Thank you for joining us for Local and Community History Month!

We encourage you to share the delightful details of your local tales and folklore, so that we can preserve them and pass them on to others.

To get the ball rolling, we will be sharing some of our own local history with you, centering on the village of Bierton.

Bierton is a Parish as old as the Domesday Book, with its earliest official description dating back to 1086 as Bortone. It became an important stopping point along several trade routes, which led to a number of public houses being established, one of which was the historically significant Red Lion Pub.

The Red Lion was relevant during the time of the English Civil War, due to Bierton’s strong Royalist ties. It is even rumoured to have housed King Charles!

For quite some time, Bierton had a bizarre combination of seven pubs and three churches, shared between a small population. It seems we have always been a little pious, and very open to frivolity.

Serious Readers is based in the Old Wesleyan Chapel, which was established in 1833, originally as a Methodist church, then repurposed for the Pentecostal faith during the 1870s. It was restored in the 20th Century, and now houses our office, from which we now enjoy the beautiful village.

Please share your stories below, and let us know what little-known historical details make your community special.

Here is our founder Alex Pratt, standing in the Wesleyan Chapel before its office conversion.