Monument record MBC44961 - Medieval and/or post medieval ridge and furrow cultivation, Westbury parish

Medieval and/or post medieval ridge and furrow cultivation blocks, 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 Westbury parish and centred at SP 62327 36120, about half of the blocks are aligned mostly between N-S and NNE-SSW, with the remaining half aligned W-E. Many of 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 quarter of these cultivation blocks have been plough-levelled due to post-war agricultural changes and intensification. A large area north and west of Westbury village has notably fewer ridge and furrow blocks yet a system of furlong boundary earthworks is visible. These 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 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. The absence of ridge and furrow blocks may be the result of historic land use or agricultural intensification. In the late 19th century the parish was half arable and half pasture, having been inclosed by Act of Parliament in 1764 (1-6).