Monument record 0243400000 - NE OF LOWER HARTWELL FARM

1661 MAP SHOWS THIS AREA AS HOUSE SITES (B1).
GROUP OF HOUSE PLATFORMS (B2).
PERAMBULATION REVEALED EARTHWORKS RESULT OF EARLIER FIELD & DRAINAGE PATTERN. PLATFORM AT SP7979 1313 SAID BY ELDERLY RESIDENT FARMER TO BE PART OF RIFLE RANGE. NO FINDS OF INTEREST (B3).
A map of 1777 in BRO shows 'Brick-kiln meadow' and two buildings within it adjacent to Lower Hartwell Lane (BRO: D/X 1045/1). There are a number of references among the Hartwell papers of payments made for making bricks, tiles and burning lime, presumably at this kiln, between 1760 and 1769 (e.g. D-LE/8/61, not searched exhaustively). This would seem to predate Locke's brick pit on the Oxford Road. William Capel and Jon Mann were recipients of several payments for bricks burnt at the kiln, for digging clay for tiles etc. An account of 1760 refers to e.g 'Building bricks in all 140,750 - £204.10.6'. Eric Throssel says that bricks were not a component of Hartwell House so presumes this served other estate or village houses (B4).
Possible medieval house platform visible on aerial photo of 1956 as a slightly raised uneven earthwork, surrounded by ditches. Adjacent are three possible very small moats or house platforms, disturbed by golf course landscaping by time of 2012 LiDAR survey. Possible very small medieval moat or house platform visible on aerial photo of 1956, only just visible by time of 2012 LiDAR survey, when it appears to have been slightly modified in shape. Larger possible moat to the north-west. A possible medieval fishpond is visible on an aerial photo of 1956 (B5).

Remains of medieval village shrinkage 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 fields E of Lower Hartwell and centred at SP 79558 12957, a series of parallel and perpendicular interconnected ditches enclose a number of rectangular earthwork platforms that vary in size from 13 x 8 metres to 41 x 26 metres, as well as contiguous narrow property boundaries between 10 and 21 metre wide, up to 180 metres long and aligned WSW-ENE. Amongst the boundary ditches are at least five very small blocks of ridge and furrow cultivation earthworks. Between 1971 and 1994, a golf course is constructed over the area and some of the ditches are levelled as a consequence. Also the addition of sand bunkers and tee platforms has added further earthwork platforms and hollows that may be confused with earlier settlement features ( 6-13 ).