Tarmac offers land next to henges gift
Quarry firm Tarmac is offering to give 60 acres of land adjacent the ancient Thornborough Henges to the nation.
The company, currently in dispute with conservationists over its plans to extend quarrying operations near the 5,000 year old site, says its "significant donation" will help ensure the preservation of the henges.
But the offer by Tarmac has been given a cautious welcome by campaigners, amid accusations the gesture was both 'a public relations exercise' and 'a fob'.
Announcing the offer, Tarmac area director Simon Phillips said: "We are proposing to gift the area of land to English Heritage or alternatively to a suitable charitable trust."
Tarmac has previously discussed the long term management of the henges with English Heritage, but in the past they have declined the opportunity to take over direct responsibility. "We hope they will consider this new proposal and agree to the significant donation we have offered today," said Mr Phillips.
"The monument is attracting increasing numbers of visitors and we believe the time is right for this area of land to be donated to an appropriate conservation body.
"The gift will enable the area to be put down in perpetuity to pasture. For the first time ever, the immediate setting of the northern henge will be preserved forever as an archaeological reserve.
"The preservation of the henges is vitally important to us all, and we look forward to working with English Heritage and North Yorkshire County Council to develop this charitable trust."
In response, chairman of the Friends of Thornborough, Jon Lowery said: "My initial reaction is we have got to welcome any such move but the devil is in the detail – to whom will it be given?
"Of course, we have to realise all this talk about preserving the heritage is all a fob. The whole thing is a public relations exercise – they are not there as a benevolent organisation, they are there as a mining company."
Chairman of campaign group TimeWatch, George Chaplin, also urged caution.
"The fact is, the ritual landscape of the Thornborough Henges covers a great deal more than 60 acres and whilst we welcome this offer, we think that this may be a case of Tarmac attempting to buy off the protestors without taking into account the true extent of the archaeology," he said.
"However, this does mean that Tarmac are now willing to accept that preserving the archaeology of the Thornborough Henges is important."
North Yorkshire County Council is expected to make a decision on Tarmac's planning application for quarrying at Ladybridge Farm, half a mile from the henges, in September.
29 July 2005
http://www.ripontoday.co.uk/ViewArticle2.aspx?SectionID=18&ArticleID=1099950
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Protest Against Digging at Tara - 25th July
The Save the TaraSkryne Valley Group call on all concerned citizens to join them in a peaceful protest at the so-called "archaeological" dig at the foot of Tara's Hill. This will be held on Monday 25th July at 7pm at Philpotstown/Blundelstown.
The site is well marked by the archaeological company on the N3 just north of the entrance to Tara as you travel in the Navan direction. We will collect at the gate where the site is visible.
Recent photographs in the newspapers show that the top of the Hill is clearly visible from this area. The coffee shop and church can be seen clearly in the distance. Photographs show topsoil being lifted by diggers and driven over by caterpillar wheels. More recently, pick axes are being used in 3 foot trenches.
Donald Murphy, managing director of Archaeological Consultancy Services Ltd. said at a public seminar in Dalgan Park on the 11th June: "There won't be big 22 tonne mechanical excavators just rooting the topsoil off the top." He also stated: "The excavations as they take place … will be open to the public for viewing." This is not the experience of the public heretofore. This is the company who were responsible for the excavations at Woodstown. He also admitted: "We are not experts on Tara."
Minister Roche stated: "I am satisfied that the directions I have issued will ensure best practice in the carrying out of the archaeological work … They will protect heritage." But Pat Wallace of the National Museum stated in his letter to the Minister regarding excavators: "The chances of retrieving archaeological objects in the face of heavy machinery of this sort are … very limited indeed."
Muireann Ní Bhrolcháin, PRO for the Save TaraSkryne Valley group said:
"Public money is being wasted on this unnecessary excavation. This is not research archaeology. Lowest standards are being applied to our most important archaeological, literary, historical and sacred landscape. This is wanton destruction and vandalism. The insistence on this particular route and the methods used is just sinister."
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BBC - Gravel plan at monument discussed
Controversial plans to extend quarrying near an ancient monument known as the Stonehenge of the north are being discussed by councillors.
