About this website

Buckinghamshire’s Heritage Portal has 5 main elements:

An illustrated database of archaeological and historic sites, finds and buildings in the county which is searchable by simple and advanced text searches and by map searches
Local interest packs and lots of additional information
Visitor guides to selected sites
An illustrated glossary and interactive timeline
Teaching packs with additional resources for school children and teachers.

All of these are available free-of-charge to all non-commercial users of the website.

Searching

Use the Search and Map links in the menu bar to search the database. You have a choice of running a Simple Search, Advanced Search or a Map Search.

Simple Search

This is a free text search that returns results from all parts of Buckinghamshire's Heritage Portal, not just the database. The results will be displayed in a summary list – click on an item to view the detailed record or Special Feature. You can choose to see all the sites from a search displayed on a map by clicking on Map at the top of the results list.

Advanced Search

This is a structured search that returns only records from the database. Choose the type of record you want information on by selecting one or more term from the pull-down lists of Parish, Period, Site type or Find type and then click Search. You can choose whether a period search is exclusive or overlaps with other periods. This means that if you choose an exclusive period search for Roman, your search will bring up records that are only Roman. If you choose an overlapping period search for Roman, your search will bring up records that are Iron Age and Roman, or Roman and Saxon. The Parish names used in the pull-down list are the Civil Parishes set at the 1974 local government reorganisation; if you can't find the historic or modern parish you are interested in on the list, try picking a nearby parish as it may cover your area.

In the Advanced Search you can build up quite complicated searches using combinations of terms. If you don’t get any results it might be worth trying again using fewer terms. The results will be displayed in a summary list - click on an item to view the detailed database record, a map and any linked photographs. You can also choose to display all the sites from a search displayed on a map by clicking on Map at the top of the results list.

Map Search

In the map you can move around the mapping and zoom in and out using the simple navigation tools in the top right. There are different base layers (background maps and aerial photos) that you can turn on or off using the tools in the top left. Some of the base layers will load at different scales, so if you can't see your chosen background in the display, it's worth zooming in or out to find it. Please be aware that there are some gaps in our coverage of the historic first edition OS maps and the historic ridge and furrow maps. You can also choose to load different map layers on top of the base map. If you click on these using the info tool, a summary pops up in the box. The search tool gives you the option of searching for a location by placename, postcode or grid reference.

Glossary

The glossary helps to explain many of the technical terms you will find in the website. To view an entry, click on a term from the A-Z list. In many cases the explanation includes illustrations, links to other terms, more detailed information about a time period, or to records of specific sites in Buckinghamshire. You can also open up individual glossary terms by clicking on the hyperlinks in the database records.

Timeline

To open the interactive timeline use the Timeline link in the menu bar. Use the slider to move backwards or forwards through time. You can hover over each of the period terms for a brief explanation of the period or click for more detailed information about the period.

Teaching Resources and Interactive Games

The teaching packs and teaching resource worksheets have been designed for Key Stages 2 and 3. The teaching packs are:

Iron Age to Victorian changes in the landscape
Tudor to Victorian rich and poor
Archaeology in local history studies
Buckinghamshire in the World Wars
Archaeological skills and concepts
Putting Buckinghamshire in context

The interactive games have been developed for schools. The games are:

Timepod
Rich and Poor in Tudor Times
Victorian Shopping Experience
South Buckinghamshire in the War
Virtual Excavation.

The games use Adobe Flash Player, which is no longer supported by most web browsers. We are trying to get these converted to a different format, but unfortunately the games are currently unavailable - sorry!

Local Interest Packs, Visitor Guides and Additional information

You can get access to the local interest packs, visitor guides and loads of additional information using the Special Features link in the menu bar. The local interest packs are

How to get involved in archaeology
How to find historical and archaeological information.

There are also parish summaries, period overviews, featured sites and ‘thematic essays’ on a host of topics including archaeological techniques, local societies, and recommended reading lists. The visitor guides are PDF documents that you can download or print off, and include detailed information on a number of sites to visit. The parish summaries use the list of civil parishes following local government reorganisation in 1974; if you can't find the historic or modern parish you are interested in on the list try picking a nearby parish as it may cover your area.

Links

The Links in the menu bar opens a page with hyperlinks to other websites that might be of interest.

Comments and Feedback

You can send us comments and feedback about the website by using the Contact form. A form for your comments will open up which will be automatically emailed to us when you click the Submit button. You can also post comments or new information about a specific database record in the Comments section at the bottom of each detailed record.

Accessibility

Information about this website's accessibility is found in our Accessibility Statement.