Christine Buckingham was born and educated in Oxford. She was initially teacher trained before completing her BSc Hons in the Department of Earth Sciences at Oxford Brookes University. Postgraduate employment included work as a geologist with geotechnical engineers Geoffrey Walton and as a researcher with Zetica (now Zetica UXO).
Between 1989 and 1999 Christine was co-director of the excavations at Stanton Harcourt with overall responsibility for recording the geology and stratigraphy and also carried out field work at several other Upper Thames sites.
Christine graduated with a DPhil from Oxford Brookes University (in collaboration with the Donald Baden-Powell Quaternary Research Centre, Oxford University) in 2004. Her field work formed the basis of her dissertation.
She is an Honorary Associate of the Oxford University Museum of Natural History.