Leckhampstead

Some crop-marks seen on aerial photographs around Weatherhead Farm suggest the presence of Neolithic and Bronze Age ring-ditches, probably the remains of ploughed out barrows, and contemporary or later enclosures. Three ring-ditches have also been seen from the air in fields around Hydelane Farm. Two Roman roads are known to pass through the parish, so it is no surprise that there has been many finds of Roman pottery and building material, possibly suggesting the presence of a farmstead or even a villa.

The majority of the finds, made in a field-walking project as part of the survey of the medieval Whittlewood Forest are of medieval pottery and can suggest the areas of medieval settlement. Earthworks or crop-marks of these settlements are also seen in aerial photographs and field survey. Some house platforms, fishponds, a hollow-way and even a windmill mound have been identified around Weatherhead Farm, suggesting that this was once a hamlet. There are similar earthworks around Leckhamstead village, where there are also thirteenth century records of fishponds, watermill and dovecote, and at Manor Farm. There are also remains of medieval ridge-and-furrow at Warren Hill. Boundary banks and ditches from the medieval forest have been identified in Wicken Wood. There is also a medieval fishery in Fish Water Meadow and a hollow-way leading to Home Field. The Long Bridge was established by the fourteenth century, and may be encased in the eighteenth century stone bridge. The churchyard cross is also medieval and very worn. The church itself has a Norman nave, twelfth century doors and font and thirteenth century tower. It was restored in the nineteenth century.

Much post-medieval pottery has also been found in field-walking and there are records of a dovecote and fishery in the sixteenth century at Limes End. Many of the listed buildings in the parish are of seventeenth century build with eighteenth century additions or alterations, including the manor house, now Manor Farm, and the rectory, though the current rectory Leckhamstead House, is nineteenth century, with parts of the nineteenth century garden and garden buildings surviving. The Grand Junction Canal was also up and running by the nineteenth century with a working wharf in Leckhamstead and a new watermill powered by the canal.