Monument record MBC45164 - Four circular macula of uncertain date and function, Middle Claydon.

Four circular but blurred-edged macula of uncertain date and function are visible on historic aerial photographs as cropmarks and were mapped as part of the North Buckinghamshire Aerial Investigation and Mapping project (EBC18304). Located about 725 metres E of All Saints church in Middle Claydon and centred at SP 72795 25185, the four roughly circular dark-coloured macula are aligned NNE-SSW, being variously about 17, 15, 18 and 17 metres in diameter and spread out over 210 metres. A further three macula are visible to the W on the same parallel alignment. These features appear to underlie blocks of medieval ridge and furrow cultivation that are visible as upstanding earthworks on aerial photographs taken in 1949, but which have since been entirely plough-levelled. However, there is no evidence in the historic aerial photographs available to the project of these indistinct macula features until 2015 and 2019. It is possible that these represent the remains of medieval charcoal burning platforms, but this is merely speculative based upon similar features identified in former Whittlewood Forest (1-3).