Monument record 0003200000 - 450M NNE BRIARS BANK FARM: Mychel Horwood Manor

Plan Form - LINEAR
'DIVERSE DITCHES', WHERE FOUNDATIONS WERE PERHAPS DUG UP. THE SITE OF 'THE MANOR PLACE OF MICHEL HORWOOD' FORMERLY LOCATED 'AT WHYRLDYCH, IN PRIOR'S WOOD'? (B2).
NGR FROM THIS DESC & APS (B3); SKETCH/FURTHER INFO, CAS CARD. WAS 'LINE OF ENTRENCHMENTS' (B1) THE SAME EARTHWORKS? (BUT SEE CASS 0219).
An article tracing the 10th century boundary of the Manor of Winslow notes the the reference to 'Manor of Mychel Horwood at Whirledich in the Priors Wood stood until pulled down by Sir Ralph Rochford so that he could live nearer to God and the church' (B4).

A subcircular enclosure of possible Saxon/Medieval date is visible on historic aerial photographs and remote sensing data as earthworks and levelled earthworks and was mapped as part of the North Buckinghamshire Aerial Investigation and Mapping project (EBC18304). Located on the south side of College Wood, Great Horwood, and centred at SP 479437 232994. Recorded as possible site of Mychel Horwood Manor; it is a sub circular enclosure visible as earthworks of banks and ditches in 1935/6. The earthwork is approximately 62x46m with possible linear features at the centre. An area of subcircular mounds is visible on the outside of the enclosure on the north side with a possible trackway. The enclosure boundary is a ditch between banks, which are linear mounds in some places. There are other ditches nearby which may be a result of the poorly drained soil in the area. It is at the northern end of a (medieval) road along the former woodland of Sallow Coppice (willows) from Briarsbank Farm. This enclosure and the road are not shown on the 1813 OS drawing but the road is drawn on a map recreating the township of Great Horwood at the end of the fourteenth century as part of a PhD thesis, but this does not show the subcircular enclosure. The site has been infilled with soil/rubble since 2003 and the earthworks do not show clearly on lidar visualisations. (10-16)