accepted route for the Oxford-Cambridge coaches from Bicester - Buckingham - Newport Pagnall - Bedford to Aylesbury - Tring - Dunstable - Hitchin. Considerable effort was made in the first half of the 19th century to ensure that adequate roads were built to act as feeders to the newly introduced canal and railways.

The most dramatic impact on the local network of roads and tracks was undoubtedly the Enclosure Award-of September 1856. This resulted in the closing of no less than 15 public roads and 20 footpaths. To compensate for their loss 4 occupation roads and 3 public footways were provided.

Shortly before this a major new road was constructed and this runs from near 'The Bell' in Ivinghoe to the railway bridge adjoining the present day cement works. Surprisingly, it has proved impossible to date this work accurately but it appears to have taken place in the mid 1840's. Marsworth Road, as it is now called, underwent substantial re-construction in 1974/5.

At about the same time Cheddington Road and Stank Lane (now Vicarage Road) were straightened in the vicinity of Pitstone Green. This straightening had the effect of bypassing a large part of the old dwellings which straggled the brook between the Chequers and Pitstone Green Farm. By the time these alterations to the highway network had taken place the canals had been long established in the country. The canal age can be said to have started with the opening of the Duke of Bridgewater's canal in the north of England in 1761. In 1792 proposals were published for the building of the Grand Junction Canal to link London with the Coventry Canal at Braunstone in

Northamptonshire. The section between Tring Summit and Fenny Stratford was opened in 1800, the level 6.75 miles feeder arm which formed the canal to Wendover being completed three years earlier. The Aylesbury Branch although authorised in 1794 was not in fact opened until March 1814. At various times between 1794 and 1814 it was proposed to extend the Aylesbury Branch to join the Wilts and Berks Canal at Abingdon but these proposals came to nought. Another was to construct a canal to run from Seabrook to Thame but principally due to water supply problems, this was also dropped.

The coming of the canals had a pronounced effect on the local community, initially by the arrival of the canal builders, or navigators (later shortened to navvies) as they were called, and later by the trading encouraged by the canal. The ability to transport bulky and heavy merchandise over relatively great distances at vastly reduced costs meant that coal and manufactured goods could be imported from the industrial areas and farm produce could be exported to the major centres of population. It must not be thought however that the usage of the canals was restricted to long hauls - at least one Pitstone farm house was constructed of bricks made nearby at Slapton and transported by canal almost to the site. On the return journey from the cities the narrow boats brought manure and road sweepings which the farmers used on the land. Most local deliveries from the canal "were made at Cooks Wharf previously calle3d Cheddington Bridge Wharf) which lies between Pitstone and Cheddington.

One result of the import of coal, initially by canal, can be seen in the changeover from wood to coal burning in brick kilns which resulted in the disappearance of the glazed effect on the ends of house bricks.

The search for water to supply the canal led to the canal company compensating water mill owners when water was either diverted or flows reduced. In Ivinghoe a water mill near 'The Bell' was actually acquired by the Grand Junction Canal Company and with it Pitstone Windmill. Both were operated by Benjamin Anstee possibly under lease.

In 1832 the original Bill to authorise the construction of the London - Birmingham Railway, which was to pass through Pitstone, was thrown out in Committee upon the motion by Lord Brownlow. However, the Bill was represented and the Act received Royal Assent in May 1833. The Railway Company purchased land and appointed Mr.Robert Stephenson as Engineer in Chief for the whole of the line. The section between London and Boxmoor was opened on 20th July 1837 and in the following October it was extended to Tring.

In April 1838 passengers were conveyed all the way from London to Birmingham by the Company, although the 35 miles between Denbigh Hall (just north of Bletchley) and Rugby were operated by road coaches. This situation lasted until 17th September 1838 when the whole line was opened.

We learn from the Aylesbury News of 27th May 1837 that initially this area was to be served by a station located at Pitstone Green, but after a meeting of the inhabitants of Tring, the Proprietors of the Railway Company agreed to construct a Station House at Penley and to quote from the Newspaper, "This gave the inhabitants of Tring the great advantage of having one mile and a half of good road to travel to the rail station rather than 3 miles and a half of bad road which would have been the case" if the station had been built at Pitstone Green.

A local author writing in 1940 refers to this incident and suggests that the route of the railway as originally proposed between Hemel Hempstead and Leighton Buzzard was along the Dagnall valley. This would have left Pitstone without either station or railway. One can only speculate how Pitstone would have developed if the Company's original intention had been carried, out.

The construction of the railway did however have an effect on some local highways particularly bearing in mind that this happened before the local Enclosure Award. Perhaps the most notable today was the diversion of the Marsworth to Cheddington road, which now runs parallel to, and adjoining the western boundary of the track and originally run under the site of the present rails.

A sometimes-overlooked aspect of the coming of the railway was the fact that it provided, via the rating system, a substantial contribution to local parish finances. In the case of Pitstone the line was rated at £1,700 per mile.

© 2025 Pitstone & Ivinghoe Museum Society Pitstone Green Museum, Vicarage Road, Pitstone, Leighton Buzzard. LU7 9EY  Registered Charity No. 273931