'North Crawley' is a
village and
civil parish in the
Borough of Milton Keynes and
ceremonial Buckinghamshire,
England. It is located on the border with
Bedfordshire, about three and a half miles east of
Newport Pagnell.
The village name 'Crawley' is an
Old English language word, and means 'clearing frequented by crows'. In the
Domesday Book of
1086 the village was referred to as ''Crauelai''. In
manorial records in
1197 the area was split into 'Great Crawley' and 'Little Crawley'. The prefix 'North' was substituted later to distinguish the village of Great Crawley from the
town of
Crawley in
West Sussex; the
hamlet of Little Crawley still exists under that name.
Anciently North Crawley was the location of a
monastery dedicated to
Saint Firmin. The monastery was recorded in the Domesday Book, though had fallen into such decay by the
Dissolution of the Monasteries that little notice was taken of it, and it fell into ruin shortly afterwards.
The village has many different societies. They range form the
Women's Institute to the Historical Society. There is also North Crawley Cricket Club and North Crawley Bowls Club.
There are two public houses in North Crawley. One named The Cock, the other named The Chequers. There also used to be a third pub named The Castle in North Crawley. All of these are mentioned in the song written about North Crawley named Hasten The Day by Jim Lancaster whilst he was in Burma.