History - "Olnei" to Olney & the Great Fire |
From Roman times, through to Saxon times, mentions in the Domesday Book and The Battle of Olney in 1643... Olney really is an historic town. From Roman times, through to Saxon times, mentions in the Domesday Book and The Battle of Olney in 1643... Olney really is an historic town. Lace making, along with shoemaking had its part to play in Olney's history in the 18th and 19th Century. Then, Olney was a poor community hit by outbreaks of cholera and smallpox. Olney now is famous for the pancake race established many hundreds of years ago, and for its connections to the slave trader turned abolitionist John Newton and the poet William Cowper.
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