Was our area ravaged in 1066?

I've recently been reading the Osprey Guide to the Campaigns of the Norman Conquest by Matthew Bennett. In a map entitled "William's march to London, October - December 1066" it shows the routes, both of William the Conqueror himself - as he skirted around London; crossing the Thames to Wallingford - and along the Chilterns to Berkhamsted. (see my earlier posts on Berkhamsted - here and here)




and the route taken by a "detachment for ravaging" - This group, according to that map left from Wallingford and headed for Buckingham and Stony Stratford, and then on to Bedford. it identifies the area south of the Great Ouse as "lands severely ravaged". The Milton Keynes area east of Watling street is included in this area.

There are no diaries or other accounts which discuss this, so where is the evidence? The theory is based on a study of the Domesday Book - which looks at the change in the value of land between the start of 1066 and in 1070 and 1086. Milton Keynes, the village was worth £8 in 1066, but dropped to £5 by 1070 - Great Linford fell in value from £4 in 1066 to £2 in 1070, then increased to £3 by 1086. Newport Pagnell fell from £24 to £20. It is suggested that these drops in value reflected a ravaging of the area. Whaddon and Newton Longville kept their value.

An interesting theory? But is it correct - did much of our area suffer a long term decline as a result of the aggressive tactics of Norman soldiers?

Secklow Mound

Just behind the Central Library in Milton Keynes, a low mound stands. It has recently been given a new interpretation board, explaining the history and significance of the site.

'Hundreds' were an important part of the hierarchy within England for over a thousand years. Beneath the 'Kingdom' were 'counties'. These were divided into 'hundreds', which themselves were made up of a number of parishes. In the Milton Keynes area the main 'hundred' was called Secklow. However, not all parishes covered by the modern city were in the Secklow Hundred. I live in Furzton, which was part of Shenley Brook End parish - which was in the Mursley Hundred (which extended to Winslow and Stewkley). Bunsty Hundred covered Haversham and Hanslope across to Olney and Lavenham. Moulsoe Hundred included the Brickhills, Wavendon, Milton Keynes Village, Broughton and up to Clifton Keynes.

A 'Hundred' was supposed to include 100 'hides'. One hide was regarded as the amount of land required to support one family group. In practice the size of hundreds varied significantly. Each Hundred had its own 'folk moot' - a meeting of the people within the Hundred to discuss local issues and to ensure that justice was meted out to law-breakers. Sadly, they weren't as democratic as they sound, often being limited to significant land-holders.

The Secklow mound was the meeting place for the 'folk-moot' of the Secklow (or 'Seckley') Hundred.  The full list of parishes within the Hundred are listed in http://opendomesday.org/hundred/seckley/ (which also gives the information recorded about them in the Doomsday Book). It covered the area from Water Eaton and Shenley Church End to Stony Stratford and westwards towards Newport Pagnell and Simpson.

The Saxons in Milton Keynes

Does history repeat itself?

In 409 AD the British "revolted from the Roman Empire, 'rejected Roman law, reverted to their native customs, and armed themselves to ensure their own safety'" - an early Brexit? The following year (410 AD) "Emperor Honorius sends his Rescript (diplomatic letters) to the Romano-British magistrates, where he explains that the cities in Britain must provide for their own defence against the Angles, Jutes, and Saxons. This effectively ends Roman rule in Great Britain."

410 CE/AD is often described as the last year of Roman Britain, the year we entered the "Anglo-Saxon period".   In fact things didn't change overnight. As with the start of the Roman era, settlement patterns and daily life evolved more slowly.

Croft and Mynard commented in their excellent book 'The Changing Landscape of Milton Keynes' - "It is clear that settlement of the area in the Roman period was extensive, so it is likely that any Saxon people entering the area would have found the remains of a well-managed agrarian landscape...It is likely that rough pasture, scrubland and even woodland had regenerated over some of the former arable lands of the villa estates. The place-name evidence in the Shenley (Bright clearing) and Bletchley (Blaecc's clearing) areas tends to confirm the wooded nature of these areas in the 7th and 8th centuries."

The map of the area did change. Magiovinium, Bancroft and other roman sites were abandoned, whilst other areas saw new development. Even places like Pennyland and the Hartigans gravel pit (near Milton Keynes village), which had seen earlier settlements abandoned in the early Roman period, saw new settlements develop. While Bancroft villa was left to decay, settlement on the hill at Blue Bridge revived.

