reing ('18 ft. R.H.') along much of the western boundary of the parish. (fn. 38)
When Whittlewood was disafforested under an Act of 1853 Wicken successfully claimed that it had enjoyed the right, as an out-town of the forest, to pasture cattle there between St. George's Day and Holy Rood Day (4 May-25 September). (fn. 39) The parish accordingly received an allotment of former forest land in Passenham to compensate for the loss of common grazing, amounting to 72 a. 2 r. 35 p., which was divided between the freeholders in 1861, when Sir Charles Mordaunt received 67 a. 3 r. 24 p., the rector 4 a. 2 r. 27 p., and two smallholders 12 perches each. (fn. 40) The parish also received a sum of money to endow a charity to buy coal for the poor, to compensate for the loss of the right to collect firewood in the forest. (fn. 41)
Early and Medieval Settlement.
Well away from Whittlewood, the earliest evidence for settlement in Wicken is a feature identified as a prehistoric ring ditch discovered on the flood plain of the Great Ouse. Also in the southeast of the parish, on river gravel, remains of a Roman building, including 3rd- and 4th-century pottery, were found in 1965. (fn. 42)
Any woodland that once existed in the central and south-eastern parts of Wicken was presumably cleared in the early Middle Ages when the twin villages of Wick Dive and Wick Hamon with their adjoining common fields were established. Both estates are mentioned for the first time in 1086 and have a separate manorial history until 1449. There was a capital messuage belonging to the manor of Wick Dive, but not Wick Hamon. (fn. 43) Although the two settlements had effectively merged into one by the time they were mapped in 1717, it is clear that they had once been largely distinct villages. Most of the houses in Wick Dive were strung out on either side of a main street running west-east, whereas Wick Hamon developed along a north-south axis to the south of the brook, the two roads meeting towards the north-western end of the village. (fn. 44) By the early 18th century, if not before, the majority of houses lay in Wick Dive, together with St. John's church and the site of the manor house, most of which was demolished in the late 17th century. (fn. 45) Wick Hamon church, dedicated to St. James, was taken down after the union of the two parishes, but its site is marked on later maps as a field named 'Old Church Yard' to the south of the brook. (fn. 46)
Earthworks on the edge of the modern builtup area indicate that both villages were somewhat larger in the Middle Ages than they were in 1717. (fn. 47)
To the south of Wick Hamon village land was imparked in the 13th century, disparked in the 17th, and re-imparked in the 18th, before being finally ploughed up during the Second World War. (fn. 48) Most of the rest of the parish, outside the woodland, was cultivated as common arable in the Middle Ages and, to a reduced extent, until inclosure in 1757. Wick Dive and Wick Hamon each had its own three-field system. (fn. 49)
Apart from the park keeper's lodge, the only settlements outside the village which can definitely be said to have medieval origins are Dagnall, not far from Deanshanger, and Mount Mill, on the Ouse in the extreme south-eastern corner of the parish, both of which are first recorded in the early 14th century. (fn. 50) Mount Mill was a small farm of 17 a. in 1717, (fn. 51) whereas Dagnall was an estate of 128 a., sold off by Henry Lord Spencer in 1640 and repurchased for the Wicken Park estate in 1753. (fn. 52) Mount Mill probably only ever comprised the mill itself and a few adjoining parcels of land but Dagnall may have been a medieval hamlet, with its own open fields, which later shrank to two farms. (fn. 53)
Two other settlements stand apart from the two villages. One is Wicken Hurst (whose name appears not to be recorded in any medieval source), a small farmstead on Kings Brook at the southern limit of Wicken Wood which seems likely to have originated as a roadside assart on the edge of Whittlewood. By the early 18th century, when it was sometimes kno