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The name ‘Aylesbury’ is thought to be a derivative of
‘Aigle’s Burgh’ meaning hill town or fort. Excavations
in 1985 on a site adjacent to Nelsons Terrace and Oxford Road in
 Aylesbury
Old Town found the remains of an Iron Age hillfort dating back to
650 BC.
At the start of the first millennium the Romans built Akeman Street,
which runs through Aylesbury Vale as the A41. It was part of their
great road network in Britain, created initially for moving troops
and equipment rapidly from one base to another. Akeman Street ran
for 78 miles from Verulamium (St Albans) to Corinium (Cirencester).
Later this military amenity served to facilitate the growth of Romano-British
trade and commerce. When they departed Britain the Romans left Saxon
mercenaries guarding Akeman Street. The remains of a Romano-British
settlement from the 1st/2nd Century were found in 1979 in Buckingham
Street, where Sainsbury’s store now stands.
571 heralded the arrival of Cuthwulf and his army of Anglo-Saxons,
who drove the resident Celtic Britons out of the area. Later the
Danes came, ousted the Anglo-Saxons and settled i n
their place; but they in turn were overrun in the 10th century by
Edward the Confessor’s troops. About 90 years of instability
then followed and the area was not pacified until after the Norman
conquest of 1066.
Aylesbury was given its Charter and Borough status in 1554 by a
grateful Mary Tudor, in appreciation of the Town’s loyalty
in declaring her Queen of England against the competing claims of
Lady Jane Grey.
During the English Civil War Aylesbury at times took centre-stage.
At the Battle of Holman’s Bridge in 1642 the defence of Aylesbury
was led by John Hampden, cousin to Oliver Cromwell. As an MP John
had opposed Charles I on the Ship Money issue, refusing to pay the
tax which was being levied to underwrite an expansion of the Royal
Navy. A bronze statue at the top of Market Square commemorates his
contribution to the Parliamentary cause.
Another radical MP for Aylesbury, in the 18th Century, was John
Wilkes. Wilkes, often called  the
‘Father of English Liberties’, spent time in the Tower
of London, accused of seditious libel. Through his resolute stance
against tyrannic government Wilkes eventually secured a free press,
the right to privacy, freedom from unreasonable seizures and searches,
and the prohibition of non-specific arrest warrants.
Also in the 18th century Aylesbury gradually usurped the role of
County Town from Buckingham. Buckingham is a long way from the south
of the County and Aylesbury slowly replaced it as the centre of
administration. The Summer Assizes and the Law Courts moved here
in 1707 and this took much trade away from Buckingham. In 1725 a
terrible fire in Buckingham destroyed a large area of the Town Centre
and made more than 500 people homeless. This confirmed Aylesbury
as the centre of government for the County.
During the 19th century Aylesbury developed links with transport
networks connecting to other parts of the country. The Aylesbury
Branch of the Grand Union Canal was opened in 1814 and is thought
to have been used as a staging post in the transportation of slaves
before slavery  was
abolished. In 1839 Aylesbury was the first place in the world to
have its own branch line. The Great Western Railway built a branch
from Princes Risborough in 1863, and the Metropolitan Railway arrived
in 1892. A connection to Buckingham was completed in 1868 and in
1899, when the Great Central Railway arrived, Aylesbury was finally
on a main line from London to Manchester.
The Town grew very slowly from Medieval times until the beginning
of the 19th century, when the population of Britain started to increase
generally. The 1811 census showed the population of Aylesbury as
3,447; the 1841 census recorded 5,414 residents and in 1901 it was
9,243. The number of townspeople increased steadily until the 1960s,
when Aylesbury was selected as an overspill town for Londoners.
A massive expansion of the housing stock then took place. At the
same time, the centre of Aylesbury was extensively renovated and
modernised. By 1995 the population had increased to about 60,000.
This has risen to roughly 65,000 in 2010 but is expected to reach
100,000 over the next 20 years.
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