Monument record MBC43584 - ditch system, Upper Dean Farm

An extensive medieval and/or post medieval ditch 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 eight fields north and south of Upper Dean Farm and centred at SP 83620 26936, a system of linear interconnected ditches between 1.5 and 4 metres wide extend across an area about 765 metres SW-NE and 375 metres NW-SE. The ditch system appears to link to the adjacent medieval moated site (Bucks HER MBC1414) and leads SW between Lower Dean Farm and Upper Dean Farm to terminate at Dean Road. Some of the ditches are sinuous or curvilinear and likely to be medieval pre-inclosure field boundaries, whilst other parts of the drainage system are parallel and linear that appear to be more modern and systematically laid out. Aerial photographs taken in 2019 and recent remote sensing data indicate that some of the system’s ditches have been plough levelled since the end of the Second World War, whilst others remain extant (1-6).