As a child whenever we visited the Chiltern Hills my family showed me the views of Aylesbury Vale and told me of the events that happened over the years. This little time-line is dedicated to Ann & Roger Walker who kindly led our walking group at Whiteleaf in November. The text is taken mostly from an Illustrated History of Buckinghamshire and Wikipedia with a little dollop of imagination.
9000 BC the last ice sheets that shaped our chalk hills have retreated and a huge herd of deer from the European main land race across the plain through the sparse birch and juniper woodland. By 6500 BC the sea has claimed the land and these great migrations are no more, Britain is an island. (Buy the book from Amazon – An Illustrated History of Buckinghamshire)
3700 BC the bones of a tribal leader whose body had been displayed for many years on the hill top is laid to rest with great ceremony. Chalk is dug with antler picks to form a white mound visible all over the Vale. (See Whiteleaf Nature Reserve)
800 BC farming has come to the Vale and for protection circular defensive mounds and ditches are built on the hill tops where people can retreat in troubled times.
100 BC people from Brittany are trading at ports on the south coast and about 50 BC hundreds of gold coins stamped with the head of Apollo are lost by the Catuvellauni on Whaddon Chase. Some of these were unearthed in 1849 and a further 73 at Little Horwood in 2006
43 AD the Romans invaded. Togodumnus and Caractacus retreat to the ancient forts in readiness for battle. Soon the Legio IX Gemina are marching only 15 miles to the east and building Watling Street.
100 AD The Catuvellauni are now enjoying the roman life and have built a substantial villa below the hills near Kimble. Corn and timber from the estate are traded on the Thames at Marlow.
648 AD On a cold winter afternoon a long procession of clergy carrying a cross and banners make their way along the Icknield Way from St Albans to Dorchester Abbey where they are to attend the funeral of St Berinus who died on 3 December.
903 AD The Witan confirmed that land below the hill near Monks Risborough was granted by the King of Mercia and had then been given by Athulf to his daughter Aethelgyth. Sometime later this land was given to the Archbishop of Canterbury to pay off marauders from Scandinavia that ravaged Kent and threatened to burn down the Cathedral unless they were bought off.
1330 On 15 June The Black Prince was born at Woodstock, his victories over the French at Crécy and Poitiers made him very popular during his life, no doubt paid in part by taxes taken on goods passing through Princes Risborough.
1634 Charles I required Buckinghamshire to provide a fully-equipped ship of 450 tons with provisions for 6 months, or £4,500 in money. John Hampden addressing a meeting in Great Hampden Church refused to pay the Ship Money and by the 24 June he had died in Thame, six days after being wounded at the Civil War Battle of Chalgrove Field.
1863 The Wycombe Railway Co. built the first line into Aylesbury improving markets and communications in the Vale by transporting Aylesbury ducks and dairy goods to London.
1904 The Monument is unveiled in memory of 148 men from Buckinghamshire who died during the Second Boer War.
1916 Twenty Thousand soldiers train to dig trenches in the Chilterns prior to the Battle of The Somme. Remains of these trenches can still be seen.
1938 The Monument was destroyed by lightning and rebuilt.
1944 On the night of 5 June, men of the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry took off in Horsa gliders to capture Pegasus Bridge in Normandy. The gliders were built in local furniture factories.
1956 While Khrushchev and Bulganin have dinner with Anthony Eden at Chequers, Naval Intelligence put divers under the Soviet warships at Portsmouth and Commander Lionel Crabb vanished during the operation.
1964 The opening of Didcot Power Station whose 650 ft chimney and six cooling towers can be seen on the horizon produces power for three million people.
2007 The Diamond Light Source Synchrotron is opened at Harwell paving the way to future scientific discoveries in biology, physics, chemistry, food science, forensics, archaeology, engineering, and earth and environmental sciences.
2010 Monday 25th October Over 200 people with Bishop of Buckingham and the Lord Lieutenant gathered at The Monument on Coombe Hill to honour Buckinghamshire’s Boer War heroes as a new plaque was dedicated to their memory, additional names were added bring the total number to 159.
2010 Monday 15 November Members of the Aylesbury Vale U3A after visiting one of the ancient forts stop at the grave of the tribal leader(sadly scarred by cycle ruts) before heading for the bright sunshine at Whiteleaf, where we view the historic Vale through the swirling grey mists below.
Ron Meadowcroft 16 November 2010
