Welcome to the Wicken Village website

The website for all things Wicken, Northants
Leckhampstead Road, by Richard Wiggins
Leckhampstead Road, by Richard Wiggins

Wicken is a village and civil parish in the English county of Northamptonshire. It is about one mile north of the A422 road between Milton Keynes and Buckingham and forms part of South Northamptonshire district.

The earliest archeological remains for the area are a prehistoric ring ditch, although the first identified settlement is a small Roman settlement on the edge of the modern village. The modern village dates from Saxon times and is mentioned in the Domesday Book.

During the Middle Ages, it seems to have functioned as two villages: Wick Dive and Wick Hamon, separated by a stream and both in separate manors.

In 1511 the two manors were purchased by John Spencer of Snitterfield, Warwicks., whose grandson, Sir John Spencer of Wormleighton, secured in 1587, the union of Wick Dive and Wick Hamon into one parish.

An episode of the Channel 4 TV programme Time Team featured multiple archaeological digs in Wicken and researched its history. The archaeologists concluded that Wick Hamon, adjoining the Roman site was the older of the two villages by two centuries, and that the pre-existing (or abandoned) Roman settlement attracted the Saxons to that location.

Cheeky lamb, by Richard Wiggins
Cheeky lamb, by Richard Wiggins