Bierton with Broughton

Various funerary remains have been identified in Bierton parish. A Neolithic to Bronze Age barrow was recorded at Church Farm in trial trenching; two skeletons were found associated with a possible barrow in the nineteenth century near the church along with a few Roman funerary urns; a possible square Iron Age barrow near Barnett House recorded on aerial photographs; and a possible Civil War cemetery found in the nineteenth century near the church.

There have also been a number of stray artefacts found in the parish. Roman pottery and flue tile were found at 9 Parsons Lane; Bronze Age flakes and scrapers and Roman, Saxon and medieval pottery were found in a field next to Great Lane; late prehistoric flakes and pottery, Roman, Saxon and medieval pottery and animal bone were found in a field-walking project near Dunsham Farm; Iron Age, Roman, Saxon and medieval pottery was found in back gardens at 125 Aylesbury Road and 2 Miles Court; a Neolithic stone axe was found in the railway cutting; and Roman tile, pottery and tesserae and medieval pottery and tile were found at the school on Parsons Lane.

Excavation at Vicarage Gardens uncovered Iron Age, Roman, Saxon and medieval settlement with a medieval to post-medieval fishpond and religious house connected to the friary. Excavation at Bierton House uncovered a Late Bronze Age to Iron Age ditch with animal bone, oyster shell and burnt flint. Bronze Age pits and a round-house, Iron Age features, and Saxon to medieval settlement were all found in trial trenching and excavation at Church Farm. A possible Late Iron Age to Roman pit alignment and an enclosure were recorded on aerial photographs about a kilometre north of the church.

As well as medieval artefacts being found in field-walking surveys, there are a number of medieval earthworks that have been recorded in Bierton parish. A moat and two fishponds are known south-west of the church. Medieval to post-medieval house platforms can be found at Brook Farm, along with other settlement earthworks at Oak Farm, and at the south end of Burcott. St Osyth’s or Uptown Well is fourteenth century and was restored in the nineteenth century. A medieval moat and ditch were recorded in field survey at Broughton Farm where there are also historic records of a chapel.

The nineteenth century Broughton Mill seems to have a long history but the oldest standing building is the fourteenth century church and tiles of this date were found in renovation work. The steeple is seventeenth century. The next oldest building is Old Manor Farm, which is fifteenth century and enclosed by a medieval moat in which thirteenth century pot has been found. It was only one of the manor houses in the parish.

Most of the other listed buildings are seventeenth to nineteenth century in date, such as Thatchings or Redberry House. Church Cottage has an eighteenth century witchert boundary wall, which is probably the most easterly use of witchert. Some other interesting monuments of these later centuries are Corbett’s Piece, the site of an eighteenth century gibbet that was probably the last one ever erected in Buckinghamshire; some post-medieval to nineteenth century brickworks near Barnett House; the Grand Union Canal and the Strict Baptist Chapel and cemetery are also of a nineteenth century date. World War II left its mark on the parish too, with a searchlight battery, observation post and beacon all identified from wartime and post-war maps.