Buckingham Town Defences (The Gatehouse Record)

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as;
Bourton

In the civil parish of Buckingham.
In the historic county of Buckinghamshire.
Modern Authority of Buckinghamshire.
1974 county of Buckinghamshire.
Medieval County of Buckinghamshire.

OS Map Grid Reference: SP69463373
Latitude 51.99795° Longitude -0.98968°

Buckingham Town Defences has been described as a Urban Defence although is doubtful that it was such.

There are no visible remains.

Comments

Fort is the given translation of burh in the Everyman Press edition of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle but possibly more accurate than town defence. One of these two forts or burhs is likely to have been the base for Buckingham Castle at the given map reference. However, securing the town would not be too difficult since the river provides a natural defence on three sides and a ditch and rampart a little to the north of the church would secure the forth side.

Sources of information, references and further reading

Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 341189.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) 0021000000; 0001300000.

Books
- Salter, Mike, 2013, Medieval Walled Towns (Malvern: Folly Publications) p. 157 (mention)
  Creighton, O.H. and Higham, R.A., 2005, Medieval Town Walls (Stroud: Tempus) p. 57, 258
  Salter, Mike, 2002, The Castles of The Thames Valley and The Chilterns (Malvern: Folly Publications) p. 34 (mention)
  Hill, David and Rumble, Alexander R. (eds), 1996, The defence of Wessex: the Burghal Hidage and Anglo-Saxon fortifications
  Bond, C.J., 1987, 'Anglo-Saxon and Medieval Defences' in Schofield, J. and Leech, R. (eds) Urban Archaeology in Britain (CBA Research Report 61) p. 92-116 online copy
  Turner, H.L., 1971, Town Defences in England and Wales (London) p. 118
  Page, Wm (ed), 1925, VCH Buckinghamshire Vol. 3 p. 471-89 online transcription
Periodical Articles
- Creighton, Oliver, 2006, ''Castles of Communities': Medieval Town Defences in England; Wales and Gascony' Château Gaillard Vol. 22 p. 75-86
  Bailey, Keith, 1994, 'The Hidation of Buckinghamshire Part II' Records of Buckinghamshire Vol. 34 p. 87-96
  Baines, Arnold, 1985, 'Development of the borough of Buckingham, 914-1086' Records of Buckinghamshire Vol. 27 p. 53-64
  Baines, Arnold, 1984, 'The Danish Wars and the Establishment of the borough and county of Buckingham' Records of Buckinghamshire Vol. 26 p. 11-27
Primary (Medieval documents or transcriptions of such documents - This section is far from complete and the secondary sources should be consulted for full references.)
- Ingram, James, (ed) 1912, The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (Everyman Press, London) AD918 view online transcription (Ingram's translation and notes date from 1823. More recent translations of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles should be consulted for serious study)
Other sources: Theses; 'grey' literature; in-house reports; unpublished works; etc.
- Jonathan Parkhouse & Rebecca Roseff (BCMAS), 1995, An Archaeological Study of Mount Pleasant, Buckingham

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The bibliography owes much to various bibliographies produced by John Kenyon for the Council for British Archaeology, the Castle Studies Group and others.

Suggestions for finding online and/or hard copies of bibliographical sources can be seen at this link.
Minor archaeological investigations, such as watching brief reports, and some other 'grey' literature is most likely to be held by H.E.R.s but is often poorly referenced and is unlikely to be recorded here, or elsewhere, but some suggestions can be found here.

The possible site or monument is represented on maps as a point location. This is a guide only. It should be noted that OS grid references defines an area, not a point location. In practice this means the actual center of the site or monument may often, but not always, be to the North East of the point shown. Locations derived from OS grid references and from latitude longitiude may differ by a small distance.
Further information on mapping and location can be seen at this link.

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