Stoke Poges

Stoke Poges is a village in Buckinghamshire, England. It is located in the south of the county, about three miles north of Slough, a mile east of Farnham Common.

The village name 'Stoke' is one of the most common in the United Kingdom and means 'hamlet'. In the Domesday Book of 1086 the village was recorded as Stoche. The affix 'Poges' came later, and refers to the family that owned the manor in the village in the Thirteenth century.

The manor in Stoke Poges was once a very grand place, and Queen Elizabeth I was entertained here in 1601. Later, in the middle of the Seventeenth century the lady of the manor, Lady Purbeck caused great national scandal when she had a love affair outside her own marriage. In 1635 she was imprisoned for adultery but escapoed from prison to France, later returning to Stoke Poges where she died in 1645. In 1647 the manor was the place where King Charles I was imprisoned before his execution.

Later the manor came into the possession of William Penn, who founded Pennsylvania, and remained in his family for at least two generations.

Thomas Gray's Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard was written in the churchyard of the St Giles Church in Stoke Poges. Gray is buried here.