Marston Moreteyne

Marston Moreteyne
Parish church of St Mary
Marston Moreteyne is located in Bedfordshire
Marston Moreteyne
Marston Moreteyne
Location within Bedfordshire
Population4,556 (2011) census including Lower Shelton and Upper Shelton [1]
OS grid referenceSP995424
Civil parish
  • Marston Moreteyne[2]
Unitary authority
Ceremonial county
Region
CountryEngland
Sovereign stateUnited Kingdom
Post townBedford
Postcode districtMK43
Dialling code01234
PoliceBedfordshire
FireBedfordshire and Luton
AmbulanceEast of England
UK Parliament
List of places
UK
England
Bedfordshire
52°03′46″N 0°32′52″W / 52.06273°N 0.54781°W / 52.06273; -0.54781

Marston Moreteyne (or Marston Moretaine[3]) is a large village and civil parish in Central Bedfordshire, England, located on the A421 between Bedford and Milton Keynes. The population was 4,560 at the 2001 census,[4] and 4,556 at the 2011 census.[1] The village is served by Millbrook railway station, approximately 1 mile (1.6 km) away on the Marston Vale Line.

The place-name 'Marston Moretaine' is first attested in an Anglo-Saxon charter of 969, where it appears as Mercstuninga. It appears as Merestone in the Domesday Book of 1086. The name derives from the Old English mersc-tūn meaning 'town or settlement by a marsh'. It was held by the family of Moretaine, from Mortain in Normandy in France.[5] Local roadsigns use either the "Moreteyne" and "Moretaine" spellings inconsistently. The official name of the civil parish was changed in 2018 from Marston Moretaine to Marston Moreteyne following a consultation by Central Bedfordshire Council.[6]

Sir Thomas Snagge lived in the village in the 16th century. He owned the manor of Marston Moreteyne.[7]

  1. ^ a b "Civil Parish population 2011". Neighbourhood Statistics. Office for National Statistics. Retrieved 10 November 2016.
  2. ^ "Marston Moreteyne Parish Council website". Marston Moreteyne Parish Council. Retrieved 5 July 2023.
  3. ^ "The Forest of Marston Vale Trust - Home". The Forest of Marston Vale Trust.
  4. ^ Office for National Statistics: Census 2001 : Parish Headcounts : Mid Bedfordshire Archived 26 May 2013 at the Wayback Machine Retrieved 16 October 2010
  5. ^ Eilert Ekwall, The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Place-names, p.316.
  6. ^ "Council minutes, 27 September 2018". Central Bedfordshire Council. 27 September 2018. Retrieved 7 November 2021.
  7. ^ A History of Moreteyne Manor - Moreteyne Manor website, Accessed 03-01-2009