By Colin Campbell and Colin Sully
Have you ever asked yourself what is the oldest man-made construction in The Lee? Is it the Jubilee Well (1897), the Old Swan pub (1500s) or The Lee Old Church (1200s)? Or perhaps, the ‘For Sale’ signs in Oxford Street?
Well, it turns out to be none of these. For a start, long before the Old Church was built, the site was occupied by a prehistoric fort. There are still some traces of a ditch belonging to this fort between the church and the present vicarage. So is this the oldest man-made construction in The Lee?
Maybe… or maybe not, because if we widen our search a little further – specifically to Bray’s Wood on the Chartridge road – we can find some more ancient constructions.
The visible evidenceThe undergrowth in Bray’s Wood has revealed some unusual iron, stone, pottery and tile relics (see photo).
Searches on the internet and at the local library have also revealed interesting articles by the Reverend Boughey Burgess (in 1855) and more recently by Daniel Secker (in 2005). Writing in ‘Records of Buckinghamshire’, both of these historians describe in some detail the earthworks still to be found in Bray’s Wood, namely a series of enclosures with ditches and banks, together with the remains of a number of buildings, including a forge and a substantial stone house. Secker suggests that some of the enclosures pre-date The Lee Old Church, belonging to tenants of the early medieval lords of Wendover. However, he also concludes that the main building on the site – “a high status stone building, possibly belonging to a lord” – may have been built later as a part of the same construction programme as The Lee Old Church.
Iron ore slag and tile
Links to the Old ChurchSecker speculates – for there is little by way of clear-cut evidence – that Ralph de Bray (a minor lord, descended from the Norman invaders) may have been living in the house and administering the building works at the Old Church at the same time.
This would certainly account for the fact that some of the relics found on-site at Bray’s Wood closely match those used in the oldest parts of the Old Church and perhaps explain the remains of a forge and a kiln on the site.
So, it seems that de Bray may have been the very first chartered surveyor/ builder to take up residence in The Lee – a path that many others have subsequently followed!
If you would like more detailed information on any of this, or to see Secker’s article in full, please contact Colin Campbell on 837249.