Open fields

Open fields are a former method of farming involving the cultivation of strips of land dispersed across large communally organised unhedged fields. The majority of these type of landscapes were found on the clay soils of the Vale of Aylesbury and Milton Keynes where now the main discernable traces left of this extensive way of farming are extensive relict earthworks of ridge and furrow. A form of open field farming existed in the Chilterns where land was divided into strips although unlike the system in the north Buckinghamshire these fields tended to be enclosed.

Open fields are a medieval form of land management, which originated in the late Saxon period, reached its maximum extent in the 13th century and declined thereafter becoming extinct as a land use in Buckinghamshire by the end of the 19th century. The principal remains of the open fields in Buckinghamshire are the corrugated earthworks of ridge and furrow found predominately in the north of the county.