Monument record 0071500000 - AROUND ST GILES CHURCH

EVIDENCE OF VILLAGE EARTHWORKS & HOUSE PLATFORMS FROM A/PS (B1).
SOME HOUSE PLATFORMS N & W OF CHURCH BUT QUARRYING MAKES COHERENT PATTERN DIFFICULT TO SEE. IN FIELD TO S & SE OF ROAD RECOGNIZABLE COMPLEX OF HOUSE PLATFORMS & TRACKS (B2). DESCRIPTION, SURVEY & PHOTOS ETC OF SITE (B4).

Remains of medieval village shrinkage 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). The earthworks are located across three areas in the village: north of Manor Farm and centred at SP 77446 20293: east of Pitchcott Manor and centred at SP 77800 20307: and east of Manor Farm Cottages and centred at SP 77698 20541. The earthworks east of Manor Farm Cottages comprise a possible linear hollow way or trackway up to 8 metres wide that extends sbout 170 metres ESE-WNW between two blocks of ridge and furrow cultivation leading to a rectangular platform about 15 x 20 metres. The trackway then turns about 60 metres NNE, flanked on either side by an earthwork bank. In a field east of Pitchcott Manor, a sinuous hollow way up to 6 metres wide extends about 196 metres SW-E. To the E of this are four large subrectangular earthwork platforms aligned NNW-SSW, the largest of which is about 70 x 24 metres at its widest points, and each platform bounded by ditches. The earthworks also include sections of L shaped earthwork banks, as well as more amorphous banks, mounds and hollows. Centred at SP 77743 20315 is a circular mound about 17 metres in diameter, with a boundary ditch about 2 metres wide encircling about two thirds of the mound. This may represent the remains of a windmill mound. In a field on the W side of Pitchcott Road, just N of Manor Farm, a sinuous hollow way or trackway up to 6.5 metres wide extends 255 metres SW-N, abutting which on both sides are three irregularly shaped and sized earthwork banks or platforms. At the N end of the hollow way is a large irregularly shaped pit about 983 square metres in area, probably the remains of post medieval extraction. On aerial photographs taken in 2023 and recent remote sensing data, the earthworks remain visible (5-8).