Tarmac has applied to extend its sand and gravel operations at a site near Thornborough Henges, North Yorkshire.
If approved, campaigners fear the work could destroy clues as to why the 5,000-year-old earthworks were built.
Tarmac said only scattered evidence of prehistoric activity had been found at the Ladybridge Farm site, near Ripon.
On Tuesday, members of the North Yorkshire County Council planning board will discuss the application for quarrying at the farm.
Local campaign group Timewatch, which has collected a petition of more than 1,500 signatures against the plans, said the quarry would cause the permanent loss of nationally important archaeology.
US-based conservation group the Landmarks Foundation has described the quarry proposals as a tragedy.
The henges are believed to represent one of Britain's largest ritual gathering places from the Neolithic period.
Tarmac already has a quarry at Nosterfield, close to the ancient henges which consist of three earthworks built in a line running north-south for about a mile.
Tarmac has said the planned quarry extension is on farmland where there is only "thin and scattered" evidence of prehistoric activity, according to a recent study by archaeological consultants.
The company has said archaeologists would be present on the site and if they found anything of significance, they had the power to stop quarrying activity.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/england/north_yorkshire/4693695.stm
Published: 2005/07/18 18:36:30 GMT
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Pagan ritual used by campaigners
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/north_yorkshire/4505191.stm
Opponents say the plans threaten the 'Stonehenge of the North'
More than 100 pagans joined a fight against proposals to extend quarrying at a historic site in North Yorkshire.
Tarmac Northern wants to extend its present operations close to the Thornborough Henges ancient earthworks near Ripon.
The druids met at the site to mark the May Day ritual of Beltane, a pagan celebration of the height of spring.
Local archaeologists also joined the protest. The group claims the Henges are under threat from the quarrying.
The area has the greatest concentration of late Neolithic and early Bronze Age sites in the UK.
It also boasts the country's largest quarrying operation on prehistoric land, Nosterfield Quarry, which produces more than 500,000 tonnes of sand and gravel each year.
The firm says it is not seeking to quarry on the earthworks which form the three 5,000-year-old circles which may have been a ceremonial meeting place.
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Burying treasures - Guardian
Burying treasures
There are no guarantees against development of land that is 'protected' or part of a national park. Paul Evans on how hundreds of sites are at risk
Wednesday April 13, 2005
The Guardian
Thornborough Henges, in the Vale of York near Ripon, is one of the largest complexes of megalithic sites in Britain. But the grassy ring of undulating earthworks - 5 metres high and some 250 metres in diameter, with other great rings beyond - is no Stonehenge. There are no signs guiding tourists to the site, no interpretation boards, ticket kiosks, or gift shops, just a fence and a locked gate.
You know when you get to this important archaeological site because of the sound of bulldozers. Thornborough Henges has Britain's largest quarrying operation on prehistoric land. Nosterfield Quarry - run by construction firm Tarmac Northern - produces more than 500,000 tonnes of sand and gravel each year and, until last week, the firm was planning to extend its activities all around and right up to the site.
Following protests, it has now agreed not to quarry sand and gravel from the nearby Thornborough Moor, but is applying to expand its existing quarry by 45 hectares (111 acres), which at its closest point will be half a mile away from the nearest of the three Thornborough Henges. A Tarmac spokesman this week said: "We are committed to the protection of the monument and have provided financial assistance to English Heritage for its conservation plan study."
Although the rings will not be damaged, much of the historical landscape around them has already been destroyed by generations of quarrying, - something inconceivable at Stonehenge or at many sites of far less historical importance in the south of England.
David Austin, a landscape archaeologist and co-editor of the journal Landscapes is appalled. "Thornborough Henges have had a presence in the landscape for 5,000 years and every fibre of that [wider] landscape can tell us something about deep histories. But if this is stripped out by quarrying, we lose that history. We're back to year zero. It's an archaeological Pol Pot." The problem is that landscape protection in Britain is arbitrary, eccentric and frequently unable to stop the bulldozers. Almost one in three of Britain's designated 7,100 sites of special scientific interest (SSSI) are not in their target condition, and national parks and many sites of historical, ecological and cultural value are under threat from large scale developments.
