It is about 6 miles (9.7 km) east of Knighton and is set within the Shropshire Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

He built many castles including Montgomery, Shrewsbury, Ludlow, Clun, Hopton and Oswestry; at the time over 90 per cent of the lordships and manors of Shropshire were held in Chief by him.

The houses at the lower end of the village were very susceptible to flooding, and this hazard continued until the ford was walled up in the 1950s.

Bucknell had four pubs: The Sitwell Arms, The Plough (just opposite), The Railway Tavern and The Bridge End.

Bucknell also had a shop and bakery in the Square and its own corn mill which was at the west end of the village.

After World War I a Memorial Hall was built in the village, originally from a mess hut removed from a Canadian Army camp, and still stands.

Today the village boasts an impressive number of businesses and public services for its size: two public houses, a post office, a butcher, a petrol forecourt and shop, a general store open every day, a railway station, a primary school and numerous companies providing services to local agricultural and forestry enterprises.

The front part of the building pre-dates the rear by around 200 years making it 13th/14th century and whilst being restored was found to have once existed as a ground floor-only property and evidence of an open fire pit and an opening in the roof to allow the smoke to escape; this pre-dates the inglenook fireplace to the rear and was believed to have been a medieval great hall.

The first schoolmaster appointed in 1867 to the new St Mary's National School was Mr Henry Evans, 24 years old.

The school was extensively re-modelled in 1966 when additional teaching space and a kitchen was added enabling meals to be cooked on the premises.