Monument record 0803300000 - Church Hill and West Wycombe Hill, West Wycombe

Detailed earthwork survey carried out between April 2000 and June 2001 by English Heritage identified earthwork remains of a medieval and post-medieval field system. Lynchets, ridge and furrow and trackways survived to the northwest, east and south of the hillfort [CAS 02866].
Northwest of the hillfort, two medieval hollow ways extend south. The first closely follows the modern field edge, whilst the second follows an earlier terraced trackway for a distance of 60m before converging with the first some 50m beyond. A steep scarp up to 2m in height, probably medieval in date and shown in this position on early maps, defines the modern field edge almost as far as Chorley Road. This hollow way is flanked, for the most part, on the east by a lynchet, 1.4m in height which defines the lower limit of the medieval re-use of the early field system, as evidenced by the presence of narrow ridge-and-furrow ploughing. From the main hollow way another arm branches north towards an area of surface quarrying. From the point of convergence of the two medieval hollow ways they continue south as one feature terraced into the natural slope at a width of 2.0-3.1m. Flanked downhill by acontemporary boundary scarp, here 1.4m in height, and the modem fence, the track curves gently with the contour of the hill onto the southern slopes.
East of the hilifort scarps at an interval of 20m-30m are clearly associated with the medieval cultivation of this slope, further evidence of which is provided by the presence of straight, narrow, ridge-and-furrow ploughing. Two scarps 0.3-1.2m in height extend along the top of the ridge above the field system on a roughly north-south orientation and may represent a terraced trackway 6m in width associated either with access to the east entrance of the hilifort or with the later, medieval landscape. At the base of the slope, to the east of the hilifort, a number of sharply defined trackways cut diagonally across the gradient.
To the south there is evidence of ridge-and-furrowof medieval and more recent date, particularly on the low-lying slopes closest to the modem road junction. See report for details (B1-3).
Conservation management plan (B4).