The Welsh assembly has recently demanded that sand and gravel beds in the Usk estuary, which has SSSI status, be protected from future mining. Morlais Owen, chair of the Campaign for the Protection of Rural Wales says: "These potential sand beds have not been evaluated for their quality, nor has there been an environmental impact assessment."
In Britain SSSI have been obliterated to make way for the Newbury bypass, the Twyford Down road, the M6 toll road, Fairmile, Manchester airport, and the Cardiff Bay development. It seems that having legal protection is just asking for trouble.
The problem, says the Campaign to Protect Rural England, is that no government has had the guts to revoke the archaic planning system that 50 years ago handed out mineral extraction permissions. According to Andy Tickle, senior countryside campaigner at the CPRE, these "dormant" quarries in national parks are "ticking time-bombs".
A recent report by Friends of the Peak District National Park revealed that there are 119 permissions in national parks across England: including 46 in the Peak District, 27 in the Lake District, 16 on Dartmoor and 14 in the Yorkshire Dales. All could re-open at any time until 2042.
More than a third of these old permissions have not been reviewed and 20 quarries are still working without any modern environmental control. Moreover, progress on closing damaging quarries using "prohibition orders" has been poor.
"There are still quarry sites in national parks and elsewhere that have not been reviewed and are working with no environmental impact assessment or control because of a presumption that permission was given years ago. The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister has said it will bring these quarries back under control, but it hasn't done so yet," says Tickle.
At Backdale Quarry in Derbyshire's Peak District National Park, quarrying restarted in July 2003. The operator, Merrimans of Leicester, had been given permission to remove a small amount of limestone in order to reach a vein of mineral fluorspar. But 175,000 tonnes of limestone later - which was sold as construction aggregate - and the fluorspar is still there.
The national park authority ordered Merrimans to stop in January, but the decision is being appealed against and next week will go to a public inquiry.
Just a few miles from Backdale quarry at Stanton Lees, protesters have for five years been camped out to try to protect the bronze age Nine Ladies stones from quarrying. Operator Stancliffe Stone is taking the Peak District National Park authority to court over its classification of the quarry as dormant. Stancliffe claims the quarry is active and that working it would not impact on the ancient monument.
"If the national park loses it will be awful," says Dot McGahan, a CPRE director. "Stancliffe could start quarrying or trade the site for another."
The quarry industry is pragmatic. "To close quarries down would mean a local authority buying out the owners," says Duncan Pollock, planning director of the Quarry Products Association (QPA). "In the Peak District National Park it would mean the park authority buying 137m tonnes of the permitted reserves at £5 per tonne."
Quarrying is believed to provide up to 10% of the UK's GDP. According to the QPA, each person in the UK generates 4 tonnes of aggregates a year (about 240m tonnes in total) and every new house uses 60 tonnes of quarry products. The Treasury's recent review of future housing needs by Kate Barker suggests that for supply to meet demand, 140,000 new houses must be built every year. That means some 8.4m extra tonnes of stone will have to be quarried annually.
Despite the demand being talked up in government plans, the QPA does not believe that there will be a significant increase in aggregate extraction. "During the construction boom of the 1980s the UK market was being supplied with 300m tonnes of aggregate," explains Jerry McLaughlin, a spokesman for QPA. "Today, the market is 200m tonnes of extracted aggregates and 65m tonnes of recycled material."
Although the association has a four-point plan that aims to control or phase out extraction from protected areas, it believes that if it is forced out of quarrying reserves in the Peak District and North Yorkshire, the industry would have to exploit other areas such as the East Midlands and Wales.
Not surprisingly, the QPA is not in favour of the aggregates levy, a tax on quarry companies to provide funds for communities suffering from thundering lorries, noise and dust from quarrying on their doorsteps. "The levy is a way of collecting money for the Treasury," says Pollock, "and is no incentive to improving local operations."
Back at Thornborough, it is not the henges that sit as ruins on the landscape; they have weathered the past 5,000 years. Instead, it is the landscape that is ruined.
The printed article includes a large image of the central henge credited to www.timewatch.org
http://society.guardian.co.uk/environment/story/0,14124,1457896,00.html
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Henges: Tarmac gives moor pledge
Ripon Gazette - 18/03/05 - Henges: Tarmac gives moor pledge
By Lee Sobot.
