As this is the closest site to home, I went to have a look - but there really isn't a lot there to see ...
To get there: Take the road from Castleford to Ferrybridge and turn right into an estate called Pollard's Fields, immediately opposite the main gate for Ferrybridge C power station. Park up and then walk back up the main road towards Castleford, with the power station on your right. There is a farmer's lane to your left running parallel to the road. Join this, and it takes you into the field where the henge is (see photo above).
This is a very difficult site to decipher when there are crops, and the only above ground evidence I could see was a raised area in the field of crops, which according to the plan provided by the "local site" link below is part of the banking of the henge (see photo).
I also took a photo from the centre of the henge area towards the power station. Apparently the far left of the photo is where the outer banking meets the road.
Walking the perimter of the field / road only confuses matters - particularly with all the road building works which are ongoing at present and which doubtless in the future will have altered the geography somewhat.
Most of this once sacred landscape has been flattened, and I did feel a bit like I was standing in an island between several motorways, what with the the powerstation on one side, the M62 on the other - and now the new A1(M) improvement route is in the process of eating up a large part of the remaining area.
The Highways Agency and Archaelogical Services WYAS have produced a booklet on the investigations carried out in the vicinty of Ferrybridge henge prior to the road works at Holmfirth interchange, showing the excavations of the timber circles, barrows and enclosures in a region roughly south and east of the henge. It includes a number of site plans, aerial photos and artists impressions. A full report is available (to purchase) here: http://www.arch.wyjs.org.uk/aspubl.htm
"The perimeter pit alignment and external ditch of the henge were excavated in advance of the cemetery extension. An undated crouched inhumation was found in one pit which may have been covered by a barrow. An extensive geophysical survey was also undertaken around the henge suggesting that the pit alignment was an irregular oval of ca.210-350m across." From the South Yorks SMR
" the complex ritual landscape at Ferrybridge...Crop marks in this area reveal an extensive system of monuments and fields...A 100m diameter henge monument dominated the prehistoric and Romani-British...it has suffered seriously from ploughing....nearbye were two 15.5m post circles and a short pit alignment and paralell ditch....Dating revealed dates of usage to be 2590-2142BC, 3040-2625BC and 3358-2876BC...these monuments generally appear to date to the later Neolithic and Bronze Age, and continued to be constructed for around 1500 years" A New Link to the Past - Roberts, Burgess and Berg, 2001.
This site is thought to be of the same type as the Thornborough series and may therefore show, together with Newton Kyme a possible extension to the sacred plateau.
The A1 meets with the M62 at this point, and there are several tall, conical shaped structures of piled gravel which are definately not prehistoric. I always thought they were just there as a point of interest, though more likely they are a memorial, marking a point where the A1 and M62 joined to destroy a prehistoric site.
Excavations prior to the A1 M62 interchange upgrade work included investigating seven barrows. Bronze age human remains were found with associated burial goods - flint daggers and scrapers, arrow heads and a Beaker pot.
Prior to upgrading work on the A1 M62 interchange at Ferrybridge, archaeological fieldwork was carried out in the area in 2001 and 2002. The new road was planned not to impact immediately in Ferrybridge henge, the only known henge in West Yorkshire. Two timber circles were discovered and recorded less than 200 metres south of the henge.
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