Monument record MBC48559 - Ridge and furrow field systems in the parish of Stone with Bishopstone and Hartwell

Ridge and furrow field systems with furlong boundaries, plough headland, and drainage ditches of medieval and post medieval date are visible on historic aerial photographs and remote sensing data as extant earthworks, levelled earthworks and destroyed monuments were mapped as part of the Aylesbury Vale Aerial Investigation and Mapping project (EBC18604). Located within the parish of Stone with Bishopstone and Hartwell and centred at SP 80688 11025. The parish of Stone with Bishopstone and Hartwell lies to the south west of Stoke Mandeville and of Aylesbury and is relatively undeveloped when compared with those areas. The south eastern part of the parish is covered by this entry. The main land use is arable farming and the construction of High Speed Rail 2 (HS2) and both of these factors have affected the survival of ridge and furrow earthworks. All of what was mapped from the 1940s aerial photographs remained as earthworks. Plough headlands and furlong boundaries, even where arable land use has levelled ridge and furrow earthworks, remain as low earthworks, even after being ploughed. The post inclosure and later field boundaries overlie the field patterns in the ridge and furrow earthworks. Ridge and furrow earthworks at the northern end of this area lie inside the parkland at Hartwell Hall. Part of these are now within the parish of Aylesbury, not Stone with Bishopstone and Hartwell but the field patterns in the earthworks underlie these boundaries. The earthworks here are well preserved but have been levelled for playing surfaces for ball games in some areas. It is not clear whether this by infilling or ploughing. (1-20)

Extensive medieval and/or post medieval ridge and furrow, plough headlands, furlong boundaries and banks, remnants of the former common open-field system, 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 across the west half of Stone with Bishopstone and Hartwell parish, the cultivation earthworks are almost contiguous to the N of Stone village. To the S of the village, however, the blocks are far more scattered, except for a concentration around Chilboro Hill Farm. Contained within this system are plough headlands and boundary ditches, as well as linear and sinuous sections of earthwork bank, likely being furlong boundaries, of which some appear to cut through and underlie the ridge and furrow blocks, suggesting an earlier date. These features form part of a much larger system of boundaries that extend across the project area and have been recorded in both Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire. On aerial photographs taken in 2023 and recent remote sensing data, just under half of the ridge and furrow cultivation earthworks visible on aerial photographs taken in the 1940s remain extant. The remainder have been plough-levelled by post-war agricultural regimes (21-40).