Buckinghamshire

Buckinghamshire, administrative, geographic, and historic county of southern England. It stretches from the River Thames in the south and the outskirts of London in the southeast across the ridge of chalk upland known as the Chiltern Hills, thence across the fertile Vale of Aylesbury and a low sandy ridge to the valley of the River Ouse (or Great Ouse) in the north.

Within that region, the administrative, geographic, and historic counties encompass slightly different areas. The administrative county comprises four districts: Aylesbury Vale, Chiltern, South Bucks, and Wycombe. The geographic county also includes the unitary authority of Milton Keynes. The historic county encompasses the entire geographic county as well as the unitary authority of Slough, the part of the unitary authority of Windsor and Maidenhead that is north of the Thames, and the town of Linslade, which lies in South Bedfordshire district in the administrative county of Bedfordshire. Aylesbury is the county town (seat).

Landscapes are varied, and prior to the 20th century the historic county was deeply rural. The modern growth of London has, with the help of excellent road and rail links with the city, dominated the southernmost third of the county and created long ribbons of suburban development in the valleys of the Chiltern Hills. Commuter rail services extend to Aylesbury and High Wycombe, which are some of London’s wealthiest suburbs.

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The historic county of Buckinghamshire was affected by each phase of English settlement from the Neolithic to the Saxon, and under the latter’s rule it was part of the kingdom of Mercia, resisted Danish invasion from the east, and became prosperous. The Chiltern Hills were heavily forested, however, and clearance of the woodland was completed only in the early 17th century. A principal feature of the period that followed was the creation of great estates with magnificent houses, e.g., Cliveden, now owned by the National Trust, and Stowe, converted into a school. Access to London was a factor in that development and has continued to be responsible for population growth in the county.

Stoke Mandeville Hospital in Aylesbury is internationally known for its treatment of spinal-cord injuries and has hosted the World Stoke Mandeville Wheelchair Games—the forerunner of the Paralympic Games—since 1948. The town of Olney, in north Buckinghamshire, was the home of the 18th-century poet William Cowper.

Industry in the historic county was, until after World War II, represented by printing and light manufacturing at Aylesbury, furniture at High Wycombe, diversified manufacturing at Slough, and railway workshops at Wolverton. Since the late 20th century, however, remarkable new growth has been registered in the northernmost tip of the county, where the former small towns of Bletchley, Newport Pagnell, and Wolverton have been absorbed by the new town of Milton Keynes, created in 1967. That new development attracted industry and research institutions, and in 1971 it became the headquarters of Great Britain’s Open University. Meanwhile, suburban residential development continued in the southern part of the geographic county. Area, administrative county, 604 square miles (1,565 square km); geographic county, 724 square miles (1,876 square km). Pop. (2001) administrative county, 479,026; geographic county, 676,083; (2011) administrative county, 505,283; geographic county, 754,014.