Monument record MBC48594 - Medieval and/or post medieval field systems, Haddenham parish.

Medieval and/or post medieval ridge and furrow, 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 in the very north-eastern corner of Haddenham parish, blocks of ridge and furrow are contiguous, focused around Haddenham Low. Contained within this system are linear and sinuous sections of earthwork bank, likely being furlong boundaries. These bank 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, all of the ridge and furrow cultivation earthworks in the NE corner of the parish visible on aerial photographs taken in the 1940s remain extant (1-4).

Ridge and furrow field systems, with plough headlands, field boundaries, furlong boundaries 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 cropmarks and were mapped as part of the Aylesbury Vale Aerial Investigation and Mapping project (EBC18604). Located in the parish of Haddenham and centred at SP 74072 09244. This project area does not include the whole of the parish of Haddenham; the south western corner of the parish has not been mapped for this reason. What was mapped was almost contiguous across the parish, across all soil types. The area around the settlement at Haddenham was an area where little or no earthworks were recorded; aerial photographs from the 1940s show large areas of allotments in this area. Immediately to the east of the village the main land use appeared to be arable and there were no earthworks visible there. Most of what was visible in the 1940s remained as earthworks except for across the airfield, where the field systems appear to be cropmarks, but a description of learning to land gliders at the site mentions how difficult the ridge and furrow made it. Approximately three quarters of what was recorded as earthworks remains as such, to differing degrees of preservation, on lidar visualisations. The underlying solid geology is Portland Stone Formation Limestone, Purbeck Group Limestone and Argillaceous Rocks Interbedded, Whitchurch Sand Formation Mudstones, and Whitchurch Sand Formation Sandstone, giving a mixture of freedraining and soils with impeded drainage across the parish. (5-34)