February 2024

15 Buckden Roundabout February 2024 Village News What ’ s in a Street Name? Well, quite a lot actually. In September 2019, I was asked by the Buckden Parish Council to suggest street names for the then new Bloor development off Lucks Lane. I was the chair- man of the Buckden Local His- tory Society and had excavated the development site with Ox- ford Archaeology East for seven months. The obvious choices of street names to me were those that reflected the importance of the history of the site and to com- memorate those who had lived here before us. Although we uncovered the remains of Roman ditches (beneath Angles Drive and Pen- da Court) and many of their tile fragments throughout the de- velopment, it was clear that the main Roman occupation was to the north and east of the site beneath what is now The Osiers and the cemetery, which area no doubt contained a villa and/ or baths. So, I thought it best to concentrate on the Anglo - Saxon heritage which had been uncovered in spades, and please forgive the pun. The discovery of the remarkable assembly of Anglo - Saxon (A - S) building foundations in the area was totally unexpected and, to this day, it is uncertain why the site and Buckden should con- tain the largest Anglo - Saxon long hall and sunken - featured - buildings yet found in Britain. Sunken - featured - buildings (SFBs) were a specifically A - S structure, with a hollowed - out low basement, mainly used as dwellings and work spaces, es- pecially for crafts such as weaving and bone working. This area must have been the residence of a very important Anglian per- son and his entourage. Although we refer to England being occupied by the Anglo - Saxons from say 450AD to 1066AD, the separate nations settled in different locations. The Saxons settled in the south east (e.g. Middlesex, Essex, Sussex and Wessex), the Angles along the east coast then venturing west (e.g. East Anglia, Mid Anglia, Lincolnshire, Northumberland and West Anglia, this latter group becoming known as Mercians [i.e. borderers against the Britons in Wales]); and the Jutes occupied the Isle of Wight and the adjoining mainland. All these peoples came from Denmark and parts of Northern Germany. Buckden was occupied by the Angles around 450AD, and they built the SFBs and other buildings, of which we found over a dozen examples now beneath every street on the site; we were in the centre of Middle Anglia. In 653AD, King Penda of Mercia attacked and conquered Middle Anglia, ruling for a year before installing his son King Paeda and it is at this time that we see a change in the building types, becoming more rectan- gular and much larger. The Great Hall, now beneath Penda Court, was constructed during this period with large probable tithe barns towards Longhall Road and under The Osiers. The site flourished until the coming of the Danes, a.k.a. Vikings, around 860AD who occupied the area but seemingly let the site revert to agriculture over the next century. By the time of the Norman arrival in 1066 the whole area had reverted to fields which it is how it remained until we dug it up in 2019 to rediscover our ancestors here. The street names I proposed included the Anglo - Saxon nations of the Angles, Saxons, Mercians and Jutes, also remembering the Mercian king, Penda, who may have started the major con- struction here plus the Anglo - Saxons ’ successors, the Danes and Vikings. Longhall Road of course commemorates the longest great hall unearthed to date in Britain. What ’ s under your house? The earliest discoveries were the 50 Bronze Age cremations, dating back 3,500 years, unearthed beneath the Angles Drive car park near the Shell petrol station. There are two 7 th and 9 th century brewing houses under Danes Way and early Anglian buildings beneath Jute Crescent, Viking Way and Mercia Close. A large well containing the remains of Saxon feasting, oxen, pigs and sheep is now covered by Saxon Way. The southern and eastern sections of Longhall Road now overlie early A - S enclosure ditches, buildings and Roman and medieval field workings and gravel pits. If you would like to know more about the excavation and Buck- den ’ s history on this site, please visit the Village Millenium Hall and view the ten detailed posters in the Millard Suite. Barry Jobling