Despite Stony Stratford's significance re families migrating south, only 1 Mapley family is recorded, that of Richard and his son John Andrew Mapley in the 1841/1851 Censuses. Maple, however, is a common local name, which may be related or derived from Mapley.

Stony Stratford is a market town and key civil parish in the Borough of Milton Keynes in Buckinghamshire, England, fording the River Great Ouse. The first major river crossing since London, it lies on Watling Street, which was the important Roman route from London to Chester. The town name is Anglo-Saxon in origin, and means "stony ford on a Roman road". In 1194 at the time of King Richard I, a market charter was granted, together with the river crossing creating the need for services for travellers and pilgrims and the town grew. The River Ouse is the county line separating Buckinghamshire from Northamptonshire.

Stony Stratford was the location where, in 1290, an Eleanor cross was built in memory of the recently deceased Queen Eleanor of Castile, wife of Edward I, as her funeral cortège had stopped overnight in the town en route to London. The cross was destroyed during the English Civil War.

With travellers stopping ahed of the river corssing, Stony Stratford flourished, and many coach houses and inns were established. Two famous inns were "The Cock" and "The Bull", and with so much travellers' gossip being exchanged, the phrase "Cock & Bull story" arose.

1838 saw the coming of the railways, and the start of the decline in the trade of towns like Stony Stratford, which had thrived on the business of travellers by road. However, the new form of transport had a counterbalancing effect in the later part of the 19th century. The decision of the London & Birmingham Railway (later the London & North Western Railway) to site a works factory in nearby Wolverton meant that a high-profile engineering facility arrived in what had been a mainly very rural area. The rise of the railways - and the industry they brought with them - also coincided with poor harvests and a decline in agriculture in the middle decades of the century. The net result was a dramatic growth of towns like Wolverton, New Bradwell and Stony Stratford and a decline in many rural villages - several losing up to 30% of their population.

The Wolverton to Stony Stratford tramway was opened in 1887. The rolling stock included two engines, two tramcars built to hold 80 and one for 20 people, and two were built to hold 100. The fee from Wolverton to Stony Stratford was 2d. The Stratford terminus was for most of it's life outside the Cock Hotel.

Wolverton Road, Stony Stratford