Monument record 0023800000 - 540M NW OF COWLEY OLD HOUSE

Dimensions - Height 150cm, Radius 800cm.
Plan Form - Circular.
Level topped mound with ditch. Causeway on NW side. Mr Holt dug small section in ditch on SE side & found a nail & a few small Medieval sherds at 0.5m depth. Area called Windmill Hill. Traditionally mill stood in field to W, but mound is only possible site (B2).
C17 reference to 'Le Wyndmill Hill' (citing Chanc.Inq.P.M. Series 2, DC CXXV, 28) (B1).
NGR & survey (B3).

A post-medieval windmill mound is visible on historic aerial photographs and remote sensing data as earthworks and was mapped as part of the North Buckinghamshire Aerial Investigation and Mapping project (EBC18304). Located on the boundary of a field known locally as 'Windmill Field' about 480 metres WSW of Cowley Farm and centred at SP 65814 27976, a circular mound about 18 metres in diameter is enclosed by a circular boundary ditch between 3 and 5 metres wide. On the top of the mound is a small subcircular pit about 3 metres in diameter at its widest. The mound and ditch overlie a block of medieval ridge and furrow cultivation earthworks, post-dating it (4-5).


(SP 65812797) Circular cropmark, which overlies the ridge and furrow (B6, B7).

The mound and ditch overlies the rig and furrow on the summit of a substantial hill. It is 21.5m in diameter and 1.7 m high and has an entrance causeway at the NW. Surveyed at 1:2500. The farmer at Cowley informs me that the field centred to SP 658281 is called Windmill Field. The fact that it overlies the rig and furrow, its topographical position, the sharpness of its profile plus the associated name "Windmill Field" proves almost conclusively that this is a windmill mound (B7).

Mr Holt excavated a small section across the top of this flat-topped mound and recovered a few abraded sherds of Mediaeval pottery (B8).