Weston Turville

A few prehistoric artefacts have been found in the parish, such as a Mesolithic blade found on a housing development at the corner of Church and School Lanes, a Neolithic flint axe which was found in the early twentieth century, fragments of Iron Age quern found at Rectory Farm and Church Farm and Late Iron Age pottery has been found in gardens on Church Lane (along with medieval pottery and tile) and Wendover Road. Neolithic to Bronze Age flints were found in the allotments at Burnside, as was some Saxon, medieval and post-medieval pottery. The presence of the Lower Icknield Way in the parish, a pathway that may date back to the Neolithic, would suggest more prehistoric activity, but a recent study has shown that it is probably a medieval legend. A Late Bronze Age to Early Iron Age settlement was excavated during the building of the Aston Clinton bypass.

Roman and medieval pottery and tile were found in the grounds of the Manor House and a mosaic floor was supposedly found north of the former Broughton Farm in 1929 that suggested the presence of a villa, but this was not found in recent work. Roman pottery was, however, found in trial trenching there. Roman cremations, an amphora, pottery, metalwork and glass bottles were found by workmen in the nineteenth century in the Rectory garden. The Romans built themselves a new road, Akeman Street, which the A41 now follows.

There is a great deal more evidence for medieval activity in the form of historical documents, earthworks, stray finds and standing buildings. Some medieval to post-medieval pottery was found in the garden of 14 West End; twelfth to fifteenth century pottery was found at 3 Main Street when the floor was lowered; twelfth to thirteenth pottery from the corner of Rickyard; a fifteenth century spindle-whorl from a house on Bates Lane; and twelfth to fifteenth century pottery from a sewer trench close to the canal pumping station. Medieval to post-medieval pottery, bricks and mortar were found south of the road to the church in the 1950s and it is thought there was a watermill here. Medieval to post-medieval hollow-ways and house platforms are also known from historic records here.

An eleventh century motte with baileys to the south and east was excavated in the grounds of the Manor House. Romanesque masonry was found in the ditch bottom and eleventh to fourteenth century pottery also came up in excavation. There is a fourteenth century record of a licence to crenellate the castle. A medieval moat is known at Brook End; possible medieval fishponds are thought to exist near Westend Farm; and a possible hollow-way was recorded on site visits to the allotments at Burnside. The moat at Broughton Farm had the remains of a medieval manor house within and medieval artefacts were found here. There are also records of a medieval chapel at this spot. Earthworks of a deserted medieval village have been surveyed north of the church. These include house platforms, hollow-ways and an enclosure associated with pottery. Medieval and post-medieval pottery associated with village earthworks were found at the corner of Church and School Lanes.

There are nineteenth century records of the Old Rectory being a hall house dating back to the time of Edward III and being pulled down in 1837. There are also records of a watermill at Mill Farm from the medieval period to the nineteenth century. Manor Farm is surrounded by a moat, the house itself includes a late fifteenth century wall with sixteenth century alterations that is now a kitchen wing to the nineteenth century house. The Brills is also a fifteenth century hall-house with sixteenth and seventeenth century alterations but the oldest building is St Mary's church. A thirteenth century aisle was added to an earlier building, the chancel was rebuilt in the fourteenth century and then again in the nineteenth and the tower was constructed in the fifteenth.

Most of the other listed buildings date from the seventeenth to the nineteenth century, such as Chandos Cottage or The Laurels. The seventeenth to eighteenth century house at Broughton Farm was largely destroyed by fire in the late twentieth century. The Brills, mentioned above, was the site of a Friends, or Quaker, Meeting House until the nineteenth century. The associated cemetery was recorded on a nineteenth century map and one burial was found in a gravel pit. There is also a nineteenth century Baptist Chapel and cemetery on School Lane. Another late monument was the Grand Union Canal whose Wendover Arm runs through Weston Turville parish and an associated reservoir is recorded from the eighteenth century. The latest monument recorded is the Royal Observation Corps post north of the golf club.