Monument record MBC44956 - Medieval and/or post medieval ridge and furrow cultivation, Biddlesden parish

Extensive medieval and/or post medieval ridge and furrow cultivation blocks 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 southwest corner of Biddlesden parish and centred at SP 63692 39060, to the north of Turweston airfield, the blocks are aligned mostly between NW-SE and NNW-SSE, with most blocks to the south of the airfield aligned WNW-ESE. 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 about one third of the blocks have been plough-levelled due to post-war agricultural changes and intensification. The linear earthwork furlong banks are part of a much more extensive system of land division boundaries that extends eastwards through Bedfordshire and beyond into Cambridgeshire. Whilst many of these features originate in the medieval period with the establishment of the common field cultivation systtem, 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. Whilst some of the linear banks respect the boundaries of the mapped ridge and cultivation blocks, others pass through the extant ridge and furrow, possibly indicating former medieval cultivation boundaries that were subsequently readjusted (1-15).