Monument record MBC43483 - A post-medieval sand and gravel extraction pit

Two post medieval sand and gravel extraction pits are visible on historic aerial photographs as earthworks and was mapped as part of the North Buckinghamshire Aerial Investigation and Mapping project (EBC18304). Located in a field NE of Stewkley village and centred at SP 85476 27197, the two irregularly shaped extraction pit are aligned W-E and about 140 metres apart, being about 773 and 1,411 square metres in area and are not shown on the 1881 1st edition OS map. 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, the pits appear to remain extant in 2019 (1-3).