Monument record MBC48578 - EXTRACTIVE PIT, BARRETTSTOWN ESTATES

A post medieval extractive pit 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 at Barrettstown Estates and centred at SP 79158 20807, a trapezoid depression with a long linear cut extending from it, forming a shovel shaped feature, covers an area of about 3,513 square metres. The shovel’s trapezoid blade is about 65 x 49 metres at its widest points. The shovel’s ‘handle’ is about 75 metre long N-S and 16 metres wide at the S end narrowing to 6 metres wide at the N end, where the depth slowly shallows to ground level . This feature appear to be a ramp into and out of the extraction pit. The feature does not appear on historic OS map editions but there is a large gravel pit just 250 metres to the N recorded on the 1st Edition OS map dated to the early 1880s. It is likely therefore that this was also gravel extraction. On recent remote sensing data, the earthwork remain extant (1-2).