Administrative Boundary of Buckinghamshire

About Buckinghamshire

Buckinghamshire is a unitary authority in the South East of England, bordered by Oxfordshire to the west, Hertfordshire to the northeast, Bedfordshire to the north, Northamptonshire to the northeast, and the Thames to the south. Created as a unitary authority in April 2020 from the merger of the four former district councils (Aylesbury Vale, Chiltern, South Bucks, and Wycombe), Buckinghamshire covers approximately 1,874 square kilometres. With a population of approximately 545,000 (2021 Census), it encompasses the county town of Aylesbury, the Chiltern Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, magnificent stately homes, and the county's unique role in British political and cultural history. History and Heritage Buckinghamshire has been at the heart of English political and cultural life for centuries. The county contains an extraordinary density of country houses, historic parks, and great estates reflecting its proximity to London and its popularity among the aristocracy and political class. Stowe, in the north of the county near Buckingham, contains what is widely regarded as the finest landscape garden in England — and one of the most influential in the world. Developed between approximately 1710 and 1780 by a succession of owners including Viscount Cobham and the Temple-Grenville family, working with landscape designers including Charles Bridgeman, William Kent, and Lancelot "Capability" Brown, the gardens at Stowe established many of the principles of the English landscape garden style that swept Europe in the 18th century: informally placed lakes, serpentine paths, classical temples and monuments, and carefully composed views. The gardens contain more than 40 historic buildings and temples, including the Temple of British Worthies and the Temple of Ancient Virtue. Stowe is managed by the National Trust; Stowe School, one of England's leading independent schools, occupies the house. Waddesdon Manor, near Aylesbury, was built in 1874–1889 for Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild in the style of a French Renaissance château. The house contains one of the finest collections of French decorative arts outside France, including Sèvres porcelain, Savonnerie carpets, paintings by Reynolds, Gainsborough, and Dutch masters, and extraordinary furniture that once belonged to French royal households. Managed by the National Trust, Waddesdon is one of the most visited houses in the NT portfolio. West Wycombe, a village owned entirely by the National Trust, preserves the character of an 18th-century estate village. West Wycombe Park was the home of Sir Francis Dashwood, founder of the notorious Hell-Fire Club (the Order of the Friars of St Francis of Wycombe) — a gathering of aristocratic libertines who met in the caves beneath the hill in the 1750s and 1760s. The chalk caves, open to the public, are one of Buckinghamshire's most visited curiosities. Chiltern Hills The Chiltern Hills, a chalk escarpment running diagonally across Buckinghamshire, are designated as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty for their beech woodlands, rolling downland, and characteristic flint villages. Burnham Beeches — a remnant of ancient pollarded beechwood managed by the City of London Corporation — is a National Nature Reserve of exceptional ecological importance. Chesham, Great Missenden (home of Roald Dahl), Amersham, and High Wycombe (historically famous for furniture-making, particularly chairs — High Wycombe was the centre of the Windsor chair industry) are among the Chiltern towns. HS2 and Transport Buckinghamshire is the principal county through which HS2 (High Speed 2) passes on the first phase from London to Birmingham, and the construction has been a major controversy, with many residents and campaign groups opposing the destruction of woodland, ancient hedgerows, and countryside. The Chiltern tunnel section — the longest continuous tunnel driven in the UK — passes beneath the Chilterns. Population and Demographics The 2021 Census recorded approximately 545,000 residents. Buckinghamshire is predominantly White British (approximately 85%) with some South Asian communities in Aylesbury and High Wycombe. GIS and Boundary Data The administrative boundary of Buckinghamshire unitary authority is available for free download in GeoJSON and KML formats, sourced from the ONS Open Geography Portal (Crown copyright 2024). Compatible with QGIS, ArcGIS, Mapbox, and Google Earth, the dataset supports Chilterns AONB management, landscape garden heritage, HS2 corridor planning, transport analysis, and demographic research across the Buckinghamshire local authority area.

📍 Administrative boundary of Buckinghamshire county