Monument record MBC48545 - Cropmarks of a probable trackway north of Hewdon Farm, Haddenham

A trackway of uncertain date is visible on historic aerial photographs as extant cropmarks and was mapped as part of the Aylesbury Vale Aerial Investigation and Mapping project (EBC18604). Located north of Hewdon Farm, Haddenham, and centred at SP 75930 09999. Two parallel ditches are visible as cropmarks approximately 6-7m apart and extending for approximately 230m in total. Both ditches are visible at the northern end but only a single ditch at the southern end, which may have formed a field boundary. The aerial photographs show other cropmarks which may be anthropogenic in origin or they may be part of the underlying natural geology which shows as other periglacial cropmarks within the same field. Ridge and furrow was mapped on the same location from a 1946 aerial photograph but it is not so clear by 1947, suggesting that the area was ploughed level soon after 1946. Within the Aylesbury Vale project area cropmarks are unusual but where they were mapped it is often where overlying medieval earthworks of ridge and furrow were ploughed level by the 1940s. Lidar visualisations show very subtle earthworks of ridge and furrow earthworks over part of the area, but no trace of the cropmarks is visible as earthworks. Other aerial photographs on Google Earth show no cropmarks of the enclosure even though land use is arable; these features do not show as grassmarks or soilmarks. (1-5)