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 ri