One of three Brickhill villages, Great Brickhill occupies a prominent hilltop site in the Brickhills Area of Attractive Landscape. Its high position affords magnificent panoramic views out across surrounding countryside towards the Chilterns and across the Ouzel valley towards the Vale of Aylesbury.
The earliest archaeological artefacts discovered in Great Brickhill parish date from the Bronze age (2500 BC – 800 BC), but the earliest settlement in the area discovered thus far is the Iron Age (800 BC - 43AD) hill fortress of Danesborough which is located at Bow Brickhill. Later when the Romans built Watling Street (now the busy A5) around 65AD, the settlement / camp of Magiovinium was located close to where it crossed the river Ouzel where there was a ford and evidence suggests also a bathing station. Little evidence of any Roman habitation in the Great Brickhill parish was found until 1978 when the remains of a Roman cremation was found in Holts Green.
When the Saxons arrived in Britain it is likely that the first settlement at the village site occurred as the name Great Brickhill has Saxon origins, with Hulle of Hyle being Anglo-Saxon for Hill and this can be combined with the Celtic word Brig, meaning top or summit. However, the first direct evidence of the village comes from the Domesday book, commissioned by King William in 1085 as the first census of the country to assess the wealth of the land he had conquered, and thus tax income he could expect. The Domesday book was written in Latin and each entry was very abbreviated but the entry covering Brichella as it was then known reads thus.
“William holds [Great or Little] BRICKHILL. It is assessed at 9 hides. There is land for 9 ploughs. In demesne [are] 4 ploughs; and 16 villans with 6 bordars have 6 s [sic] ploughs. There are 6 slaves, and 2 mills rendering 30s, meadow for 10 ploughs, [and] woodland for 100 pigs. All together it is worth 9l; when received 7l; TRE 10l. This manor Earl Tosti held”
In medieval times, due to being on Watling Street (already mentioned A5), Little Brickhill was actually the largest of the three Brickhill villages and had such local prominence that Assizes (civil and criminal law courts) were regularly held there, with executions held amongst other places, at the junction of Watling Street and Galley Lane, most probably known as Gallows Lane at that time.
In 1793 an act of parliament authorised the formation of the Grand Junction Canal Company and for it to raise £600,000 for the construction of a new canal linking London via a direct route to Birmingham, the canal which skirts along the modern western parish boundary was broadly completed by 1799 and cut the canal distance from London to Birmingham by some 100km. The modern Grand Union Canal name came in to being in 1929 with the merger of 3 canal systems, forced by increasing competition from railways and the emergence of road transport.
Great Brickhill continued to grow throughout the 1800's, the 1811 census shows a population of 554 and a population of 590 in 1861, but thereafter followed a period of decline with the 1911 census showing a population of 430 and then down to 375 by 1931. Presumably the decline was due to the rising prominence of the railway towns of Leighton Buzzard and Bletchley which would draw away un-skilled agricultural labourers towards better paid jobs on the railways.
In the Second World War a stray bomb fell in the village, damaging the chapel in Pound Hill, presumably the target was the railway yards in Bletchley. Also in WWII the village billeted workers engaged in code breaking activities at nearby Bletchley Park.
The village today has around 20 Grade 2 listed buildings, some of which can be viewed on the villages information board opposite the pub. This picture shows both of these spots in days gone by.
Living in the local area we were surpised to not find any Geocaches in Great Brickhill so thought we'd place this one and share what a lovely village it is. Despite being placed during the latter stages of lockdown, we hope people enjoy discoving the local area again soon.
Due to the central location of the cache, please exercie caution when looking and replacing to ensure it remains muggle free! Should be an easy find for the novice and experienced alike.
To sign the log - tweezers may be needed and a pen certainly will!
Congratulations to Belplasca for the First to Find :)
