Secklow Hundred Mound – Milton Keynes’ ancestral meeting place

‘Behind the Central Library lies a Scheduled Ancient Monument (nationally important archaeological site) known as Secklow Mound. Secklow was the name of one of the Hundreds – an Anglo-Saxon administrative area – that comprised the Milton Keynes area. The low turf-built mound served as a meeting place for the elders of the Secklow Hundred and is close to the point where three parishes meet, a typically isolated spot for a Saxon ‘moot’ or meeting place.
Prior to the construction of the New Town, knowledge of the site of Secklow Mound had passed from local memory. However, historical research carried out by the newly formed Milton Keynes Archaeological Unit (MKAU) in the 1970s led to the rediscovery of the mound on a plan of 1641 marked as ‘Selly Hill’. Fieldwork confirmed the precise location of the mound to the edge of the City Centre. A subsequent excavation by MKAU revealed a low flat turf mound surrounded by a 1 metre wide ditch and to the recovery of medieval pottery.
In 1978 the mound was reconstructed and landscaped protecting the significant archaeological remains beneath a ‘new’ mound. At the same time, it was added to the national Schedule of Ancient Monuments making it the archaeological equivalent of a Grade I listed building.‘
(Courtesy of Nick Crank, Senior Archaeologist at Milton Keynes Council)