Caldecote (pronounced ") is a tiny
hamlet
''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play, with 29,551 words. Set in Denmark, the play depicts ...
in the
civil parish
In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authority ...
of
Moulsoe
Moulsoe is a village and civil parishes in England, civil parish in the Unitary authorities in England, unitary authority area of the City of Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, England. It is on the border with Bedfordshire, and just east of the M1 ...
in the
City of Milton Keynes
The City of Milton Keynes is a unitary authority area with both borough and city status, in Buckinghamshire. It is the northernmost district of the South East England Region. The borough abuts Bedfordshire, Northamptonshire and the remainder o ...
,
Buckinghamshire
Buckinghamshire (), abbreviated Bucks, is a ceremonial county in South East England that borders Greater London to the south-east, Berkshire to the south, Oxfordshire to the west, Northamptonshire to the north, Bedfordshire to the north-ea ...
, England.
History
The place name is fairly common in England and comes from an
Old English
Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain, Anglo ...
term meaning ''"cold cottage"'', referring to a resting place for travellers or other strangers on the road. The original
Northampton
Northampton () is a market town and civil parish in the East Midlands of England, on the River Nene, north-west of London and south-east of Birmingham. The county town of Northamptonshire, Northampton is one of the largest towns in England; ...
to
London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
road (modern
B526) runs nearby. The route was diverted in 1728 along a new road on the higher ground east of the village, causing the latter to decline.
Caldecote was recorded in the
Domesday Book
Domesday Book () – the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book" – is a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manusc ...
as ''Caldecote''.
The place name was once used elsewhere in Buckinghamshire in the ancient village adjacent to
Bedgrove
Bedgrove is one of the housing estates of the modern town of Aylesbury in Buckinghamshire, though it takes its name from a farm and hamlet that stood in the area until the area was cleared for building in the late 1950s. At the time it was built ...
.
Location
The modern area is the triangle defined by the
M1 motorway, the
A422 road and the
A509 road
The A509 is a short A-class road (around long) for north–south journeys in south central England, forming the route from Kettering in Northamptonshire to the A5 in Milton Keynes, via M1 J14.
From north to south, the road begins at Wic ...
. It is mostly farmland and designated as
urban open space
In land-use planning, urban green space is open space reserve, open-space areas reserved for parks and other "green spaces", including plant life, water features -also referred to as blue spaces- and other kinds of natural environment. Most urb ...
since it is substantially within the
flood plain
A floodplain or flood plain or bottomlands is an area of land adjacent to a river which stretches from the banks of its channel to the base of the enclosing valley walls, and which experiences flooding during periods of high discharge.Goudi ...
of the
River Ouzel
The River Ouzel , also known as the River Lovat, is a river in England, and a tributary of the River Great Ouse. It rises in the Chiltern Hills and flows north to join the Ouse at Newport Pagnell.
It is usually called the ''River Ouzel'', e ...
(or Lovat).
See also
There is also another ancient village (and now a modern development and
balancing lake
A balancing lake (also flood basin or Sustainable urban drainage scheme) is a term used in the U.K. describing an element of an urban drainage system used to control flooding by temporarily storing flood waters. The term balancing pond is also ...
) in
Milton Keynes
Milton Keynes ( ) is a city and the largest settlement in Buckinghamshire, England, about north-west of London. At the 2021 Census, the population of its urban area was over . The River Great Ouse forms its northern boundary; a tributary ...
with a very similar name of
Caldecotte
Walton (historically) was a hamlet that is now a district and civil parish in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, England. For local government purposes, it is part of the Danesborough and Walton electoral ward.
The historic hamlet is located ...
.
References
External links
*
* {{cite map , author = Ordnance Survey , title =OS six-inch England and Wales, 1842-1952 , map = Buckinghamshire Sheet X , map-url = https://maps.nls.uk/view/102340100 , year = 1886 , url = , scale = 1:10,560 , publisher = Ordnance Survey , via=National Library of Scotland , archive-url = , archive-date =
Hamlets in Buckinghamshire
Areas of Milton Keynes