Beacon Hill from near the Springs Farm - geograph

The

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 ...

of Beacon Hill, is situated off the B474 near Penn and on the outskirts of

High Wycombe High Wycombe, often referred to as Wycombe ( ), is a market town in Buckinghamshire, England. Lying in the valley of the River Wye, Buckinghamshire, River Wye surrounded by the Chiltern Hills, it is west-northwest of Charing Cross in London, ...

Buckinghamshire. Nearby is the Golf Course at Wycombe Heights.

Hill

Beacon Hill is named after a nearby hill in the Ivinghoe Hills range and shares the same name. It was surveyed at the order of the

Duke of Bridgewater Duke is a male title either of a monarch ruling over a duchy, or of a member of royalty, or nobility. As rulers, dukes are ranked below emperors, kings, grand princes, grand dukes, and sovereign princes. As royalty or nobility, they are ran ...

and was discovered to be high. The hill has a

Bronze Age The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second prin ...

bowl barrow A bowl barrow is a type of burial mound or tumulus. A barrow is a mound of earth used to cover a tomb. The bowl barrow gets its name from its resemblance to an upturned bowl. Related terms include ''cairn circle'', ''cairn ring'', ''howe'', ''ker ...

at the top and used to have a beacon on the top of it, with the iron lighter for it being stored in the nearby

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britai ...

Church of St Peter and St Paul,

Ellesborough Ellesborough is a village and civil parish in the south of Buckinghamshire, England. The village is at the foot of the Chiltern Hills just to the south of the Vale of Aylesbury, from Wendover and from Aylesbury. It lies between Wendover and t ...

. The beacon was replaced in the 19th century with a flagpole, which was then exchanged for a gun emplacement during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

. It is a part of a

National Trust The National Trust, formally the National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty, is a charity and membership organisation for heritage conservation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. In Scotland, there is a separate and ...

trail which gives walkers views of Chequers, the country house of the

Prime Minister of the United Kingdom The prime minister of the United Kingdom is the head of government of the United Kingdom. The prime minister advises the sovereign on the exercise of much of the royal prerogative, chairs the Cabinet and selects its ministers. As modern ...

. Beacon Hill is also the location of Cymbeline's Castle where the Celtic King of the Britons

Cunobeline Cunobeline (or Cunobelin, from Latin , derived from Common Brittonic ''*Cunobelinos'' "Strong as a Dog", "Strong Dog") was a king in pre-Roman Britain from about AD 9 until about AD 40.Malcolm Todd (2004)"Cunobelinus_ ymbeline/nowiki>_(d._''c'' ...

according to legend, made a last stand against the Roman conquest of Britain in a fort located on the hill. However, Historic England has claimed this legend was a Victorian invention and that the castle was actually a Normans, Norman style Motte-and-bailey castle.

Hamlet

The hamlet featured a Baptist chapel constructed at the highest point of it. The main road running through Beacon Hill is the boundary between the parishes of Penn and Tylers Green.

References

{{Authority control Hamlets in Buckinghamshire