Monument record 0539200000 - C800M ESE OF HULCOTT CHURCH

Dimensions - Length 0100 m Width 0060
Plan Form - RECTANGULAR
BOUNDED BY STREAM ON S & W SIDES & WITH POSS HOUSE PLATFORM IN NE CORNER, VISIBLE ON AP. FIELD SHOWN AS DETACHED PORTION OF BIERTON PARISH (B1). PART OF FIELD NOW PLOUGHED & AT TIME OF VISIT HAD CROP ON IT. OUTLINE VISIBLE AS SLIGHT DEPRESSION. DEPTH OF STREAM PRECLUDES MILL. SMALL FARMSTEAD LIKELY (B2).

A possible medieval and/or post medieval watermill site is visible on historic aerial photographs and remote sensing data as earthworks and was mapped as part of the Aylesbury Vale Aerial Investigation and Mapping project (EBC18604). Located adjacent a watercourse about 240 metres NE of Hale Farm and centred at SP 86151 16592, the earthworks comprise a rectilinear platform about 35 x 18 metres that is bounded by a rectilinear ditch up to 5 metres wide. The NW and SE corner of the ditch extend to the watercourse that empties into the adjacent River Thame, providing a head race and tail race. Just upstream of the ditched enclosure, the otherwise sinuous watercourse appears to have been straightened for a distance of about 175 metres, which has been undertaken by the 1st Edition OS map in the late 1800s.Possibly this was done to increase the speed of the water before entering the head race? A watermill in the parish is first mentioned in 1322, in the reign of Elizabeth I and again in 1652, associated with the manor. The large moated site and fishponds at Manor Farm in Hulcott lie about 700 metres to the W. Still visible as earthworks in 1954, the ditch and platform have been gradually plough levelled over the subsequent decades and on aerial photographs taken in 2023 and recent remote sensing data, the earthworks are barely visible (3-7).