Winslow

There have been few finds of prehistoric remains in Winslow parish. A Lower to Middle Palaeolithic axe fragment has been recovered from a peat bed, whilst Neolithic flints and Late Iron Age pottery were found at Magpie Farm. Place names, including Winslow, Hawkslow and Dudslow suggests the presence of Bronze Age or Saxon barrows. With the possible exception of Hayman's Pit in Shipton, there is little evidence to support this. Despite the recovery of Roman pottery, metalwork and coins there is no evidence of Roman settlement within the parish.

Winslow was one of the estates given by King Offa to Saint Albans Abbey in 792. It is widely believed locally that he had a hunting residence on Dene Hill where Saxon coins have been found. Some early Saxon burials have been found at Shipton, and the name Red Field has been attributed to the site of a battle. The boundary of Winslow manor is described in a tenth century document. It is still possible to identify physical features such as Foul Ford. Field names suggest the existence of scattered Saxon farmsteads or hamlets such as Deneburgham (Demoram) and Varnham. Excavations at the St Laurence Room indicated that burials were already taking place in the churchyard in the late Saxon period. It has been suggested that Winslow was a minster church although there is no clear evidence for this.

Winslow appears in Domesday Book and the Hundred Rolls, and also has extensive manorial records beginning in 1327. Winslow and Shipton had separate open-field systems with little permanent pasture, meadow or woodland. There are references to a watermill at Granborough Brook but it seems to have gone out of use by the fourteenth century. Shipton was an agricultural hamlet which shrank after most of the land was acquired by the Lowndes family and enclosed in 1745.

Winslow developed as a commercial centre following the grant of a market charter in 1235. The sale of livetock was reflected in the names of the principal streets: Horn Street, Sheep Street and Cow Street (now High Street). Burgage plots along the east side of the High Street can still be identified in present-day property boundaries. Limited archaeological finds of medieval material include pottery from Highfield Road and the rear of 10 High Street. A medieval market house referred to in documents as the Mote Hall was demolished in 1840. Winslow never had a manorial residence, but Biggin in Granborough was a grange used by officials from Saint Albans Abbey.  Following the Dissolution it became an enclosed farm with entensive land in Winslow parish.

The parish church of Saint Laurence is the oldest standing building and may have replaced an earlier structure on the same site. The fifteenth century cross in the churchyard is no longer visible. The earliest surviving domestic buildings include 29 Sheep Street and the Old Crown. The Pyghtle in Shipton is an example of a sixteenth century yeoman farmer's house. Much information about Tudor Winslow can be found in the 1556 survey of the manor and 1599 map of the estates of Sir John Fortescue of Salden (below). The windmill shown on the map at Mill Knob burned down in 1760 and was not replaced.

Surviving seventeenth century buildings with thatched roofs or visible timber frames include 8-10 Horn Street, 47 Sheep Street and The Old Homestead in Church Street. A seventeenth century witch-bottle was found under a hearth at 5 Vicarage Road. The Baptist Chapel called Keach’s Meeting House was built in brick and tile in 1695. long after the preacher Benjamin Keach had left Winslow. Keach stood in the pillory after which the road called Pillory Ditch (now Bell Walk) was named. In 1753 twenty-five inns were listed in Market Square, of which The Bell gradually established itself as the most important, followed by The George. Many others survive in different uses such as the Royal Oak and the Black Horse. 

Winslow Hall was built by William Lowndes in 1700 in a style and on a scale not previously seen in Winslow. Houses and farmyards were removed to make room for the Hall itself, the formal gardens, and the open space of Home Close to the south. The coach house and stables are now a separate house. The Norden brickworks were created to make bricks for the new house. Lowndes also rebuilt the medieval tithe barn. His descendants were behind the enclosure of Shipton and in 1767 of Winslow, which led to the building of new farmhouses such as Red Hall and Tuckey. Rands Farm in Shipton retained its original function but was refronted.

Ridge and furrow earthworks survive within the parish where formerly arable land became pasture after enclosure, eg east of Furze Lane, a road which was itself created at enclosure. The wooded areas of the parish such as Canada and Magpie Spinneys were planted after enclosure for the purposes of foxhunting, an activity which drew wealthy people to Winslow in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Brick facades and tiled roofs were added to existing buildings during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Timber frames are still visible at the rear of 10 High Street, 11 Sheep Street and 21-23 Market Square, and one timber-framed house has retained the jettied upper storey. As there was never a major fire in the town, rebuilding took place haphazardly. Doctors and lawyers usually lived in the most impressive houses such as Brook Hall, Lawn House and 16 High Street. Slate replaced tile for roofing after the railway arrived in 1850.

The Wendover to Buckingham turnpike road was diverted through Winslow, probably in the 1720s. Milestones from the turnpike survive on the north and south sides of the town. This resulted in refocussing of Winslow on a north-west to south-east axis rather than the former west to east orientation. The location of the workhouse, station and terraced houses all adhere to this new layout. Notable Victorian buildings include the Baptist Tabernacle, 3 Market Square, the former Congregational Church, Redfield, 28 High Street (now the Town Council offices), the Bank and Norden House.

Gasworks opened in the High Street in 1843 and moved to a site near the station in 1880. A new vicarage was built in 1863-4 (demolished in 2011) facing the road which became known as Vicarage Road. It replaced an early seventeenth century house approached from Church Street. Wigley's livestock market was established in 1875. It removed focus from the Market Square, although annual fairs continued to be held there for a time. A new school built in 1901 to replace three separate schools has itself been replaced. Sub-standard housing in Shipton and Tinkers End was demolished.

Tanning and brickmaking were important industries within Winslow until the nineteenth century. Traces have been found of the tannery in Horn Street which is now commemorated by road names. The last brickworks were near the station with their own railway siding and closed in the 1880s. Lacemaking employed many women until the 1850s and a lean-to with windows to give light for a lace-worker can be seen at 17 Horn Street. Shops were always significant employers and many were rebuilt or enlarged in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, such as 6 High Street. A small industrial estate was created in Station Road in the twentieth century.

In the twentieth century the town expanded mainly to the west and east with the building of council houses and private estates. In 1943 a plane crash destroyed many houses in the High Street and killed seventeen people.

Many thanks to David Noy who updated this page in 2021.

Want to find out more?  Read the detailed historic town report for Winslow (below).