Little Brickhill is a village and

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 authorit ...

in the unitary authority area of 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 ...

, Buckinghamshire, England. Located immediately to the west of the A5, it is just outside and overlooking the

Milton Keynes urban area The Milton Keynes urban area or Milton Keynes Built-up Area is a designation established by the United Kingdom's Office for National Statistics. Milton Keynes has no statutory boundary: the 1967 designated area only determined the area assi ...

, about south-east of

Fenny Stratford Fenny Stratford is a constituent town of Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, England and in the Civil Parish of Bletchley and Fenny Stratford. Originally an independent town, it was included in the Milton Keynes " designated area" in 1967. From 189 ...

, and south-east of

Woburn, Bedfordshire Woburn (, meaning twisted or crooked stream) is a town and civil parish in Bedfordshire, England. It is situated about southeast of the centre of Milton Keynes, and about south of junction 13 of the M1 motorway. At the 2011 census, it had a po ...

. At the 2011 census, it had a population of 407. The village name "Brickhill" is a compound of Brythonic and

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 settlers in the mid-5th c ...

words that have the same meaning: a common occurrence in this part of the country. The Brythonic word ''breg'' means "hill", as does the Old English word ''hyll''. 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 manus ...

of 1086 the village was referred to as ''Brichelle''. This spelling also occurs in 1422, denoting the place where John Langon was the vicar. The village has, for a long time, gathered most of its income from the Roman road

Watling Street Watling Street is a historic route in England that crosses the River Thames at London and which was used in Classical Antiquity, Late Antiquity, and throughout the Middle Ages. It was used by the ancient Britons and paved as one of the main ...

that passes through the

parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest, often termed a parish priest, who might be assisted by one o ...

from north-west to south-east, and anciently from a

market Market is a term used to describe concepts such as: *Market (economics), system in which parties engage in transactions according to supply and demand *Market economy *Marketplace, a physical marketplace or public market Geography *Märket, an ...

that was established in the village in 1228. At one time the county

Assize Court The courts of assize, or assizes (), were periodic courts held around England and Wales until 1972, when together with the quarter sessions they were abolished by the Courts Act 1971 and replaced by a single permanent Crown Court. The assizes e ...

s were held in Little Brickhill, making it adversely larger than nearby

Great Brickhill Great Brickhill is a village and civil parish in the unitary authority area of Buckinghamshire, England. It is on the border with the City of Milton Keynes, located south-east of Central Milton Keynes, and in the same direction from Fenny Str ...

. The last time the assizes were heard here was in 1638. Between 1561 and 1620 the names of a number of executed criminals appear in the burial register of the village. The village, being located on a major route to London, was a staging post for mail and passenger stagecoaches. "The Clockhouse" (now converted for residential use) housed just such a staging post, incorporating a stable, office, coach sheds, a hotel and a cowshed. Upon entering the courtyard, grooves can be seen in the cobble stones under the arch that were made by the wheels of countless coaches coming and going. The village is also the final resting place of Dame V. Bushell (1756-1847), who was most well known for the "Veritas" movement, highlighting the plight of women in the village. The village had two public houses, The George and The Green Man, but both are closed. , the former has become an Italian restaurant with bar,''La Collina''
/ref> the latter has been converted to dwellings. The post office that was housed in the village shop closed down in 2008 which precipitated the closure of the shop itself. The village is home to St. Mary Magdalene CofE parish church.

References

External links

Little Brickhill community website
{{authority control Villages in Buckinghamshire Areas of Milton Keynes Civil parishes in Buckinghamshire

See also

References

External links