21) In the early 18th century there was an alternative road from Old Stratford through Passenham and Wicken, which followed a course closer to the river, thus avoiding Deanshanger. (fn. 22) Although described in 1747 as the best known way and the general highway by which most waggons and travellers went from Old Stratford to Buckingham, (fn. 23) it had disappeared by 1779 (fn. 24) and was probably stopped up when the common fields of Wicken through which it ran were inclosed in 1757. (fn. 25) In the early 18th century two by-roads ran north from these main roads to Wicken village, from where other lanes continued north towards Whittlebury. The main east-west route through the village linked Wicken with Deanshanger and Leckhampstead. (fn. 26) By the early 19th century parts of the north-south route to the south of the village had disappeared or declined into footpaths, leaving the roads from Deanshanger, Whittlebury and Leckhampstead as the main links between Wicken and its neighbours. (fn. 27)
The Buckingham branch of the Grand Junction Canal passed through the southern part of the parish on its way from Old Stratford to Buckingham. Originally projected in 1793 as a scheme to canalise the Ouse from Buckingham to Passenham, from where a short artificial cut would continue to the sidecut aleady agreed on from the main line of the Grand Junction at Cosgrove to a wharf near Watling Street at Old Stratford, (fn. 28) the branch was finally built as a deadwater canal throughout. Digging at Wicken began in October 1800 and the first boat passed from Old Stratford to Buckingham on 7 May 1801. (fn. 29) In July that year Mrs. Prowse of Wicken Park took two of her nieces on a trip on the canal through her estate, and in August she watched the canal company committee pass by on their way from Paddington to Buckingham. (fn. 30) The nearest public wharfs serving Wicken were at Deanshanger, about a mile away. (fn. 31) The branch fell into disuse in the early 20th century and was largely filled in, although in the 1990s a Bucking