A quarry firm has stated that it has no intention to extract sand and gravel
from Thornborough Moor - home of the Thornborough Henges - within the next
ten years.
Tarmac Northern Ltd is currently quarrying nearby Nosterfield Quarry and has
applied to quarry Ladybridge Farm half a mile from the henges next year.
The application has upset archaeological campaigners who say Ladybridge Farm
is part of the henges setting and fear Thornborough Moor may be next on
Tarmac's list.
But on Wednesday Tarmac declared they will "not be seeking Thornborough Moor
to be included for allocation in the forthcoming review of North Yorkshire
County Council's minerals local plan".
The review covers the next ten-year period and is designed to ensure that
the county can meet its supply quota to the local construction industry.
Tarmac Northern company estates manager Rob Moore said the decision was
taken after listening to concerns expressed by local people.
He said "Some had mistakenly believed that the henges were under threat from
the imminent minerals local plan review and believed that this allocation
would be tantamount to permission to extract sand and gravel from beneath
Thornborough Moor.
"We have said time and time again and repeat that the henges, which are
scheduled ancient monuments within a scheduled protection zone, are not
threatened by quarrying.
"We hope that this move will help to allay any fears and confusion that
people may have in relation to our current planning application, remove the
that there is time pressure to conserve the henges and allow time for a full
conservation plan study for the henges."
George Chaplin, chairman of TimeWatch, said the news was "welcomed" but
questioned Tarmac's commitment to staying away from Thornborough Moor long
term.
He said "What we would like is an uncomplicated, unambiguous statement from
Tarmac saying they have no intention ever of quarrying Thornborough Moor,
that should be pretty straightforward."
While John Lowry, chairman of Friends of Thornborough, said Tarmac's
declaration was "reassuring", he added "it is not relevant to the Ladybridge
Farm application which is our main concern, I think it is a bit of a red
herring.
"I suppose it is reassuring but we were never too worried about Thornborough
Moor - the chances of Tarmac being given permission to quarry Thornborough
Moor are pretty remote now that we have raised the profile. They could never
quarry right up to the henges - they are internationally important
recognised monuments."
* Tarmac is holding a public meeting on Wednesday at West Tanfield Memorial
Hall at 7.30pm. The company will provide updated reports on archaeology,
ecology and the proposals for Ladybridge Farm which, they say, have been
substantially revised following feedback from local residents.
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Powerful new challenge in Thornborough Henges fight
TimeWatch Media Release – 28.02.05
TimeWatch group launches major attack on Tarmac plc.
After six months of campaigning under the banner of Heritage Action, the Thornborough Campaign is now to be launched as a separate, independent campaign group, called TimeWatch.
"When we first started campaigning about Thornborough, there was just a handful of us and we were extremely pleased to find a supportive home within Heritage Action" commented George Chaplin. "Now our campaign group has grown so large within Heritage Action that it made sense to launch an independent group in it's own right, with a wider remit and set of priorities.
"The new group will keep its focus on Thornborough's archaeology but will widen its involvement into all other related issues. The impacts of quarrying will be felt far beyond the purely archaeological ones and we intend to ensure the public is fully informed of them."
Nigel Swift, chairman of Heritage Action said: "This reflects well on all who have worked so hard on the Thornborough Campaign. It has grown to be one of the largest of its kind in Britain, reflecting the grave national concern that exists.
"The two organisations will now take up parallel but independent roles. Heritage Action will continue campaigning on threats to all ancient sites and supporting the campaigns of others. TimeWatch will concentrate on raising national awareness of individual sites under threat, starting with Thornborough. We wish them well and look forward to working closely with
them in future."
For more information on TimeWatch and the Thornborough campaign, the public are urged to visit the TimeWatch website at www.timewatch.org
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Standing Stone reveals ancient secrets at modern opencast site
Four human cremation burial plots have been uncovered at the Kingslaw opencast site on the outskirts of Kirkcaldy.
And it is understood they form part of complex religious ceremonies carried out by settlers thousands of years ago.
The discovery was made by Fife Council archaeologists as they removed the 4000-year-old Bogleys Standing Stone from the Kingslaw development, which is currently being mined by Lanarkshire-based GM Mining, before being turned into a business and leisure facility.
