Monument record 0033400000 - UPPER SOUTH FARM, QUAINTON

Dimensions - Width 0707 Length 0707 cm
Plan Form - SQUARE
CIVIL WAR EARTHWORK DESIGNED AS A BATTERY POSITION FOR A SINGLE CANNON. OPEN HORSESHOE PLAN, WITH A TRIPLE-SIDED DEFENSIVE DITCH, 50M SQUARE OVERALL AND COVERING APPROX 3/4 ACRE. PARALLELS IN LINCOLNSHIRE, DERBYSHIRE, NOTTS & ELSEWHERE. 70M ABOVE SEA LEVEL WITH ALL EMBRACING ZONE OF FIRE. TREE & SCRUB COVERED, BUT IN GOOD CONDITION (B2).
THEORY THAT IT IS A HOMESTEAD MOAT (B1) DISPUTED (B2).
The earthworks could support either interpretation and lack of documentary evidence means function must remain inconclusive. Impact of proposed HS2 rail line assessed. See report for detail (B3).

A possible medieval and/or post medieval moat site or English Civil War battery is visible on historic aerial photographs and remote sensing data and was mapped as part of the Aylesbury Vale Aerial Investigation and Mapping project (EBC18604). Located in a field about 375 NE of Lower South Farm and centred at SP 72774 19671,a three-sided ditch is up to 16 metres wide: the W facing side is about 60.5 metres aligned N-S: the N facing side is about 54.5 metres aligned W-E: the S facing side is about 52 metres aligned W-E: The exterior ditch on the W,N and S facing side has linear earthwork banks. A post medieval field boundary has truncated any evidence of a ditch on the E facing side, though a curving fragmented earthwork bank and the 1st Edition OS map dated to the 1880s suggests it may have existed. The centre of the moat comprises a U-shaped platform about 32.5 metres W-E and 20 metres N-S, within which is a irregularly shaped ditch up to 20 metres wide. The evidence for and association with English Civil War activity is unclear from the earthworks’ morphology, which appear to be moat-like rather than military, but perhaps any 17th century conflict activity reused pre-existing settlement earthworks (4-7).