Monument record MBC43481 - Five post-medieval sand and gravel extractive pits

Five post medieval sand and gravel extractive pits are visible on historic aerial photographs and remote sensing data as earthworks and were mapped as part of the North Buckinghamshire Aerial Investigation and Mapping project (EBC18304). Located in fields on Drayton Common southwest of Stokeroad Farm and centred at SP 85506 27875, the irregularly shaped extraction pits are aligned roughly W-E and about 1,553, 159, 511, 2,650 and 1,325 square metres in area. These pits are not shown on the 1881 1st edition OS map. They are all cut into medieval ridge and furrow cultivation blocks and so post-date them. These are part of a large cluster of extractive pits that may have been created to provide raw material for Stewkley’s brickmaking industry, for which there are at least two kiln sites close by. Visible as earthworks on aerial photographs taken in 1944, four of the pits remain extant on aerial photographs taken in 2019, whilst the fifth is plough-levelled (1-4).