Gawcott

---

title: "Gawcott" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["history-of-telecommunications-in-the-united-kingdom", "military-history-of-buckinghamshire", "villages-in-buckinghamshire"] description: "Village in Buckinghamshire, England" topic_path: "engineering" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gawcott" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Village in Buckinghamshire, England ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox UK place"]

Field	Value
official_name	Gawcott
static_image_name	Church tower, Gawcott - geograph.org.uk - 1046242.jpg
static_image_caption	Tower of Holy Trinity parish church
coordinates
os_grid_reference	SP6831
civil_parish	Gawcott with Lenborough
population	778
population_ref	(2011 Census,parish)
unitary_england	Buckinghamshire
lieutenancy_england	Buckinghamshire
region	South East England
country	England
constituency_westminster	Buckingham and Bletchley
post_town	Buckingham
postcode_district	MK18
postcode_area	MK
dial_code	01280
::

|official_name= Gawcott |static_image_name= Church tower, Gawcott - geograph.org.uk - 1046242.jpg |static_image_caption= Tower of Holy Trinity parish church |coordinates = |os_grid_reference= SP6831 |civil_parish= Gawcott with Lenborough |population= 778 |population_ref= (2011 Census,parish) |unitary_england = Buckinghamshire |lieutenancy_england = Buckinghamshire |region= South East England |country= England |constituency_westminster= Buckingham and Bletchley |post_town= Buckingham |postcode_district= MK18 |postcode_area= MK |dial_code= 01280 |website=

Gawcott is a village about 1.5 mi southwest of Buckingham in the Buckinghamshire district in the ceremonial county of Buckinghamshire, England. The village is in the civil parish of Gawcott with Lenborough.

History

The toponym is derived from the Old English for "cottage for which rent is payable". The Domesday Book of 1086 records the village as Chauescote. An alternative description for the name of Gawcott, however, comes from the old Norse word for the cuckoo, 'Gaukr', pronounced Gawk and 'cott' for house/ home/ cottage.

This explanation has some merit as in the west of the village the cuckoo was the prevalent bird up until the early 1940s when much of its habitat was destroyed to make space for servicemen in the Second World War. One of the local historic public houses of the village was also named the Cuckoo's Nest.

Sir George Gilbert Scott, the architect of the Midland Grand Hotel at St Pancras railway station in London (and numerous other buildings), was born in Gawcott{{cite web | last=Turnbull | first=Alan | title="Secret Bases" Part 1 | publisher=Pagliacci Productions Limited | date=24 August 2006 | url=https://www.secret-bases.co.uk/secret.htm?permalink=MI6 | access-date=2006-08-30}} where his father, the Reverend Thomas Scott (1780–1835), was perpetual curate.

Signal Hill

To the east of the village is Signal Hill, which was a former FCO/MI6 signals intelligence station.

References

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Footnotes for an explanation of how to generate footnotes using the tags, and the template below

References

1. [http://www.neighbourhood.statistics.gov.uk/dissemination/LeadKeyFigures.do?a=7&b=11123686&c=Gawcott&d=16&e=62&g=6404053&i=1001x1003x1032x1004&m=0&r=1&s=1359910805504&enc=1 Neighbourhood Statistics 2011 Census], Accessed 3 February 2013
2. (July 2024). "Location of Buckingham and Bletchley".
3. (June 2016). "Get-a-map - Gawcott". [[Ordnance Survey]].
4. "Monument record 0942000000 - Signal Hill Transmitter Station". [[Buckinghamshire County Council]].
5. "Buckingham · Buckingham MK18 4BU, UK".
6. and

::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::