Monument record 0010300000 - MIDDLE FARM, SHIPTON LEE

Plan Form - CRESCENTIC
CRESCENTIC BANK WITH GAP ON W SIDE. BANK IS SUBSTANTIAL: C11M WIDE, 2.5M HIGH. IF ONCE MADE A COMPLETE CIRCLE, CANNOT NOW BE PROVED. INTERIOR IRREGULAR, WITH SMALL MOUND. ?WATERCOURSE/ PONDS CUT THROUGH BANK ON W SIDE. POND FOR FISH, FOWL, OR MILL? SKETCH ON CAS CARD; SITE 600M NW OF MIDDLE FARM (B1).
In addition to the fishpond complex at Grange Farm there were two large single 'pond bays' on the Ray itself. This is one of them. This pond covers 7.4 acres (B6).

A probable post-medieval pond bay 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). Located on a meadow adjacent the River Ray south of Finemere Wood about 600 metres NW of Middle Farm and centred at SP 72349 21481, an earthwork embankment that is up to 10 metres wide curves in a C-shape for about 224 metres. In the centre of the C is a 5 metres wide gap, through which a linear ditch passes. Along the inside of the C shaped bank is a narrow boundary ditch. Within the C is a roughly circular mound of uncertain function about 13.5 metres in diameter upon which historic aerial photographs show a large tree growing from 1947 to 2010, but which had fallen by 2015. A further circular mound about 9 metres in diameter as well as two further subrectangular platforms bisected by the linear ditch, all of uncertain function. This is a probable pond bay, an embankment or dam across a stream, with a sluice that controlled water levels in the pond it created. The purpose of this construction is unclear but it functioned to hold back water for maintaining a steady supply of water in a possibly seasonally-fluctuating watercourse. The pond bay may be associated with iron-making, or used as fish ponds for manorial or religious sites, or even connected with a mill. The south part of the pond bay bank appears to bisect two blocks of medieval ridge and furrow cultivation, which might suggest a post-medieval rather than medieval origin. This is one of two such embanked areas or probable pond bays on the River Ray in Buckinghamshire, the other being near Greatmoor (7-10).