Monument record 8750/1 - Probable medieval/post-medieval road, south of Mountmill Farm

Road between Mountmill Mill (Wicken)/Farm and Mill Farm (Beachampton)

{1, 2} A road of probable medieval/post medieval date is visible on historic aerial photographs and remote sensing data as levelled earthworks and earthworks and was mapped as part of Historic England’s North Buckinghamshire Aerial Investigation and Mapping project. Located between Mountmill Farm, Wicken, and Mill Farm, Beachampton, and centred at SP 76953 37802. This road is shown on the 1814 map of Stony Stratford {8} and crosses the canal over a swing bridge, shown on the Epoch 1 map; it may have been made obsolete by the construction of the latter hence it not being shown on later maps until it has crossed the first of the two river channels at Mill Farm. There is also a bridge shown on the 1814 map labelled Broken Bridge, it is sited between the two channels of the River Ouse where earthworks are visible on aerial photographs and lidar visualisations. This road is not shown on the Epoch 1 map, other than the area of the Broken Bridge, which shows only as a short length of road between river channels and a trackway continuing north towards Mill Farm. The levelled earthwork across the field from Mountmill Farm crosses two earthworks of former plough headlands/field boundaries. These boundaries appear to be on the 1814 map, but not all remain on the Epoch 1 map, and are also crossed by this road. The course of the road can be seen as a gap between two areas of ridge and furrow earthworks, present on Lidar visualisations, and continuing between the two river channels where the land use is pasture. The 1814 map also shows ‘Broken Bridge’ at this location, where there are very clear earthworks on the lidar visualisations and where the course of the road appears on the Epoch 1 map and is continued as a track/footpath on the east of the river south of Mill Farm. Whether there was a bridge here is not clear from the data available to this project; it could have been a causeway between fords across the river channels that have since been replaced by a bridge over the southern channel while the northern channel is wider, as shown of the Epoch 1 map where a ford is shown. A 1771 {11} map of the estate of the Right Honourable Earl of Salisbury of Beachampton shows the road between the river channels as the road to Buckingham and the fields either side are Upper and Lower Bridge Mead.

North of Mountmill Farm the road is a continuation of a road from Wicken, which is shown on the 1814 map and Epoch 1 mapping as a track and fits in to the pattern of ridge and furrow earthworks remaining up until the 1940s. Unlike other old roads there is no public right of way along this route.
The road and the bridge are not shown on a plan of the proposed canal route from 1793, which looks to be a canalisation of the river rather than construction of a new channel which is what was ultimately what was constructed (Canal history website).

<1> Royal Air Force, Vertical Aerial Photography, RAF/CPE/UK/1792 RS 4174 11-Oct-1946 (Photographs). SNN104890.

<2> Royal Air Force, Vertical Aerial Photography, RAF/CPE/UK/1792 RS 4176 11-Oct-1946 (Photographs). SNN104890.

<3> Vertical Aerial Photograph, KXF 2314_19A 03-Aug-1975 (APR1857) (Aerial Photograph(s)). SNN112695.

<4> Aerial Photograph, NMR 33854_020 05-Aug-2019 (Photographs). SNN112974.

<5> Aerial Photograph, NMR 33854_024 05-Aug-2019 (Photographs). SNN112974.

<6> Environment Agency, LIDAR Composite DTM - 1m, LIDAR SP7737 Environment Agency 1m DTM Composite 2021 date accessed 18-May-2022 (Digital Plots). SNN111710.

<7> Environment Agency, LIDAR Composite DTM - 1m, LIDAR SP7637 Environment Agency 1m DTM Composite 2021 date accessed 18-May-2022 (Digital Plots). SNN111710.

<8> Wikimedia Commons, 2013, Ordnance Survey Drawings- Stony Stratford, Milton Keynes (OSD 229), Accessed 19/01/2023 (Website). SNN116376.

<9> Buckingham Canal Society, Buckingham Canal, /history-and-heritage/history/ date accessed 19-Jan-2023 (Website). SNN116377.

<10> Buckingham Canal Society, Buckingham Canal, /wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Canal-Plan-50pc.jpg date accessed 19-Jan-2023 (Website). SNN116377.

<11> Buckinghamshire Council, Buckinghamshire's Heritage Portal, api/LibraryLinkWebServiceProxy/FetchResource/42320/full_42320.pdf (Website). SNN116378.

Record last edited

Feb 25 2025 7:02PM