nvestment in machinery and little labour: there was only one full-time man plus seasonal helpers. The farm was well roaded and was virtually all under-drained. Ten years later there was no paid labour besides casuals at harvest time, the under-draining had been completed, and the system of husbandry remained unchanged, apart from a 15 per cent set-aside, which was left as fallow. The other farms were more mixed in character, both in the 1980s and 1990s. At Home Farm & Little Hill winter wheat was the principal crop, with oil seed rape and beans as break crops; there were 500 grey face ewes and 150 Friesian heifers, as well as pigs. Mount Mill & Limes End was growing wheat, barley and rape on a six-year rotation, and also had a herd of 70 bullocks. Sparrow Lodge was a beef, sheep and arable farm, with a flock of 300 breeding ewes; Dagnall & Dovehouse had 280 a. under winter corn, with grass ley breaks, and 200 cattle.
In 1227 Henry son of Robert acquired land and a mill at Wike from Robert de Marisco. (fn. 315) In 1383 John de Wikemill and Alice his wife made a lease for nine years at a rent of 66s. 8d. a year to John Cock of Wick Hamon of all his land, a tenement called Wikemill, the water-mill, dovecote, meadows and pasture in Wick Dive and Wick Hamon, (fn. 316) and in the early 15th century 'Wykemylne' occurs as both a place name and personal name. (fn. 317) In 1662 the mill was let with half a yardland for £14 a year, (fn. 318) probably to Thomas Ashby, who is listed elsewhere as Lord Sunderland's tenant at about that date. (fn. 319) Robert Ashby the younger of Thornton (Bucks.) took a new 21-year lease of the mill and some adjoining land in 1687, when the wheel was noted as undershot. (fn. 320) In 1717 the tenant was still Robert Ashby, who had the mill and 17½ acres (i.e. half a yardland). (fn. 321) The mill was standing when the canal to Buckingham was projected in 1793 (fn. 322) but may have been abandoned when that was built; it had certainly gone by 1827. (fn. 323)
Brickmaking and quarrying.
Much of the underwood cut on the estate in the late 18th century was sold to the Foxley family of Wicken Hurst, where they had a brick-kiln. (fn. 324) The Foxleys also supplied bricks and lime to the estate for repairs. (fn. 325) The kiln was already in existence in 1717, when the tenant was Elizabeth Green, who also had a farm of 63 acres on the estate. (fn. 326) Twenty years later the kiln and 8 a. of land were in the hands of John Foxley, (fn. 327) who described himself as a farmer and brickmaker of Wicken Hurst in his will of 1769. (fn. 328) His widow Anne continued the business until 1778, when she was succeeded by her son Thomas. (fn. 329) He in turn died in 1797, when he described himself merely as a farmer, (fn. 330) and this may have marked the end of brickmaking on the estate. His widow Elizabeth kept the farm at Wicken Hurst until 1817 and left the parish two years later, (fn. 331) but there is no evidence that the brickkiln was still at work in that period. In the 19th century the Foxleys made bricks elsewhere in the district. (fn. 332)
Gravel has presumably been extracted on a small scale over a long period from pits near the river. Wicken was among the parishes in which quarries were opened (or enlarged) in the late 1950s to provide materials for the building of the M1 through the county. (fn. 333)
Other trades and crafts.
Wicken had only a handful of tradesmen or retailers during the century and a half in which the Mordaunts and Douglas-Pennants owned the estate, presumably relying for most services on the much bigger, open village of Deanshanger. (fn. 334) A blacksmith is listed in directories from 1847 to 1940, together with a shoemaker until the end of the 19th century. There were three shopkeepers in the village in 1869, (fn. 335) and four or five from the 1870s until the First World War. (fn. 336) In the early 1920s there were still two greengrocers and a butcher, (fn. 337) but by 1930 only the butcher was left, plus a general store at the post office, which remained the position until the start of the Se