This year marks the 120th anniversary of the most devastating day in the village’s history, the Great Fire of Castlethorpe, and the Parish Council has published a special commemorative flipbook with newspaper reports of the time about the devastation it caused, which you can read at https://castlethorpe-pc.gov.uk/greatfire/

On 4 August 1905 a spark from a passing train set light to cottages and barns in the centre of the village. The fire started at about 2:20pm; a village resident spotted flames in a barn opposite Back Street (now South Street). The stone cottages in the centre of the village had thatched roofs and with the prevailing high wind the fire soon took hold.

Although the fire started in Back Street it soon spread through the passage towards Front Street (North Street) destroying a total of 13 houses, Lacks Yard and Varneys Yard and making 36 people homeless who because of the speed and intensity of the fire saved very few of their possessions.

Because of the time of day there were few village men available to fight the fire as most were at work, either in the fields or at Wolverton Works. Stony Stratford fire brigade were the first to arrive on the scene. They could do little to save the 13 cottages that were well ablaze, but with the help of a 1,000ft hose and a local pond further disaster was averted. The estimated cost of the damage caused was £3,000, but the cost of rebuilding and repairing the damaged cottages today would be many millions of pounds.

Only two of the village's thatched houses which were untouched by the fire remain with thatched roofs today, The Inglenooks in South Street and Elm Tree Cottage in North Street.