Revealing the
hidden histories
of Milton Keynes
The plan to build the ‘new city’ of Milton Keynes provided an unprecedented opportunity. Before the construction workers moved in, this wide rural area of north Buckinghamshire had been agricultural land for thousands of years with many villages – some lost, some now small towns.
Suddenly 82 square kilometres needed archaeological investigation. This uncovered for the first time the varied histories of local people: in Iron Age settlements, Roman villas, Saxon roundhouses, medieval estates. Many were previously unknown sites.
In these reports they are now linked together to reveal a changing landscape across centuries.
If you live in or around Milton Keynes this is your history, the history of the peoples who lived in settlements where your house stands now, who tilled the fields that were once all around where you stand now.
Twelve printed volumes tell their histories, recording the major excavations and fieldwork carried out by the Milton Keynes Archaeology Unit between 1971 and 1991 in advance of construction within the new city. These were large-format paperbacks with many drawings, maps, plans and photographs. A few are still in print. ALL are now freely available online.
This was the most intensive archaeological project yet undertaken across such a wide area of the English countryside. For AN OVERALL SUMMARY, with maps of the landscape revealed across four historic periods – the Neolithic, Iron Age, Roman and medieval – click here to read The Milton Keynes Project by Bob Zeepvat.
The Online Archive
All of the Milton Keynes Archaeology reports are available online. Whole volumes are held on this the Bucks Archaeological Society website.
Each report is also available separated into its individual chapters or sections. So to read about a particular village or estate, you can choose an individual chapter without having to read the whole volume.
These separate chapters/sections are available through the Archaeology Data Service, which is the UK’s national online digital library for archaeology, based at the University of York. Here you can view their Index page to the MK collection.
SMALLER ARCHAEOLOGY PROJECTS in the villages and fields that were to become the new city – and more recent excavations and discoveries – were reported in the society’s journal, Records of Buckinghamshire. Again all editions of this are available online. To find these go to the Records of Bucks Search page and enter your town, village or estate name.
Printed copies
PRINTED COPIES of the 12 reports in the Milton Keynes Monographs series are also available in the county’s reference libraries in Aylesbury and Milton Keynes. Also in at the Bucks Archaeological Society Library at the Discover Bucks Museum in Church Street, Aylesbury – see the Library’s phone number and opening times at the bottom of this page.

VIEW HERE
EVERYTHING
THAT THE
EXCAVATIONS
UNCOVERED
ONLINE – All twelve volumes, with the fieldwork details, excavation finds and research results, are available free online from this website, where you can read the whole volume on-screen or download a copy to save, print and read at will.
INDIVIDUAL CHAPTERS, SECTIONS, AND SOME MAPS from each volume are also available separately online, to read, save or print locally. These are from the UK’s Archaeology Data Service hosted by York University.
IN PRINT – Printed copies of four of the reports are available to buy online. You can pay for these by card and the Society will send your printed report (or reports) to you by post.

THANKS to the
Milton Keynes Heritage Association
and the
South Midlands Committee of the Council for British Archaeology
for grants that have enabled the digitisation of these MK archaeology reports and making them nationally available through the Archaeology Data Service.