Monument record 0683500000 - Between Blackpit and Home Wood field system

Aerial photogaphs show former field boundaries and a trackway in the large fields NE of Blackpit. (1, 2)

Blocks of 19th century ridge and furrow cultivation are visible on historic aerial photographs as earthworks and was mapped as part of the North Buckinghamshire Aerial Investigation and Mapping project (EBC18304). Located in fields NE of Blackpit Farm and NW of Home Wood, centred at SP 68077 40452, small irregularly shaped blocks ridge and furrow cultivation have been established within the post-inclosure field system. The 1814 Ordnance Surveyor Drawing shows the area to be covered in woodland known as Great Wood, which was part of Stowe Park at that time. Part of this woodland has been felled and cleared for fields by the 1881 OS 1st edition map and the ridge and furrow is presumably created at this time, possibly for drainage due to the undulating terrain and sinuous watercourses. Aerial photographs taken in 1946 and 1947 suggest that the earthworks are quite levelled by that time, possibly by ploughing or because they were never substantial at the time of their creation. Aerial photographs taken in 2019 and recent remote sensing data indicate that these features have been plough-levelled and are no longer visible (3-8).