and enlarged in 1885. It was registered as a place of worship in 1864 as place for Baptists and Independents. The church became a Gospel Standard cause in 1981 and the last minister was sent to preach in the church in 1982. The chapel was closed for worship in 2002, after all the former members died, and it was eventually sold in 2006. The trust deeds were lodged with HM Land Registry and the property was later sold as a domestic dwelling. The Methodist chapel is now also closed and was on the corner of the road to Broughton. It has an existing graveyeard behind it. Other activities The major industry of the village in times past was brickmaking. Sitting on large sub-strata of Bierton Complex blue clay, the resource was mined for several centuries, and the bricks were fired close to the quarry. Brick Kiln lane exists to this day, although the workings themselves are no longer active. The clay pits are now quiet pools, known as The Ponds. They have been turned into a private carp and tench fishery, whose fishing plots are highly sought after. A well close to the church of St James the Great is dedicated to St Osyth, a local Anglo-Saxon princess born at Quarrendon Palace. She was reputedly beheaded in the woodland at St Osyth Priory by the Danes after having earlier drowned in a stream and been revived by nuns; it was said that a spring sprung up in nuns' wood within the grounds of St Osyth Priory that is still in existence today. It is not known why the well at Bierton is dedicated to the saint, only that ancient Bierton was on the route along which her body was taken from the priory to her final resting place; it is said that they made a stop-off at Bierton and laid her body down at the well's current location, which is why the well is dedicated to her. Present day Today, with Aylesbury growing, the village is at risk of becoming a suburb of the larger town. All that separates the two at present is a field of allotments about a hundred yards wide, owned by the Parish Council. Bierton Church of England Combined School is a mixed voluntary controlled, Church of England primary school, which takes children between the ages of four and 11. The school has about 300 pupils.