THIS 20th century name for the area in front of the old school describes where countless children from the village walked to school and where school activities took place.

Thus the 19th century school overlooks the one remaining area of medieval ridge and furrow left in the parish.

The humps and dips date from before 1066 and were formed when the medieval plough, pulled by oxen, pushed soil to one side of the furrow.

A succession of good harvests and mild winters resulted in a rise in population and more land was cultivated.

Then, when poor harvests, bad weather and an outbreak of the plague reduced the population, some ploughed areas were left to pasture, preserving the evidence of the past in the underlying undulations much loved by children in later years.

Following the Norman conquest, Weston parish, under a bailiff, supplied produce to Oseney Abbey who continued to own it until the Reformation when it became part of the lands owned by Lord Williams of Thame.

Subsequently it passed to the Bertie family who remained the absentee owners for all but the last 50 or so years before 1918.

The second half of the 18th century brought enclosure to Weston, allowing the more intensive farming of livestock.

The resulting pattern of fields we see today retains just this one piece of evidence of medieval farming.

Through a succession of tenant farmers what was then called Home Close remained pasture and was significant as the only land near to the farmhouse where animals needing close attention could be kept.

From the middle of the 18th century the land passed through several generations of three families, each holding the farm as tenants of the Manor.

The total acreage of the farm was halved when land was taken for the airfield.

After the death of the lord of the manor in 1917, the whole village was sold by auction and Home Close was described as 10 acres of pasture. Maps show a spider’s web of footpaths criss-crossing the area linking the middle of the village with the northern properties. These footpaths are still used today.

After 1918 the land was finally farmed by the family who owned it.

Subsequently land was sold for building and farming ceased completely in the 1970s.

Periods of gross over-grazing interspersed with times of no grazing at all followed and have changed the classic ridge and furrow flora, however the underlying contours remain and careful management could bring it back to the village amenity it once was.

Thus the School Field, a remnant of a method of ploughing dating from 1,000 years ago has survived the Norman conquest to become part of a parish worked exclusively for the benefit of Oseney Abbey and then, after the Reformation, for about 200 years, continued as part of one of the village farms.

After enclosure, it became the only area to be kept as permanent pasture, thus retained the physical shape of medieval ploughed land and provided a Home Close for the farm. The last quarter of the 20th century damaged the field, no longer valued as pasture but the evidence of its history remains.

This historic green space is at present under threat and villagers are actively campaigning to keep this much-loved amenity.