Great Brickhill topics The Old Bakery Chapels The Cash Stores Cash Stores Picture Gallery The Church The Civil War Inns and Pubs John Horncapps Lane Lower Way The Old Manor Pound Hill Road Names Rotten Row The Old School Old School Picture Gallery The New School The Stockgrove Estate Stockgrove Picture Gallery The Three Trees Village Life before the Second War Village Shops

Cromwell Cottage

Link to the English Civil War

These cottages were converted from an old barn belonging to the Lodge which reputedly housed the Earl of Essex and some of his army for six weeks during the English civil war in 1643. The Earl of Essex considered Great Brickhill as strategic due to its high position and proximity to Watling Street. The church towers of Great Brickhill, Little Brickhill and Bow Brickhill provided ideal lookout posts in all directions.

Essex wrote to London on 9 July 1643 from Great Brickhill recommending peace talks. It would seem that had the King attacked Essex whilst he was encamped at Great Brickhill the outcome of the Civil War could have been quite different!

The Parish Council received the application for the barn to be converted to a dwelling in 1967, and in 1968 they listed the barn at the Lodge as a countryside treasure. This was the only entry from Great Brickhill in Buckinghamshires listing of 'Countryside Treasures'.