A History of the County of Northampton: Volume 5, the Hundred of Cleley. Originally published by Victoria County History, London, 2002.
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The parish of Wicken occupies some 2,321 acres (fn. 1) in the extreme south of Cleley hundred on the north bank of the Great Ouse, which here forms the boundary between Northamptonshire and Buckinghamshire. (fn. 2) The parish is separated by the river from Thornton and Beachampton (Bucks.) on the south, and is bounded on the west by Leckhampstead (Bucks.) and in the north-west by Lillingstone Lovell, formerly a detached portion of Oxfordshire, transferred to Buckinghamshire in 1832-44. (fn. 3) To the east and north-east Wicken has a lengthy boundary with Passenham, running in part through fields between the Ouse and the village of Deanshanger (which immediately adjoins the Wicken boundary) and represented further north by Kings Brook. The modern parish was created in 1587 (fn. 4) by the union of two previously separate parishes, Wick (or Wyke) Dive and Wick Hamon, which were already distinct estates in 1066. (fn. 5) The union has been commemorated annually ever since by a special service, with cakes and ale, in the village on the Thursday in Holy week. (fn. 6) The boundary between Wick Dive and Wick Hamon is apparently marked by the stream which flows from west to east through the village of Wicken to join Kings Brook at Deanshanger. (fn. 7) Wick Hamon lay to the south of this brook, Wick Dive to the north, and each parish had its own church in its respective portion of Wicken village. (fn. 8) The regular outer boundary of the modern parish, as well as the common first element of the two medieval parish names, (fn. 9) suggests that at some date before the Norman Conquest the whole area had formed a single estate that was later partitioned. The only boundary change since 1587 occurred in 1956. (fn. 10)
The south-eastern corner of the parish lies about 250 ft. above sea level. From the river valley the land rises gently to reach about 360 ft. at the north-west corner, about three miles away. The parish is roughly a mile and a half wide on its other axis, although it narrows to a point in the north-west. Large areas of alluvium occupy the flood plain of the Ouse and the higher land to the south of the village and in the west is covered Boulder Clay. In the valley formed by the small stream which runs through the centre of the parish broad patches of Oolitic Limestone are exposed. (fn. 11) Baker described the soil as a cold white clay, or in some parts a brown stone brash loam, overlying limestone. (fn. 12) An earlier writer commented on the excellence of the water supply and the availability of building stone, gravel and sand, as well as 'a good vein of marble'. (fn. 13)
In 1301 40 households were assessed to the lay subsidy in the vill of Wick Dive; there is no entry on the roll for Wick Hamon, (fn. 14) which may be included in this total. In the 1520s the two townships together contained about 35 households assessed to the subsidy. (fn. 15) A total of 58 households were assessed to the hearth tax in 1674, of which 28 were discharged through poverty. (fn. 16) In the early 18th century the parish contained about 70 houses. (fn. 17) A 'general guess' put the population at 273 in 1765 and 294 in 1774. (fn. 18) It had increased to 367 by 1801, including 13 navigators building the canal to Buckingham, (fn. 19) and continued to rise modestly to a peak of 536 in 1821. The parish had a population of 529 in 1861, after which there was a steady decline to 362 by 1911 and only 278 fifty years later. There was then a relatively sharp increase to 378 in 1971, followed by a fall to 317 in 1981.
The modern main road from Stony Stratford to Buckingham, which leaves Watling Street at the crossroads in Old Stratford, runs through the southern part of the parish, some distance from the village of Wicken. This route, which until a bypass was built in the 1980s passed through Deanshanger, (fn. 20) was turnpiked under an Act of 1815. (fn. 