Monument record 0057702000 - CHETWODE MOATS

Plan Form - RECTANGULAR
FEET OF FINES, FEB 1224, REFER TO THE FISHPOND AT CHETWODE (B10).
2 FISHPONDS, C.320M SSW OF CHURCH. THE LARGER IS 0.275 HA, CENTRED AT SP64330 29965; SMALLER, DIRECTLY TO S, IS 0.53 HA, CENTRED AT SP64330 29920. NGR TO LARGER POND; NGR BOUNDARY INCLUDES BOTH PONDS (B8).

The remains of several medieval ponds are visible on historic aerial photographs and remote sensing data as earthworks and was mapped as part of the North Buckinghamshire Aerial Investigation and Mapping project (EBC18304). Part of more extensive medieval settlement earthworks in Chetwode village, the pond-moat complex is located in a field about 335 metres NE of St Mary and St Nicholas’s church and centred at SP 64332 29975 and comprises three separate linear ponds, two of which were formerly part of a larger single interconnected complex of ponds recorded on the 1813 Ordnance Surveyor’s Drawing and the 1881 dated 1st Edition OS map. Aerial photographs taken between 1946 and 1961 show that the site was heavily covered in vegetation during that time and the earthworks were entirely obscured, so their condition is unclear for that period. However, by 1973 the woodland coverage has been cleared and the site appears extensively flooded. However, compared to the OS mapping, the visible fragmentary earthworks suggest the site was somewhat levelled during the 20th century. The surviving earthworks visible on recent remote sensing data comprise a rectangular ditch about 31 x 24 metres, covering about 628 square metres in area and centred at SP 64328 29922. Centred some 56 metres to the NNW and centred at SP 64311 29971, a rectilinear pond is about 53 x 10 metres and 499 square metres in area. Centred some 63 metres to the NE and centred at SP 64344 30023, an L-shaped ditch between 3.5 and 11 metres wide extends 36 metres S-N and turns W for a further 28 metres, covering an area of about 495 square metres (11-18).