Bernwood Forest - Sites To Visit

Buckingham

Location - Buckingham is located to the north of Buckinghamshire, close to Milton Keynes and 20 miles form Oxford off the A421. Map (multimap)

Access / Contact Details - Ample parking in numerous carparks in town centre.

The Old Gaol, Market Hill, Buckingham, MK18 1JX Tel: 01280 823020

One of the first purpose-built county gaols in England, built in 1748, like a square shaped castle. Purchased and run by Buckingham Heritage Trust as a town museum. Link to The Old Gaol website

Chantry Chapel - Market Hill, Buckingham.

Oldest building in Buckingham dating to mid 12th century. In ownership of National Trust.Open daily, by appointment with the Buckingham Heritage Trust c/o Old Gaol Museum, Market Hill, Buckingham MK18 1JX Tel. 01280 823020. Also available for hire.

Making an educational visit to a National Trust property – link to NT website

History / Background Information

Possible Teaching Activities - Visit Buckingham to explore evidence for the medieval town either as a stand alone activity or combined with visits to other sites which would allow pupils to understand the diversity of landscape types in Bernwood Forest.

Resources

• Site Visits - General Information on planning & possible activities
• Using Your Locality - sources of information about your area in the medieval period
• Buckingham Medieval Town Trail - Word document

Further Information / Resources

General History of Buckingham

The town of Buckingham is said to have taken its name from the leader of the first German settlers - Bucca's people. Buckingham means "meadow of Bucca's people". The original Buckingham was a very small village; today most of the site is occupied by the Hunter Street Campus of the University of Buckingham. The village was concentrated at the top of a loop in the River Ouse, a good defensive position. Buckingham was part of the Kingdom of Mercia but the territories of the rival Kingdom of Wessex were not far away and when England was invaded by the Danes, Buckingham was on the front line of the struggle between the Saxons and Danes with the frontier running along the Watling Street, the modern A5.

Buckingham was in Danish hands for some years around 900. For a while, the Danes controlled the entire valley of the Ouse with armies based at Buckingham, Bedford and Huntingdon. The rulers of the Saxon Kingdom of Wessex were determined to regain the area and the re-conquest of Buckingham became one of their top priorities. In 914, King Edward the Elder arrived in Buckingham with a large army and built a fort. This is the site of Buckingham Church where the higher ground means that the tall spire can be seen for miles around. The very steep slope from the Church down to Well Street would have created great difficulty for any attacking force.

The presence of the fort meant that Buckingham grew in importance. It became one of the Royal Burgs of Wessex and became a county town. The market established by Danish settlers at Langport, was transferred to Buckingham and people were encouraged to move to the town with promises of low taxation. Buckingham was governed by a Reeve who was appointed by the King. The town also had a royal mint and silver pennies were produced for nearly one hundred years.

After the Norman Conquest the original village and the lands attached to it, including the hamlet of Gawcott, were given to the Church. The estates provided part of the endowment of the rich Prebendary of Sutton (Kings Sutton in Northamptonshire) cum Buckingham attached to the new Cathedral of Lincoln. The name Prebend End is still used to describe this part of Buckingham and the town was to remain in the Diocese of Lincoln until 1850. The original Buckingham Church was in Prebend End and the site is now occupied by a disused graveyard. There was also the large Prebend Manor House, sometimes used by the Prebend but more often let to tenants, which was was one of the finest in Buckingham but was destroyed in the Civil War in 1644. King Edward's fort was rebuilt as Buckingham Castle.

The Norman lords of Buckingham, the Giffords and their successors the de Braose family tried to turn Buckingham into a major commercial centre. Now the town grew beyond the loop of the river and a very large market square was laid out - still the main shopping area of the town. Different parts of the square were used for the sale of differing types of produce - cows at the east (known as North End Square), bulls in the middle (the Bull Ring) and butter and groceries in Market Hill. Horses were sold in West Street and sheep and wool in Well Street.

Buckingham did not have good natural transport and most of the successful medieval towns in England were either on the coast or on navigable rivers. Another problem was the Castle; the buildings were neglected and in 1305 were described as being worth nothing. One of the chief functions of county towns was to hold the Shire Assizes but with the Castle in ruins there was no suitable building available in Buckingham. The Assizes moved elsewhere and were often held in Newport Pagnell.

The Buckingham area suffered badly in the famine of 1316 and in 1349 the Black Death killed many, especially clergy and members of monastic orders. By 1500 there were probably fewer people living in the area than in Roman times. The fall in numbers had all sorts of social and economic implications; labour became scarce, feudalism disappeared, rents fell and some of the old land owning families either died out or were forced to sell up.

Despite the attempts of new landowners such as the Bartons and the Fowlers, tended to live locally who tried to encourage trade and development in the town the lack of decent transport continued to be a problem. The turning point for the town came when Henry VIII appointed an Aylesbury man, Sir John Baldwin as Chief Justice.(Buckingham favoured Catherine of Aragon, and the Mayor of Aylesbury was Anne Boleyn's father). A fire in Buckingham was the final excuse to move the Assizes to Aylesbury.

Chantry Chapel

The building began life as an early medieval hospital. The Hospital of St. John the Baptist was founded in the early Norman period by William Frechet as a hospital for the poor and infirm. In 1268, the Archdeacon of Buckingham, Matthew de Stratton, gave an endowment to provide for a chantry priest to say masses for his soul and so the hospital became became a chapel and chantry. The building continued as a chapel until the Dissolution of the Monasteries, having been partially rebuilt in 1471 and 1481 by Archdeacon Ruding. After the reformation the Chantry Chapel was converted to a school, with the Chantry priests believed to have been the first school masters of what became known later as The Royal Latin School.

Buckingham Old Gaol

One of the first purpose-built county gaols in England, Buckingham Old Gaol now contains a museum (and Tourist Information Centre) which tells the story of the Gaol and the story of Buckingham. The Gaol was built in 1748, like a square shaped castle. Buckingham was the original county town and first had a gaol in the castle and then, when that fell down, in a building near the market-place. Eventually the Gaol was built.

St. Rumbolds Well

A medieval well and the remains of an early 17th century conduit house situated to the south west of Buckingham, on the south side of the dismantled railway which borders the town. The well, which is now dry for much of the year, was positioned to exploit the spring line below the crest of a north facing slope overlooking the town. It takes its name from St Rumbold, grandson of Penda, the seventh century pagan Anglo-Saxon king of Mercia. A small circular structure is depicted over the well head on John Speed's Map of the County of Buckingham (dated 1610), although the foundation courses surrounding the spring are those of a square masonry building. This single storey building stood until the early years of the 20th century and, according to the Royal Commission Inventory of 1912, displayed a date stone within a small arch. The building is known to have been a conduit house, built in 1623 by the Lambert family, who ran lead piping from the well to Castle House, some 600 metres to the north east.