Monument record MBC47768 - RECTILINEAR DITCHED ENCLOSURE CROPMARKS, FIELDS FARM

A rectilinear ditched enclosure of uncertain date and function is visible on historic aerial photographs as earthworks and cropmarks and was mapped as part of the Aylesbury Vale Aerial Investigation and Mapping project (EBC18604). Located in a field about 630 metres W of Fields Farm and centred at SP 80489 17359, a linear ditch up to 2.5 metres wide forms a rectangular enclosure with an internal area of 179 metres SW-NE and 165 metres SE-NW, though there is a 56 metres gap in the NE facing side. The enclosure is internally divided by a linear ditch aligned WNW-ESE, so forming two contiguous trapezoidal enclosures. Within one enclosure is a circular pit about 6 metres in diameter, with another 8 metres wide circular pit just outside the E facing corner. Part of the enclosure ditch is visible as an earthwork on aerial photographs taken in 1948 as part of a block of medieval and/or post medieval ridge and furrow cultivation. If the enclosure is of a pre-medieval date, it may be that the ridge and furrow alignment took advantage of a ditch already extant at that time or is merely coincidental. A 305 metres long linear drainage ditch joins the SE facing side from the SW, visible as an earthwork in 1948, and so probably of post medieval date as it cuts across the ridge and furrow. On aerial photographs taken in 2023, the cropmarks are not visible (1-4).