The Saxons originated mainly in the area we know today as northern Germany and Denmark. At first they were sea-borne raiders - but in the turbulence of the collapse of the Roman Empire they began to settle. Saxon sites have been discovered in Old Wolverton, Westbury (actually in what we now call Shenley Brook End), Pennyland and Newport Pagnell. As noted above, some of our City's place names have Saxon origins. Michael Farley in his 'Illustrated History of Early Buckinghamshire' claims that "by AD 500 it is fairly likely that Buckinghamshire was to all intents and purposes a Saxon county...lacking documentation it is too early to know which principle tribal grouping (e.g. Anglian, West Saxon, etc) was dominant here." We know that they arrived holding pagan beliefs, but Christianity re-established itself during the early Saxon period. The most complete Saxon church in Buckinghamshire is to be found in Wing, between Milton Keynes and Aylesbury.

It is during the Saxon period that the "hundreds" were established. In a forthcoming post I will describe the Secklow Mound, which lies behind the Central Library in Milton Keynes.

Milton Keynes' Bronze Age

The Bronze Age roughly covers the period 2300 BCE until 600 BCE. In reality these dividing lines are not as clear cut as we sometimes imagine. It is the introduction of metalworking in bronze (and also copper and gold) which defines this period - until iron becomes the major type of metal being worked. Another characteristic of this period was a distinctive style of burial involving decorated pottery (giving rise to the name 'beaker culture).

The evidence of Bronze Age settlement  has largely come from excavation of ring ditches in the Ouse and Ouzel valleys.  These are associated with burial mounds (Round barrow). The most significant finds were at Warren Farm (Wolverton Mill) - which may be the oldest; the nearby Little Pond Ground, Oakgrove and Cotton Valley (between Willen Lake North and M1 Junction 14).

There's an excellent piece about the settlement at Blue Bridge/Bancroft accessible at http://www.mkheritage.co.uk/mkm/mkarchaeology/Web%20pages/Bronze%20Age.html. The pottery is of bronze age type, but the buildings are closer to Iron Age types.

A number of Bronze Age artefacts have also been found in Stony Stratford (a socketed axe): Shenley (an urn and an arrowhead) and other sites around the city.

Near Newport Pagnell (Gayhurst Quarry) an early Bronze Age cemetery has been excavated. It had seven round barrows. At the centre of the largest barrow was a massive grave pit which showed a sequence of five successive burials from around 2000 BCE, while the six surrounding ones were 100 and 600 years later. The Illustrated History of Early Buckinghamshire  says "What made this barrow remarkable was a deposit of cattle bones, perhaps the remains of 300 animals...The overall scale of the bone deposits provides as vivid an indicator of the wealth of the community that could afford to make this exceptional statement as the deposition of any number of artefacts. It illustrates the central importance of both cattle and ritual sacrifice to early Bronze Age communities"

The British Museum has the "Milton Keynes Hoard", an incredible hoard of Bronze Age gold found in 2000 in a field near Monkston. It has been described as "one of the biggest concentrations of Bronze Age gold known from Great Britain". A hoard of weapons was found on what became the County Arms Hotel in New Bradwell. 

Milton Keynes History

Last month the city of Milton Keynes celebrated its 50th birthday - but the area has much of historical interest. It is overlooked by the iron-age fort of Danesborough, includes the Roman settlement of Magiovinium, a Roman villa, the historic Watling Street coaching town of Stony Stratford, Bletchley Park and transport routes from across the ages (Watling Street, Grand Union Canal, Railway, M1). It includes a number of ancient villages and the historic towns of Bletchley, Stony Stratford, Wolverton and Newport Pagnell.

In this and subsequent posts, I will share something of that history. There is an excellent map called "Milton Keynes Heritage". I believe that it may still be available from the Visitor Information Centre in Centre:MK [the huge indoor shopping centre]

I've always believed that to understand the history of an area, it is necessary to study its geography. Milton Keynes is built on a low plateau, crossed by three rivers.

The biggest river forms the Northern boundary of the city itself, then crosses through some of the rural parts and through the town of Newport Pagnell. The Great Ouse runs 143 miles from its sources in Northamptonshire (near the village of Syresham), through Brackley, Buckingham, Milton Keynes, Olney, Bedford, St Neots, Huntingdon, St Ives and Kings Lynn before entering the Wash. The Treaty of Alfred and Guthrum - which settled the border between the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms and Danelaw ran along the Great Ouse between Stony Stratford and Bedford.

The second river is the Ouzel (also known elsewhere and in other eras as the Lovat). It rises not far from Whipsnade Zoo - and flows through Leighton Buzzard and through the city close to the site of Magiovinium; past the Open University, meeting the Great Ouse in Newport Pagnell.

The third 'river' is a brook - but it has carved out a pleasant valley which is partly used by the railway. Loughton Brook rises a little outside the City to its south west. It flows through the estates of Tattenhoe Park, Tattenhoe, Emerson Valley, and Furzton - where it feeds Furzton Lake, past the Milton Keynes (National) Bowl, Knowlhill (where the Teardrop lakes are), Loughton, past Bradwell Abbey and close to the Roman Villa in Bancroft, eventually meeting the Great Ouse in New Bradwell.