Monument record 0043600000 - BEACHAMPTON,HALL FARM

MOAT, 2 FISHPONDS, HOUSE PLATFORMS/VILLAGE EARTHWORKS VISIBLE IN AREA BOUNDED BY HALL FARM, ST MARY'S CHURCH, MANOR FARM, SCHOOL ETC. NGR TO CENTRE; SEE CASS MAP (B1).
COVERS AN AREA OF C.27HA (JPP). 1988 AP shows an additional small area of earthworks to the north of the previously known area.
Detailed earthwork survey (B4).

Plot boundaries, garden features, roads, building platforms and extractive pits of medieval date are visible on historic aerial photographs and remote sensing data as earthworks and were mapped as part of the North Buckinghamshire Aerial Investigation and Mapping project (EBC18304). Located surrounding the village of Beachampton and centred at SP 477199 237151 These earthworks of former settlement at Beachampton, including those at The Grange (MBC7373 and MBC1611) at the southern end of the village (which could not be seen on photographs available to this project), surround Beachampton Hall, the church and the current settlement, extending south along the existing road, Main Street/Stratford Road, and Watery Lane. The historic maps of this area are the Epoch 1 1:2500 Ordnance Survey map, the 1814 Ordnance Surveyors’ drawing for Stony Stratford and a transcription of a plan of the estate of Right Honourable Earl of Shrewsbury at Beachampton surveyed in 1771, but the detail on the latter is not comprehensive but it is useful for field names and boundaries.
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Earthworks around Beachampton Hall
- West of the Hall
This area is recorded as Little Queens Close 1771, it is immediately north of the church and contains earthworks that could be plot boundaries, a central road (12 across and bounded by ditches and banks), possible garden features (a long, wide area bounded by ditches and banks) and smaller enclosures/gardens/paddocks. There is also an area that could possibly be formal garden features; it is a subrectangular area, approximately 40mx40m with a hollow at the centre but the features are not clear on lidar visualisations. These features are crossed by a probable later road at the northern end of the area, which extends from the farm buildings at the site of the Manor house and to the west across Great Queen’s Close towards a field barn/old gravel pit shown on Epoch 1 mapping; these features are not recorded on the 1771 plan.
- South of Hall
This area contains the extant manor house buildings and 17th century farm buildings, the former walled area with 17th century gate piers and the C15-16 manor house. The 1771 map shows this as Old Orchard and Orchard around the house. A watercourse, joining with the River Ouse at the northern end, forms the eastern boundary of this parcel, with likely ponds along its course. These are recorded in a survey of part of the parkland features. Aerial photographs show no trees in the southern half of the parcel in 1946 and 1975 but earthworks of possible former boundaries and water ditches are visible on aerial photographs and lidar visualisations. Features mapped appear to be former boundaries, ditches (water channels?) and ponds which appear of Epoch 1 mapping.
-Earthworks east of Beachampton Hall
East of the Manor house, on the east side of Beachampton Stream, is what was a large field, in 1771 called Shrieve’s End, by 1814 it has a boundary dividing it in two, but no boundary is shown by the Epoch 1 map. The earthworks in this field appear, along the stream on the west side to be a continuation of parkland/garden features recorded in the parkland survey undertaken by the Buckinghamshire Gardens Trust Research and Recording Project and continue beyond that survey area. They stop at a probable road feature which curves away from the site of the manor at the norther end, closer to the river, where it splits with one branch leading towards the river (and possibly continuing along the river towards the old bridge at Mill Farm, where the road is labelled ‘to Buckingham’) and the other leading through what appears to be an area of settlement, laid out with plots along a central road. The plot boundaries continue the alignment of the ridge and furrow, visible as earthworks in surrounding fields in the 1940, and may be enhanced ridges used as boundaries, with possible building platforms visible as low earthworks. The line of the road through the settlement appears to continue in the pattern of ridge and furrow earthworks, as plough headlands forming a baulk in ridge and furrow, on aerial photographs from the 1940s and as a levelled earthwork visible on lidar visualisations; it is the route of a modern footpath. Field boundaries between Mill Close and Shrieve’s End deviate at the point where the they are crossed by this feature. Not all features could be clearly identified from the sources available to the project.
- Earthworks either side of Main Street, Beachampton
South of Thornton Road, on the west side of Main Street, earthworks of ridge and furrow plot boundaries and possible building platforms are visible on aerial photographs and lidar visualisations. The transcription of the 1771 map shows this area called Pightles (small piece of land) with some owners’ names which are recorded in later field names on the HER (Durants). Some buildings are visible but not accurately shown.
- On the east side of Main Street, further earthworks of former plot boundaries and possible other features are visible on aerial photographs and lidar visualisations. A large extractive pit has removed and truncated earthworks of ridge and furrow and other features. The transcription of the 1771 plan shows this area called New House Close and Home Ground. The new house may be referring to Manor Farmhouse, dated 1772 and Listed. No further features show on this map or the plan of 1814. The earthworks appear to be drainage ditches or maybe a larger, one could possibly be interpreted as part of a moated site but this may be ambitious. Linear features could be trackways associated with the extraction of stone/clay for building materials. Modern land use is pasture, with some areas built over with farm buildings to the east of Manor Farmhouse. Lidar visualisations show uneven ground throughout the area which is not all remnants of ridge and furrow.
- The extent of earthworks associated with former settlement cover a much wider area than the currently occupied settlement and the GIS shape needs to be amended to cover the Shrieve’s End. (9-24)