Why isn't Buckingham the county town? | Little Histories

Buckingham gave its name to a county. So why is the county run from Aylesbury? Eleven hundred years of a small English town, from a Saxon fort to the edge of Milton Keynes. In 914 King Edward the Elder built two forts here, on the frontier with the Danes, and the shire drawn round them took the town's name. Yet the county's gaol was at Aylesbury by 1180, and its courts sat there from 1218. For one century the great family at Stowe next door pulled some of that back. Their Act of Parliament of 1748 fixed the summer assizes at Buckingham, and Lord Cobham built the town a gaol in the style of a small castle on Market Hill. Two years after the family went bankrupt, the assizes left for good, and for a hundred years the town grew no further. It grew again with Milton Keynes. Along the way: King Æthelstan's council of 934, Domesday Book, the Chantry Chapel and the Royal Latin School, Catherine of Aragon, Charles I's four days in 1644, the fire of 1725, three Prime Ministers from one family, a canal, a railway, Queen Victoria, the University of Buckingham, John Bercow, and the plans for the next ten years. Little Histories tells the story of one place at a time. CHAPTERS 0:00 Opening 0:15 914 to 1218: a fort on the frontier 1:22 Two forts, one crossing 2:17 The shire begins, and Æthelstan's council 3:06 Domesday Book, 1086 3:24 Buckingham and Aylesbury 4:16 1218 to 1725: a market town 5:02 The Chantry Chapel 6:26 The Royal Latin School 6:57 Catherine of Aragon, Mary and Elizabeth 8:00 Charles I's four days, 1644 8:46 1725 to 1849: the fire and the Stowe century 9:33 Stowe and Lord Cobham 9:53 The summer assizes and the Old Gaol 11:00 Who could vote: eleven voters 12:05 The Grenvilles: three Prime Ministers 13:41 The church on Castle Hill 14:23 The canal 15:38 The Reform Act, 1832 16:53 The town at its height 17:38 The fall 18:26 The family's century 19:02 1850 to 2026: the railway 20:15 A century without growth 20:25 Stowe School 21:50 Milton Keynes 22:22 The University of Buckingham 22:48 Buckingham and Aylesbury today 23:09 John Bercow, Speaker 23:40 The canal, rewatered 23:59 2026 to 2036: the next ten years 25:25 Summary 25:52 Market Hill today CREDITS Every picture is credited on screen as it appears (the opening titles reuse them). The full list, with licences, is in the pinned comment. Pictures: public-domain works from the National Portrait Gallery, the Royal Collection, the Government Art Collection, The National Archives, the British Library and the Illustrated London News; CC0 works from the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Yale Center for British Art; photographs from geograph.org.uk and Wikimedia Commons under CC BY, CC BY-SA and CC0. Domesday Book: John Palmer, George Slater and opendomesday.org, CC BY-SA 3.0. Maps: Ordnance Survey maps reproduced with the permission of the National Library of Scotland; © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL); Natural Earth; Mapzen Terrain Tiles (© Environment Agency 2015; SRTM, USGS); Itiner-e (CC BY 4.0); the Historic County Borders Project. Clip: House of Commons, 2019, © UK Parliament, quoted under fair dealing. The London Gazette: Open Government Licence v3.0. Music: an original score made for this film with Lyria 3 Pro. Sound effects: Wikimedia Commons (CC0, CC BY, public domain). Narrated and made by Duncan Kennedy #Buckingham #Buckinghamshire #LocalHistory