Wednesday 13 June 2012

Welcome To Secklow History

A brief history of Milton Keynes


Secklow is basicly the Old name for the area that is now MK, Milton Keynes Village is mentioned in the doomsday book,Secklow is another name of saying Milton Keynes.
The name Secklow is derived from the German for victory (sigelai), before the Romans it was supposedly a wild forest that covered the whole of modern day Milton Keynes.The Milton Keynes mound or moot was known as Secklow, but also spelt 'Seg(g)low'. From Segg Low to Seggs Hill is but a small step for place-names and would seem to offer indirect support for the presence of a moot mound at Seggs Hill, i.e. Six Hills. The word 'seg' (or 'segg' or 'seggs') is best considered a corruption of an Anglo-Saxon personal names Segga or Secca. Sir Frank Markham states without any supporting argument that Secklow derives from the Old English for 'warrior's low' [




Norman conquest and the medieval period

Archaeological excavations in and around the old secklow have failed to find any evidence of occupation before the tenth or 11th centuries, except in Bradwell where Bradwell Bury is traced to the 9th century. The Domesday Book of 1086 provides the first documents of civialistaion in and around the areas listed: below:listing Bertone (Broughton), Calvretone (Calverton), Linforde (Great Linford),Lochintone (Loughton), Neuport (Newport Pagnell), Nevtone (Newton Longville), Senelai (Shenley), Siwinestone (Simpson), Ulchetone (Woughton), Waletone (Walton), Wluerintone(Wolverton) and Wlsiestone (Woolstone).

Administration of the 'hundreds' were preceded by the words secklow which was used as the conscription into local yeomanrys or home troops for local gentry to protect from the irish then the french from 1799 The irish revolutionary Wolfe Tone and Napoleon Bonaparte the french emporor . The Borough of Milton Keynes "Hundreds". Bletchley, Bradwell, Calverton, Fenny Stratford, Great Linford, Loughton, Newport Pagnell, Newton Longville, Shenley (part of), Simpson, Stantonbury, Stoke Hammond, Stony Stratford, Water Eaton, Willen, Great and Little Woolstone, Wolverton, and Woughton on the Green were in Secklow Hundred (Sigelai Hundred); Cold Brayfield, Castlethorpe, Gayhurst, Hanslope, Haversham, Lathbury, Lavendon, Little Linford, Olney, Ravenstone, Stoke Goldington, Tyringham with Filgrave, and Weston Underwood were in Bunsty Hundred (Bunstou Hundred); and Bow Brickhill, Great Brickhill, Little Brickhill, Broughton, Chicheley, Clifton Reynes, North Crawley, Emberton, Hardmead, Lathbury, Lavendon, Milton Keynes (village), Moulsoe, Newton Blossomville, Olney with
Warrington, Ravenstone, Sherington, Stoke Goldington, Tyringham
with Filgrave, Walton, Wavendon, Weston Underwood, and Willen were in Moulsoe Hundred.[14] (These hundreds became "the three

hundreds of Newport" [Pagnell] in the middle of the 16th century).
The moot mound of Secklow Hundred has been found, excavated and reconstructed — it is on the highest point in the central area and is just behind the Library in modern 
Central Milton Keynes.
Only one medieval manor house survives: the 15th century Manor Farmhouse in Loughton. There are sites of other manor houses in Great Woolstone, Milton Keynes village and Woughton on the Green. The oldest surviving domestic building is Number 22, Milton Keynes (village), the house of the bailiff of the manor of Bradwell.[13]
Newport Pagnell, established early in the 10th century, was the principal market town for the area.[15] Stony Stratford and Fenny

Stratford were founded as market towns on Watling Street in the late twelfth/early 13th centuries.[16][17]
By the early 13th century, North Buckinghamshire had several religious houses: Bradwell Abbey (1154[18]) is within modern Milton Keynes and Snelshall Priory (1218[19]) is just outside it.

Both were Benedictine priories. Many of the medieval trackways to these sites still survive and have become cycleways and footpaths of the Redway network.

The windmill of 1815 near Bradwell village
Britain's earliest (excavated) windmill is in Great Linford.[13] The large oak beams

forming the base supports still survived in the mill mound and were shown by radio carbon dating to originate in the first half of the 13th century. (The present stone tower mill at Bradwell was built in 1815, on a site convenient to the new Grand Junction Canal).

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