Monument record 0078500000 - MAIDS MORETON

Dimensions - Radius 80m.
Plan Form - Circular.
Circular enclosure, visible on AP (B3).
Broad curving bank visible on W side of site & part of N & S sides (B4).
An Iron Age socketed axe, the largest known in the British Isles (B2) ploughed up in the centre of the enclosure in 1967 (B1).
1:2500 survey filed (B5).
Scheduled: SAM 29420 (B6).
Included in English |Heritage's Heritage ar Risk Register 2009, 2011 and 2015. Condition described as 'Extensive significant problems ie under plough, collapse' with principal vulnerability from arable ploughing and trend as declining (B7-9).

A univallate hillfort of Iron Age date is visible on historic aerial photographs and remote sensing data as earthworks, levelled earthworks and cropmarks and was mapped as part of the North Buckinghamshire Aerial Investigation and Mapping project (EBC18304). Located near the River Ouse/Padbury Brook confluence, Maids Moreton, and centred at SP 72419 34713. The subcircular earthworks measure approximately 188m in diameter with further ditches visible, as cropmarks, outside these on the south west side. It is skirted by the course of the Grand Junction Canal on the south side and a field and parish boundary on the north side. Cropmarks show possible interior features but it is not possible to say whether these are due to geology from the aerial photographs. The 1591 map of Maids Moreton shows this field as Norbery Furlonge and the detailed image shows the occupiers of each furlong within this parcel. Land use is arable and there appears to have been some infilling of the earthworks since 2010 (B12-19).




A large oval entrenchment, identical to one near Dorchester, classified by Miss M V Taylor as late Belgic and contemporary with the Roman invasion, was found in a field on the same farm as the Foxcote villa (SP 73 NW 2) (B20).
Faint oval bank (centred at SP 72433472) (B21).
A socketed iron axe, 18.3 cm long, was found in 1967 whilst ploughing by Mr J Beckett within the oval earthwork (presumed to be IA) at SP 724347. No other finds are recorded from the site. The axe is in the possession of the Buckingham Arch Soc (B2).
The spread remains of a penannular univallate earthwork, situated on the edge of a flood plain. The work is under grass, and from ground and AP evidence it formerly enclosed an internal area of c 160.0 m. overall diameter,(c 3.0 hectares). The work is best preserved in areas centred SP 72403480 & SP 72363466 as a scarp 0.9 m max. height with a slight ditch visible as a vegetation mark. The course of the scarp and ditch is detectable except in the SE where a former canal has destroyed it. A spread of c 34.0 m from ditch exterior to inner bank gives an impression of the former dimensions, which are consistent with an IA defended enclosure/settlement. This work is similar in size, shape and situation to Norbury (SP 73 SW 5). Mr J Beckett was not the finder of the socketed axe, but he believes it was found in the area of SP 72523473 (B23).
The field in which the work lies is due to be ploughed again in the near future. Surveyed at 1:2500 (B22).

This record includes National Record of the Historic Environment Information provided by Historic England on 4 June 2025 licensed under the Open Government Licence.