Moving and protecting the ancient Bronze Age stone was part of an archaeological condition laid down before planning permission was given.
Fife Council archaeologist Douglas Speirs told The Press: "The Bogleys Stone was probably erected about 4,000 years ago.
"It is the last visible vestige of what must have been a highly charged area of ritual landscape.
"The stone is massive, standing some seven feet above ground and weighing more than five tons.
"Clearly the extraordinary degree of effort that went into moving and erecting this stone demonstrates the intensity of meaning that this site had to the Bronze inhabitants of central Fife.
"Exactly how the stone was used is not entirely clear, but archaeological excavations have shown that complex religious ceremonies, including the symbolic burial of human remains around the stone was practised. "Indeed, four human cremation burials were found radiating out around the stone."
http://www.fifenow.co.uk/ViewArticle2.aspx?SectionID=1015&ArticleID=879458
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Ancient footsteps retraced by henge protestors
Heritage Action Media Release - 19th October 2004
A 5,000 year old ceremony is to be recreated this week as campaigners carry an ancient ceremonial axe through Yorkshire's "Sacred Vale" to Thornborough.
"The area between Catterick and Boroughbridge can claim to be Britain's first great religious and ceremonial centre" said George Chaplin of Heritage Action. "It contains Britain's largest concentration of prehistoric henges, vast circular earthworks that were used as ceremonial meeting places. We are staging a march through this "Sacred Vale" to highlight that the area is an immensely important part of our local and national heritage and that plans to quarry the surrounding archaeology are akin to vandalism."
The trek will take place on Friday and Saturday 22nd and 23rd of October and takes in all of the original ancient ritual landscape - seven mighty henges and a giant stone row, as well as many other monuments that line the route. The route focuses on the mile-long triple henge monument at Thornborough, the location of a bitter battle between protestors and quarry firm Tarmac.
The marchers will carry with them a prehistoric stone axe that last travelled the route five millennia ago. The axe was originally brought from Scotland, and was deposited in a ritual location close to Thornborough.
"We believe it's vitally important that the Sacred Vale is recognised for what it is" said Mr Chaplin. "It's not just important to Yorkshire, it's important to Britain. If the destruction of the surroundings of any of these monuments is allowed to continue it would be a national disgrace, not just a Yorkshire one. We hope that by setting up this heritage trail people can be given the chance to explore this little known but supremely important landscape. The more people that get to know about it the more chance there is that it will be saved".
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Tarmac announce horse burial at Thornborough
A more comprehensive article appears in the Ripon Gazette:
Horses find shows that we are not riding roughshod through archaeology - Tarmac
Quarry firm Tarmac has faced bitter criticism from campaigners fighting to protect the prehistoric Thornborough Henges and has been accused of destroying archaeological remains in the same area. But nothing could be further from the truth, the company tells Lee Sobot.
Earlier this year, the skeletal remains of four horses were discovered at Nosterfield Quarry, near West Tanfield.
A fragment was sent for carbon dating in Scotland and the recently revealed results tell us that the horses date back to the Iron Age - in this case about 50AD.
The horses were lying nose to tail, suggesting something remarkably ritualistic about the find. The skeletons are now being stored at Kings Manor in York, part of the University.
Discoveries like this are rare, highly significant and of major archaeological interest.
So who discovered them? It was Tarmac, the firm that stands accused not caring about the archaeology of the area.
Tarmac say discoveries like these are proof they want to preserve archaeology, quite the opposite of destroying it.
"Quarrying in the UK has provided us with a massive amount of archaeological finds" says Mike Griffiths, the site's archaeologist employed by Tarmac.
"I have been doing this since the 1960's and I am happy to say that more archaeological information has come through quarrying than any other source".
Mr Griffiths began looking at the Nosterfield Quarry and Ladybridge Farm sites ten years ago. He is paid by Tarmac to ensure they are not quarrying land containing significant archaeology. He must also ensure any archaeology found is removed and recorded.
Over the years, field walking, test pitting, trial excavations, geophysical surveys and sieving and sampling have been among the performed by Mr Griffith's team.
