Moot

Moots were meeting places specifically identified and set aside for courts and other bodies who dealt with the administration and organisation of the countryside in the Saxon and medieval period. They were located within the area under jurisidiction, usually a hundred, wapentake, or shire, at a convenient, conspicuous or well-known site which might be marked by a natural feature such as a hill or tree or a monument such as an earthern mound or stone. In many cases, moots were established on pre-existing monuments such as barrows and hillforts. Initially, moots were situated in the open countryside but through time they moved to halls and meetings houses within villages or urban areas.

There is some debate as to when this system of organisation came into being, but between the 7th and 9th centuries seems likely. There is a lack of documentary evidence from this period but moots are mentioned in the Domesday Book and other documentary sources of the 10th century; however, these references usually relate to a meeting place rather than to a specific structure or mound.

Archaeological evidence may provide a rough date for a moot. A number of excavations of moot mounds suggests that, where an accurate date can be determined, the majority are post-Roman in origin; Roman pottery was found beneath the mound at Secklow, Buckinghamshire (Adkins & Petchey 1984). The 9th to the 13th centuries probably represents the highpoint in the use and construction of moots.

Several possible locations of moots have been identified in Buckinghamshire, some from place-name evidence such as the mound north of Buxlow Farm in Swanbourne, and others from historic documents, such as that at Windmill Hill Farm in Upper Winchendon.