Monument record MBC47891 - Ridge and furrow field systems within the parish of Aston Clinton

Ridge and furrow field systems with plough headlands, drainage ditches, plough headlands and furlong boundaries 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 parish of Aston Clinton, and centred at SP 87196 12888. The parish of Aston Clinton is a long parish which crosses the chalk escarpment of the Chilterns. There is only one area of ridge and furrow, visible as a cropmark, on the chalk escarpment. This which fits with findings in a previous study in Buckinghamshire (Mead) and another in Oxfordshire and Berkshire (Sutton), all on areas with similar geology. The cropmarks on the chalk escarpment show the distinctive curve of medieval ploughing and are only visible as cropmarks. They are in an area where earthworks of, probably medieval, strip lynchets remain on the slopes of the Chilterns. The rest of the field systems were mapped across the northern part of the parish, on the lower land with heavier soils where underlying solid geology is Gault Clays and Upper Greensand Mudstones. The expansion of settlement at Aston Clinton, through the 20th century, has removed any evidence of the former field systems but remaining earthworks survive closer to the settlements, away from larger areas of arable land use where fields have been amalgamated for larger, modern machinery. The construction of a large dairy factory, south of the Grand Union Canal, has also removed remains of former field systems. The ridge and furrow continues in to parkland around the site of Aston Clinton House where smaller areas of earthworks and cropmarks contrast with what was mapped further north (see MBC21785) and may be earlier than what remains elsewhere. Further north larger areas of ridge and furrow can be seen predating the field patterns resulting from inclosure in 1814 and in these areas often only the very low earthwork of the plough headland of furlong boundary can be traced across the landscape and no ridge and furrow is visible in the 1940s. These are the areas where cropmarks of earlier enclosures and settlements are visible in later aerial photographs (see MBC34443 and MBC34445), as the depth of ploughing has increased and reached more deeply buried deposits. A moated site and two areas of shrunken settlement fit within, and are probable contemporary with, the ridge and furrow field patterns. At the far north of the parish only drainage ditches were mapped and no sign of ridge and furrow was visible possibly suggesting the soils were too heavy and wet to be ploughed; this pattern continues in to the neighbouring parishes of Kingsbrook, Hulcott and Tring Rural, in Hertfordshire. (1-35)