Buckinghamshire County
Council

Buckinghamshire is in the South East England. The county town is Aylesbury, the largest town in the ceremonial county is Milton Keynes and largest town in the non-metropolitan county is High Wycombe.

It is the location of the nationally important Pinewood Studios and Dorney Lake, which will be holding the rowing events at the 2012 Summer Olympics. It is also well known for the new town of Milton Keynes and the Chiltern Hills area of outstanding natural beauty.

The county includes two of the four longest rivers in England. The River Thames forms the southern boundary with Berkshire, which has crept over the border at Eton and Slough meaning the river is no longer the sole boundary between the two counties. The River Great Ouse begins just outside the county in Northamptonshire and flows east through Buckingham, Milton Keynes and Olney.

The coat of arms of Buckinghamshire County Council features a white swan in chains. This dates back to the Anglo-Saxon period, when swans were bred in Buckinghamshire for the king's pleasure. That the swan is in chains illustrates that the swan is bound to the monarch, an ancient law that still applies to wild swans in the UK today. The arms were first borne at the Battle of Agincourt by the Duke of Buckingham.
Above the swan is a gold band, in the centre of which is Whiteleaf Cross, representing the many ancient landmarks of the county. The shield is surmounted by a beech tree, representing the Chiltern Forest that once covered almost half the county. Either side of the shield are a buck, for Buckingham, and a swan, the county symbol.
The motto of the shield says Vestigia Nulla Retrorsum. This is Latin and means 'no stepping back'.