Chartridge - More about pre-Norman Chartridge

Although there has been no large scale archaeological investigation of the hills around Chesham, Bronze Age (around 2000-650 BC) and Iron Age (around 650 BC-AD 43) artefacts have been found in the area. Iron Age occupation along the Icknield Way at the foot of the Chilterns scarp slope is indicated by pottery finds and along the top of the scarp there is a string of hill forts. The closest of these to Chartridge is at Cholesbury. A villa site at Latimer in the Chess Valley was probably occupied continuously from the early Iron Age to the beginning of the 5th century AD and there is some evidence for a Romano-British settlement in Chesham. A coin of Septimius Severus (AD 193-211), who died while campaigning in Britain, was found in a trench in Chartridge Lane.

Following the withdrawal of Roman governorship, early in the 5th century, England became a mosaic of kingships and tribal allegiances. What was to become Buckinghamshire belonged to Mercia - the kingdom of the middle Saxons. The heavily wooded high ground of the Chilterns eventually came under the control of the kingdom of Wessex before all England was united under King Cnut in 1017.