Monument record MBC43502 - Medieval and/or post medieval ridge and furrow cultivation, plough headlands, boundary ditches and furlong boundary banks in Drayton Parslow parish

An almost contiguous swathe of medieval and/or post medieval ridge and furrow cultivation, plough headlands, boundary ditches and furlong boundary banks, remnants of the former common open-field system, is visible on historic aerial photographs and remote sensing data as earthworks and was mapped as part of the North Buckinghamshire Aerial Investigation and Mapping project (EBC18304). Located across Drayton Parslow parish and centred at SP 85112 29024, these blocks are aligned mostly NW-SE, with only a few blocks aligned SW-NE. Almost all the ridge and furrow cultivation blocks are visible as extant earthworks on aerial photographs taken in the 1940s, but aerial photographs taken in 2019 and recent remote sensing data indicate that many blocks have been plough-levelled due to changes to post-war agricultural regimes from the dominance of permanent pasture as described in the 1925 Victoria County History to more arable cultivation. The linear earthwork furlong banks are part of a much more extensive system of land division boundaries that extends eastwards into Bedfordshire and East Cambridgeshire. Whilst many of these features originate in the medieval period with the establishment of the common field cultivation system, some of the boundary banks may have earlier origins. They remain visible chiefly as extant, sinuous, parallel, plough-levelled earthwork sections on recent lidar remote sensing data, with the primary alignment roughly SW-NE. Whilst some of the linear banks respect the NW or SE boundaries of the ridge and cultivation blocks, others pass through the extant ridge and furrow, possibly indicating former medieval cultivation boundaries that were subsequently readjusted (1-12).

An almost contiguous swathe of medieval and/or post medieval ridge and furrow cultivation, plough headlands, boundary ditches and furlong boundary banks, remnants of the former common open-field system, is visible on historic aerial photographs and remote sensing data as earthworks and was mapped as part of the North Buckinghamshire Aerial Investigation and Mapping project (EBC18304). Located across the western half of Drayton Parslow parish and centred at SP 84153 28994, these blocks are aligned mostly NW-SE, with only a few blocks aligned SW-NE. Almost all the ridge and furrow cultivation blocks are visible as extant earthworks on aerial photographs taken in the 1940s, but aerial photographs taken in 2019 and recent remote sensing data indicate that many blocks have been plough-levelled due to changes to post-war agricultural regimes from the dominance of permanent pasture as described in the 1925 Victoria County History to more arable cultivation. The linear earthwork furlong banks are part of a much more extensive system of land division boundaries that extends eastwards into Bedfordshire and East Cambridgeshire. Whilst many of these features originate in the medieval period with the establishment of the common field cultivation system, some of the boundary banks may have earlier origins. They remain visible chiefly as extant, sinuous, parallel, plough-levelled earthwork sections on recent lidar remote sensing data, with the primary alignment roughly SW-NE. Whilst some of the linear banks respect the NW or SE boundaries of the ridge and cultivation blocks, others pass through the extant ridge and furrow, possibly indicating former medieval cultivation boundaries that were subsequently readjusted (13-20).