Monument record MBC47767 - Post-medieval formal gardens, Lower Burston Farm

An extensive post-medieval formal garden 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 at Lower Durston Farm and centred at SP 83932 18758, the formal garden associated with the 17th century manor. extend E and S of Lower Durston. The field to the south is known as `Kitchen Mead' on a map of the manor. Overlying two blocks of medieval and ridge and furrow is a rectilinear ditched enclosure up to 4 metres wide that encloses an interior area about 101 metres WSW-ENE and 57 metres NNW-SSE. The ditched enclosure is lined on the interior of three sides by an earthwork bank, with no bank on the NNW facing side. This N ditch extends out to the WSW and the ENE, N of which are further banks and ditches running parallel to it, possibly evidence of former terraces. Within the rectilinear enclosure is a large ditch, about 66 metres WSW-ENE and 8 metres NNW-SSE that may have been a pond. The area around the enclosure contains a number of ditches and mounds that may reflect less formal cultivation. Just inside the pasture field boundary on the south and west sides is a low-lying bank. This feature, evidently denuded but still some 6m in width, is believed to represent an internal division within the deer park - a necessary barrier between the gardens and the deer (1-7).