Monument record MBC45357 - Ridge and furrow in Maids Moreton

Ridge and furrow field systems, with furlong boundaries, trackways and drainage ditches, of medieval and post medieval date is visible on historic aerial photographs and remote sensing data as extant earthworks, levelled earthworks and cropmarks and were mapped as part of the North Buckinghamshire Aerial Investigation and Mapping project (EBC18304). Located in the parish of Maids Moreton and centred at SP 70865 35738. The earthworks are clear across most of the parish in the 1940s, the inclosure of the parish in 1801 rearranged the road ways and field boundaries but the mapped earthworks of furlongs and can be seen on a map of the parish made in 1591. Post medieval ridge and furrow is especially visible within the post inclosure fields along the Foscote Road. The expansion of Maids Moreton, the construction of the Foscote Reservoir in the 1960s and the increase in arable land use in the late 20th century have all contributed to the levelling or removal of evidence of medieval field systems. The parish of Buckingham has expanded to take some of what was shown on the 1591 map of Maids Moreton. Where there is no earthwork evidence of medieval field systems then cropmarks of earlier settlement or occupation has been found in the form of cropmarks of enclosures mainly along the river on the gravel terraces, suggesting that these were deeply buried underneath the ridge and furrow earthworks. (1-25)

Medieval and/or post medieval ridge and furrow cultivation, 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 north-western corner of Maids Moreton parish and centred at SP 69541 35802, almost all the ridge and furrow cultivation blocks are visible as extant earthworks on aerial photographs taken between the 1940s and 1960s, but aerial photographs taken in 2019 and recent remote sensing data indicate that over half the blocks have been plough-levelled in the subsequent decades, likely due to changes in post-war agricultural regimes (26-28).