Hedsor

Being on the River Thames, many prehistoric items have come out of the river at Hedsor. A Mesolithic or Neolithic Thames Pick was found in a watercress bed at Bourne End and from the river itself have come artefacts such as a Mesolithic tranchet axe-head, three Neolithic axes, part of a Neolithic pottery bowl and a Bronze Age bone dagger. A wooden structure was found digging a cess pool at Hedsor Wharf in 1894. It was thought to be Roman but later excavation uncovered lots of medieval pottery and animal remains. Some earlier material was also found, including Neolithic to Bronze Age flint flakes and an Iron Age spear-head.

As a Roman road passes through the parish, it is not surprising to find remains of occupation during the Roman period in Hedsor. Roman pottery fragments and oyster shell were found in the grounds of Hedsor Priory. A Roman cemetery was found dredging a lock near Sashes Island in the nineteenth century.

Sashes Island in the River Thames is known to have been a burh or defended settlement in the Saxon period from historical records of the ninth and tenth centuries AD. The Vikings tended to attack up the river and Viking weaponry was found in the nineteenth century when the lock was dredged.

St Nicholas’ church is medieval but has much sixteenth and seventeenth century rebuilding, at a time when the wharves were bringing in a lot of trade. The village may have been bigger as well, as there are earthworks that may be remains of medieval or post-medieval buildings when the area was prosperous.

Two Hedsor wharves, one known as Hedsor Wharf, are recorded in historical records from the sixteenth to the nineteenth century and were an important stopping point on the Thames. Saunder’s Wharf dates back to the sixteenth century. Old Hedsor House also dates to the sixteenth century, and Quantings and May Cottage to the seventeenth. Lord Boston's Folly is an eighteenth century country house with accompanying landscape gardens.