Monument record MBC47829 - Ridge and furrow field systems in the parish of Ellesborough

Ridge and furrow field systems with plough headlands and drainages ditches of medieval and post medieval date are visible on historic aerial photographs and remote sensing data as extant earthworks, levelled earthworks and cropmarks and were mapped as part of the Aylesbury Vale Aerial Investigation and Mapping project (EBC18604). Located within the northern third of the parish of Ellesborough, inside the project area, and centred at SP 83365 08786. There is an irregularly shaped area that seems to have been one contiguous area to the south of the moated manor house at Apsley, on the parish boundary of Ellesborough and Great and Little Kimble cum Marsh. This was crossed by the railway in 1846 but earthworks of ridge and furrow are still visible on lidar visualisations within the same boundaries. Discrete areas of earthworks survive in small fields along watercourses, where 19th century Inclosure has altered the field patterns, and closer to farms such as around Nashlee Farm and to the north of Grove Farm, two other moated sites within the same parish. Arable landuse in the latter half of the 20th century has also levelled many if the earthworks that were visible in the 1940s and the northeasternmost area of the parish has been crossed by the line of the high speed rail link to London, HS2, which has removed any trace of existing earthworks. (1-20)