The serenity of Olney’s environs and the beauty of its buildings are deceptive: for much of its history the town was witness to grinding poverty, fire, pestilence and war.
It has been the site of one of England’s great religious revivals and the invention of the ‘modern’ workhouse.
It is the home of the Pancake Race and ‘Amazing Grace’, of the slave trader turned evangelist, John Newton and the poet, William Cowper. It has seen the capture of a king and the battle of a bridge. And it is not without its mysteries.
Few small towns in England can claim as much. How did it come about?
It has been the site of one of England’s great religious revivals and the invention of the ‘modern’ workhouse.
It is the home of the Pancake Race and ‘Amazing Grace’, of the slave trader turned evangelist, John Newton and the poet, William Cowper. It has seen the capture of a king and the battle of a bridge. And it is not without its mysteries.
Few small towns in England can claim as much. How did it come about?
