Akeley

There is an enclosure of unknown date on an aerial photograph of Akeley parish. There has been a programme of extensive field walking in Akeley parish due to its location in the medieval forest of Whittlewood. The field walking has identified several areas of possible Roman, Saxon and medieval settlement. A Roman road is known to pass through this parish, so it is no surprise that Roman houses may have been built close to it.

The spread of medieval pottery found in field walking suggests a dispersed settlement and agricultural pattern. Medieval house platforms in Akeley itself are known from aerial photographs and medieval property boundaries were found in excavation. There seems to have been another settlement at Stockholt, with medieval earthworks known from field survey and a deer park known from historical documents.

The seventeenth century saw some rebuilding in Akeley, with several timber-framed houses surviving to the present day from this period. Unfortunately the seventeenth century rebuild of the rectory and the church do not survive, the current rectory being nineteenth century. The seventeenth century church replaced a medieval one and was in turn replaced by a nineteenth century construction that was demolished in the twentieth century. The school at Stockholt is housed in a nineteenth century country house, which also incorporates the nineteenth century gardens, stable and chapel. There are also documentary references to nineteenth century brick and tile works and a lime-kiln.