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Willen Village Heritage Association
This is an informal group of sociable volunteers creating community fellowship by delivering free events, including for the annual National Heritage Open Days Festival. It also collects donations for delivery of a toilet for St Mary Magdalene Church.
The church is use.
Where does Willen’s name come from?
It may have come from the Anglo-Saxon suffix Wella (meaning a spring), or the old English word ‘wylig’ meaning ‘at the willows’ (the village being close to the River Ouzel). Shortly after William the Conqueror’s Domesday Survey it’s referred to as the manor of Welyn-cum-Caldecot.
What does Willen look like?
It is a diminutive village on a small, slight hilltop. Its centre is a conservation area
When Milton Keynes Development Corporation was mandated to build a new city in 1967 its plan for Willen Village placed the historic St Mary Magdalene Church at the heart of radiating village routes. Their Village Plan and Conservation proposal for the village of Willen 1971-72 shows how they created the new city around the village, preserving its identity, maintaining its character, scale, and mature trees, and modifying roads to exclude extraneous traffic.
Their plan for Willen Village can be seen at Milton Keynes City Discovery Centre, at CDC 7/1/4 archive catalogue reference number DOP/03/009.
Does Willen have notable buildings?
It has no shop, pub or community centre, but it has:
- 17th century Grade I listed St Mary Magdalene Church built by Robert Hooke.
- Manor Farm: Grade II listed, dating back to 1632, now home to Willen Hospice.
- Brook Farm: Grade II listed dating from the 18th and 19th centuries.
- Victorian village school: Grade II listed built in 1847 by the Busby Trust.
- Brick cottages: Dating from the early 19th century, with some specifically marked as built in 1814 and 1817, they were built to house local agricultural labourers.
- A small cluster of cottages now tucked in beside Willen Lake, believed to date from the 19th century.
A previous moated manor dating probably from the medieval period stood near the River Ouzel, just south of St Mary Magdalene Church but was lost during the construction of Willen Lake in the 1970s along with the site of an old watermill.
Did Robert Hooke visit Willen?
From his diary, it seems that Robert Hooke was visiting Willen (variously spelled) between 1678 and 1680 whilst building the church. His diary shows he “Dind with Busby … sbewd draught ,,,, agreed with Bates For Dr. Busby for 35 sh per Square for framing, raising rales, scaffold for roof. 15 sIl pr Square for bricketting, finding all but boords.-With mason for 10d superficial all without walls.”
The digitised Diary of Robert Hooke, 1672–1680 transcribed from the original manuscript by Henry W. Robinson and Walter Adams is available from City of London Corporation Guildhall Library Internet Archive. Another is also available by subscription from here University of Michigan Library.
Robert Hooke outside the church (Illustration).
How does history remember Robert Hooke?
No confirmed contemporary image of Robert Hooke survives. One theory suggests this may be due to a feud between Hooke and Isaac Newton, which allegedly led Newton to remove Hooke’s portrait from the Royal Society archives. In 2003, to mark the tercentenary of Hooke’s death, the Royal Society Library ran a “Portraying Robert Hooke” competition to reconstruct his likeness using historical descriptions. One of the resulting portraits can be seen at the rear of St Mary Magdalene Church, Willen.
His legacy: Microscopy, elasticity, and planetary motion are amongst Robert Hooke’s legacies, but his greatest impact was probably his naming of the “cell” in 1665, based on cork tissue he observed through a microscope and recorded in Micrographia. Although Hooke only saw dead plant cells, his work later led other to the formulation of cell theory, and the identification of life.
His personality: his solitary and contentious nature led to frequent clashes, and after his death in 1703 (the year Isaac Newton became President of the Royal Society) his legacy faded until revived by 20th-century historians.
On the suicide of his brother in 1678 his 17-year-old niece Grace came to live with him, leading to speculation about an inappropriate relationship. Historians remain divided, citing a lack of clear evidence or corroboration, leaving the matter unresolved and open to interpretation.
Willen appears to have always been a small, persistent settlement since Norman times. Excavations conducted in the 20th century provided slight evidence of both Roman and Saxon occupation.
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Roman to Medieval Era
From Roman tracks to royal patronage, Willen’s early history charts a path through ecclesiastical foundations, medieval upheaval, and eventual by the mid-16th century Crown control.
Tudor to Stuart Period
Evolving from a modest Tudor hamlet, Willen was reshaped by Civil War politics and Enlightenment-era influence—passing from neutral landowners to Cromwellian custodians and ultimately to Dr. Richard Busby, who commissioned Robert Hooke’s church.
Georgian to Victorian Era
The 19th century brought the loss of medieval remnants but the rise of Busby Trust philanthropy, marked by the school, cottages and steady parish life under the civic leadership of Henry Whiting.
Mid-20th Century
Farmer Henry Rees’s acquisition of the village initiated a period of renewal, with significant church restorations, the development of nearby infrastructure including the M1 motorway, and the church’s designation as a Grade I listed building.
The Milton Keynes Era
As part of the growing city of Milton Keynes, Willen experienced renewed parish stewardship including under the Society of the Sacred Mission. Community efforts to safeguard its historic identity culminated in Conservation Area status, the launch of the Hooke Heritage Project, and the first public celebration of Robert Hooke’s birthday in 2024.
© Matthew Thompson
Willen Village stands on the southern edge of an outlier of Oxford clay overlooking the Ouzel Valley.
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The Lime Avenue
The Lime Avenue in Willen Village reinforces the historic rural character that permeates the village, forming a graceful, ceremonial approach to the only entrance to St Mary Magdalene Church. It is believed to have first been planted as part of the 17th-century landscaping of the area around the church.
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Wildflowers
Over the decades, the natural changes along the lime avenue have been documented by local resident Frances Higgs, who has lived in Willen Village for over 58 years. Her handwritten recollections of wildflowers that once grew beneath its canopy but are now lost, offer a poignant glimpse into local ecological shifts.
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Lepidoptera
The Willen One Village Collection of Lepidoptera is a rare and meticulously curated archive of 1,889 moths and butterflies collected by Willen Village naturalist George Higgs between 1967 and 2012. Now housed at the Discover Bucks Museum in Aylesbury, the collection is a unique snapshot of the lepidoptera of just one village, one of the few known examples in the UK.
George’s legacy is celebrated at the Gordon Redford and George Higgs Memorial Moth Night run by the Buckinghamshire Invertebrate Group.
His paintings of his collection are published in Painted Wings which can be bought form Pemberley Books, a specialist natural history bookseller.