Whaddon

Whaddon parish has a rich archaeological heritage including two scheduled ancient monuments and many other finds and sites of archaeological interest. The earliest remains found in Whaddon date to the Mesolithic or Neolithic period. A number of struck flint flakes were found in field-walking near Fernfield Farm and a Neolithic polished flint axe was found whilst crawling through a hedgerow in Thickbare Wood. There are also the possible remains of prehistoric earthworks. Aerial photographs show a double-ditched rectangular enclosure near Bottlehouse Farm, which may be prehistoric, though there is debate about whether or not it is natural.

Investigations during the development of Milton Keynes have shown that the area was intensively settled during the Iron Age and Roman periods with many small farmsteads dotted across the landscape. On the clay soils away from the rivers the Iron Age settlements seem to have concentrated on ranching cattle and horses - an example has been found next to Oakgrove Wood in Milton Keynes.  In 1849 a large hoard of late Iron Age coins was found south of the village in Whaddon Chase which may indicate the presence of a more unusual site. There is a great deal of Roman activity in the parish, not surprising given that two Roman roads are said to pass through it, one from Magiovinium (Fenny Stratford) to a temple complex at Thornborough. Roman pottery has been found near Fernfield Farm, near Chase Farm, north of Newton Common, near the church and near Snelshall Priory. Some pottery found near Coddimoor Farm was accompanied by some building material, suggesting the site of a Roman house.

Documentary evidence indicates that Whaddon was a substantial village by the eleventh century as the Domesday Book records a population of 14 villagers and 9 smallholder households plus 10 slaves who exploited a landscape of arable fields, meadow and woodland. In the medieval period the village was most probably even more strongly linear than it appears today with its spine provided by the north-south alignment of the High Street which probably extended south beyond the Nash Road/Stock lane crossroads, past the church (and windmill?) to enter Queen’s Park. This linear arrangement hints at an act of deliberate medieval planning often recognised in midland villages. St Mary's church is the oldest surviving building, dating to the twelfth century, though it was altered in the fourteenth and sixteenth centuries and restored in the nineteenth and twentieth. There are historical records and earthworks of other medieval remains, however, such as the twelfth to thirteenth century hermitage and priory at Coddimoor Farm where a medieval lead coffin was also found in enlargement of the cellar. This seems to have been absorbed by Snelshall Priory, which was established by the twelfth century but in ruins by the sixteenth, before the dissolution. The earthworks of Snelshall Priory are quite striking from the air and the medieval moat, fishponds and water channels have been recorded in field survey. A farmhouse was standing on the site by the nineteenth century, but was demolished in 1830.

The earliest archaeological evidence for medieval occupation within Whaddon village comes from an excavation undertaken in 1968 just to the north of the church prior to construction of the Old Manor Close development where both early and late Saxon pottery was found. The excavation uncovered a substantial stone-built manorial complex of the 12th to 14th centuries comprising a hall, solar undercroft, barn, kitchen, gatehouse, smithy and carpenter’s workshop all set around a cobbled yard. There was a rich material culture including unusual items such as painted and stained window glass and wooden objects preserved in a cistern. Medieval pottery, animal bone and oyster shell were also found. Almost thirty years later, the site remains the most completely excavated medieval manor house in Buckinghamshire. There are other, less substantial remains, such as the medieval moats near the church and near Chase Farm and possible medieval village earthworks also near the church and at Pinks End. Snelshall’s medieval windmill has been tentatively identified from field survey and historical records.

There are some late medieval buildings, which tend to be cruck-built, still standing at 15 High Street and 3 Nash Road but the other listed buildings seem to be later in date, ranging from sixteenth to seventeenth century timber-framed houses to eighteenth and nineteenth century houses. 

Whaddon Chase was established across an area of pre-existing heath and woodland sometime before the mid 13th century. The deer park was only disparked in the nineteenth century but the land is now mostly used for arable farming. The remains of a possible medieval or post-medieval brick-works has been found in the park. South of the village the site of Queen’s Park, a medieval deer park is preserved by a circular 1km diameter pattern of hedgerows which presumably followed the park pale. Queen’s Park is linked to the village by an embanked green lane, now a public right of way. Wood Pond in the former Chase to the south of the village may also have medieval origins whilst the ancient woodlands are an inheritance from this period, and may preserve further remains within them.  These sites were intimately related with the village in the medieval period and still provide it with a highly distinctive historic landscape setting.

Other essential elements of medieval Whaddon continued to define the landscape up until the enclosure of the parish in 1833 and Chase in 1840. Whaddon Hall replaced an earlier medieval building in 1820 and there are sixteenth century records of a dovecote and garden and there are physical remains of a dam or ha-ha and an ice-house in the gardens. It is notable for having been the home of the 18th century Buckinghamshire antiquarian Browne Willis. A park and garden had been established around the Hall by the early 19th century with tree-lined avenues and vistas heading north and east, in the former direction aligned on Shenley Dens Farm which is believed to have been designed as a hunting lodge and “eye-catcher” from the Hall. By the late 19th century the park was defined by tree clumps and belts, such as Oldland Covert whose name reflects its role within a late Victorian fox hunting landscape. Elsewhere in the parish, the fields around Burnhill Farm were enclosed earlier than elsewhere whilst the mound on Windy Ridge is believed to mark a windmill of medieval or early post-medieval date. Although much of the woodland and all the common heaths were lost at enclosure some of the landscape structure of the Chase, such as former rides, still survive as field boundaries.

Nineteenth century maps and field-names reveal a number of possible sites, such as a windmill at Windmill Close and a bridge at Stone Bridge Close. First edition OS maps record various gravel and sand-pits across the parish, attesting to the more industrial nature of later centuries, and field barns that have disappeared as the size of fields increases. Modern features of archaeological interest in the parish include the World War Two concrete foundations of the Windy Ridge radio station and a curious and unexplained “H” visible from the air cut into a field just south of the village.