Monument record 6876/0/17 - Possible Medieval/Post Medieval Ditch & Bank, Yardley Chase

Earthwork banks and ditches associated with Yardley Chase

{2} Archaeological fieldwork survey was carried out in 1997. Woodland banks of the usual type survive in many places within Yardley Chase. Apart from damage caused by construction of modern military bunkers (each with their attendant railway track and surrounded by annular ponds), there is damage cause by the ridings shown on the 1760 map. Nearly all these are straight and there was modification and sometimes destruction of the medieval banks. Confusingly, the new straight rides often have quite large banks of their own. The only riding used in an unaltered form is that between Hay and Sane Coppices. The map is misleading in showing the boundary between Hay Coppice and Ravenstone Road Coppice along a straight riding, since the medieval bank lies farther to the south in Compartments 2036 and 2038. It is an unusual boundary in that a riding with two banks seems to turn into a single bank, although the exact change over has been masked by a later complex riding intersection. There is a discrepancy with the 1565 survey which states Ravenstone Road Coppice is only 18 acres, far less than the present size.

The remnant Newhay Coppice (Compartment 2013) preserves its western bank against the wide central entrance riding from Yardley village. The south east of Grimpsey Coppice against Buckinghamshire is more of a ditch than a bank; on the south side is a rampart of Olney Park.

<1> Hall D.N., 2001, Northamptonshire Woodland Survey Archive, (part checked) (Digital archive). SNN109590.

<2> Hall D.N., 1997, Northamptonshire Forests: Fineshade, Westhay, Southwick & Yardley Chase (Archaeological Interpretation Survey, Part 2), (unchecked) (Report). SNN62050.

<3> Hall D. N., 1997, Northamptonshire Forests: Fineshade, Westhay, Southwick & Yardley Chase (Archaeological Interpretation Survey, Part 2 Maps 1997), (unchecked) (Map). SNN62051.

Record last edited

Apr 9 2024 12:34PM