Monument record 0523100000 - AUSTENWOOD COMMON

Plan Form - RECTANGULAR
3 SIDES OF AN APPROX RECTANGULAR ENCLOSURE ON AIRPHOTO. SHOWS ON GROUND AS A BANK AND DITCH (01:000). NE SIDE PRESUMABLY DESTROYED BY LANE. OPPOSITE LANE A SAWPIT WITH LOW BANK RUNNING NW/SE BETWEEN SAW PIT AND LANE. PERHAPS A MEDIEVAL/POST-MEDIEVAL WOODLAND INDUSTRY AND SETTLEMENT (B1).

Medieval settlement remains on Austenwood Common. The site consists of some earthworks which were noted on a Bucks Air Survey AP in 1983 and visited the same year by the SMR officer, who noted that they consisted of a low bank approximately 35cm high and 45-60cm wide with a shallow external ditch on 3 sides. The NE side has been destroyed by the road. On the opposite side of the road is a sawpit with another similar low bank running NW/SE between the sawpit and the road. The whole might represent a late medieval/post medieval woodland industry and small associated settlement.
The interpretation of the remains as evidence of settlement has little to support it. The banks could easily represent woodland divisions and the 'sawpit' is irregular, embanked, and not vastly dissimilar from two or three extraction hollows located elsewhere on the common. There is presently no evidence from which to date the features, although nearby houses appear to date from the 1900s - 1950s and the extraction hollows may well be related to their construction.
Further documentary research might uncover some information from which to characterise the earthworks. The local historians have turned up very little, the only notable fact being that a pest house was erected on the common during the small pox epidemic of 1741. The precise location of this is unknown, although the boundary banks could conceivably be related to such a structure (2).
This record includes National Record of the Historic Environment Information provided by Historic England on 4 June 2025 licensed under the Open Government Licence (3).