Monument record MBC48612 - POST MEDIEVAL DRAINAGE SYSTEM, CHILBORO HILL FARM

A post medieval drainage 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 two meadows bound on two sides by watercourses SW of Chilboro Hill Farm and centred at SP 78351 10408, a system of sinuous, linear and curving interconnected ditches extends for about 890 metres, with drains linking the watercourses in at least seven points. At the E end of the drainage system is a linear earthwork bank about 78 x 6 metres aligned SSW-NNE, each end of which terminates at a watercourse. This may have been a flood defence bank designed to redirect or contain meadow floodwater. On aerial photographs taken in 2023 and recent remote sensing data, most of this drainage system and the flood defence bank remain extant (1-3).