Monument record MBC47743 - MEDIEVAL & POST MEDIEVAL RIDGE AND FURROW, HARDWICK PARISH

Medieval and/or post medieval ridge and furrow blocks, with plough headlands, furlong boundaries and banks, the remnants of the former common open-field system, are visible on historic aerial photographs and remote sensing data as earthworks and were mapped as part of the Aylesbury Vale Aerial Investigation and Mapping project (EBC18604). Located along the northern boundary of Hardwick parish and centred at SP 81006 19645, the blocks are almost contiguous and recent remote sensing data show that the cultivation earthworks visible on aerial photographs taken in the 1940s remain extant (1-5).

Contiguous extensive medieval and/or post medieval ridge and furrow, plough headlands, furlong boundaries and 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 Aylesbury Vale Aerial Investigation and Mapping project (EBC18604). Located across the west half of Hardwick parish, the ridge and furrow blocks are contiguous. Contained within this system are plough headlands and boundary ditches, as well as linear and sinuous sections of earthwork bank, likely being furlong boundaries. These earthwork furlong banks are part of a much more extensive system of land division boundaries that extends eastwards into Bedfordshire and East 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 broad and low earthworks on recent lidar remote sensing data, probably having been spread by post-war ploughing regimes. Whilst some of these linear banks respect the boundaries of the ridge and cultivation blocks, others pass through and apparently under the ridge and furrow, likely indicating former medieval cultivation boundaries that were subsequently readjusted. On aerial photographs taken in 2023 and recent remote sensing data, only about half the cultivation earthworks remain extant, the remainder having been levelled by post-war agricultural regimes (6-16).