Monument record MBC45031 - Medieval and/or post medieval ridge and furrow cultivation, Steeple Claydon parish.

Almost contiguous medieval and/or post medieval ridge and furrow cultivation 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 Steeple Claydon parish and centred at SP 69956 27303, 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 two-thirds of the mapped blocks have since been plough-levelled due to changes to post-war agricultural regimes, with the remaining blocks surviving as earthworks in fields around North End, Windmillhill Farm, Kingsbridge Farm and between Claydon Hill Farm and Prospect Farm. In the west of the parish, the ridge and furrows of these cultivation blocks are aligned mostly between WSW-ENE or NNE-SSW, with only a few blocks aligned in other directions. In the east of the parish, the ridges and furrows are aligned generally SW-NE or NW-SE, with only a few blocks aligned in other directions. The sections of 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. 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 (1-22).