Monument record MBC43974 - Road, south of Pilch Lane, Great Horwood

A road of medieval date 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 south of Pilch Lane, Great Horwood, where it crosses the watercourse, and centred at SP 75987 31271. The existing Pilch lane appears to be the later course of the road, probably created at inclosure. It is very straight and 40’ wide, which was common for roads created from an inclosure Act and this would have been specified in the Act. The Ordnance surveyors’ drawing of 1813 appears to show this course of the road and its direction at the watercourse probably suggests it was crossed by a ford, not a bridge; the parish was inclosed in 1842. The earthworks fit in with ridge and furrow earthworks in the area, which the later Pilch Lane cuts across. Small parcels of ridge and furrow and ditches are visible immediately to the north, included in the record for ridge and furrow in the parish Great Horwood (see MBC43975). (1-6)