Mentmore

The Kingsbury-Buncefield Pipeline was laid through Mentmore and archaeological observation along the way revealed Iron Age and Roman ditches and pits associated with pottery and tile as well as earlier material such as Mesolithic to Bronze Age flints. Another part of the pipeline close to Ledburn Farm uncovered a Late Bronze Age pit and ditch and a Middle to Late Iron Age ditch. Roman pottery has been found on the ground surface near Mentmore cross-roads and around Ledburn Farm, where Late Saxon pottery was also found. Saxon and Roman artefacts were also found on the Village Green over the years and may suggest the presence of Roman and Saxon cemeteries.

Historical documents from the medieval period record the presence of a windmill in Mill Field as well as a farm at Broughton that was later deserted. A medieval house platform is known near Manor Farm that may be the original manor site and medieval pottery was found there. A fourteenth to fifteenth century jug was found during laundry building at The Cottage. The oldest surviving building is St Mary’s church, which has a twelfth century nave, fourteenth to fifteenth century aisles and a fifteenth century tower. Foundations of a chancel were seen in an archaeological watching brief, which showed the medieval chancel to be quite small and this was extended in the Restoration period. Ledburn Manor house has a fifteenth to sixteenth century wing with a large seventeenth to eighteenth century extension.

A number of the other listed buildings date from the sixteenth/seventeenth centuries and are timber-framed while others date from the eighteenth to nineteenth century. Mentmore Towers is a nineteenth century house that also has a few subsidiary buildings, such as 1, 2 & 3 Laundry Cottages, Crafton Lodge and Cheddington Lodge. Some of the gate piers and railings are even listed, such as those east of Stone Lodge. Another nineteenth century monument is the Pump House on the green that houses two water pumps.