The discovery of four Iron Age horses at Nosterfield Quarry proves that Tarmac and Mr Griffiths are doing their job and the skeletal remains are by far the most significant discovery on the site.
But Mr Griffiths says he can assure campaigners, including Friends of Thornborough, that similar finds are unlikely to exist at Ladybridge Farm, set to be quarried in 2006 if planning permission is granted. After years of research he says he knows best.
"The Iron Age horses are a significant find and are probably connected to the Romans," he says.
"But there is not as much archaeology here as people say. We have done the work, we have done the topsoiling and we know. I get really annoyed when people say Tarmac are not bothered about archaeology and just want to bulldoze their way through - people have misconceived what Tarmac are about."
"We strip the area first to check for archaeology and every single discovery is recorded and reported."
Mr Griffiths says that, unfairly, he and Tarmac are on a loser as regards any archaeological investigations, despite the fact that Tarmac have spent £420,000 researching the archaeology of Nosterfield Quarry and Ladybridge Farm. If archaeology is found "we told you so" will be the response from campaign groups like the Friends of Thornborough. If not, Tarmac will be seen to be quite literally, hiding the facts.
"Now we are producing the results of our archaeological studies and we are not producing the picture that people want to see," says Mr Griffiths.
"But we are producing the real picture. A lot of emotion has got into this but we are producing the facts and it is time that some of that emotion was diffused."
A huge file on the table is bursting with extensive archaeological research, and Mr Griffiths says Tarmac has stopped at nothing to ensure meticulous studying has taken place. Tarmac is now preparing to present the council with a detailed evaluation report of Ladybridge early next year. It will say there is little significant archaeology and what there is is scattered.
Rob Moore, estates manager for Tarmac Northern says "We have gone well beyond the legal requirements in our research."
As well as arguing there is little archaeology on Ladybridge Farm, Tarmac say there are numerous other reasons why quarrying on Ladybridge must go ahead, and leading them is demand.
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TV hope for henges protestors
TV hope for henges protestors
A campaign group fighting to stop quarrying being extended near an ancient landmark say a BBC series will aid their efforts.
Thornborough Henges, near Ripon, North Yorkshire, will feature on British
Isles - A Natural History, which is being presented by Alan Titchmarsh.
A forthcoming episode will cover the Ice Age, showing how the end of the
glacial period left much of Britain covered with gravel.
A later episode will explore the impact which humans had on the landscape,
including a look at Thornborough Henges, which was the largest construction of the Neolithic period.
Tarmac Northern, which already quarries land near the monuments, has asked North Yorkshire County Council for permission to extend its operation in the area.
George Chaplin, Thornborough campaign co-ordinator for Heritage Action,
said: "The programme will first show how extensive the gravel beds in the
north of England are and later how important the henges are. We just have to make sure that the people who watch this know about the quarrying."
Published: 04/10/2004
http://www.thisisthenortheast.co.uk/the_north_east/entertainment/TV1.html
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Expert blasts quarry firm over 'threat' to unique ancient site
From a Yorkshire Today article by David Garner, published on 28th September 2004:
The man who helped unlock the secrets of one of Britain's most important Neolithic sites has launched a fierce attack on plans to extend nearby quarry workings.
Dr Jan Harding, of Newcastle University, has criticised Tarmac Northern's plans to expand open-cast extraction of sand and gravel in the prehistoric landscape around Thornborough Henges near Ripon.
The company is seeking approval from North Yorkshire County Council to extract thousands of tonnes of aggregate from 111 acres at Ladybridge Farm, Nosterfield, close to the 5,500-year-old scheduled ancient monument. The henges, earthworks with a diameter of 240 metres – more than 250 yards are thought to have been a centre for ritual worship drawing pilgrims from across the North. They are part of a concentration of monuments stretching south-west roughly parallel with the course of the River Ure. Dr Harding, senior lecturer in archaeology and director of graduate studies at Newcastle, has been leading research in the area for nearly a decade. He says the company has submitted factually misleading statements and failed to recognise the importance of Ladybridge.
Pressure group the Friends of Thornborough say Dr Harding's status as an authority on the archaeology of the monument suggests his criticism of the Tarmac plans should be heeded by County Hall. He insists that the existing quarry at Nosterfield has already destroyed part of the remains of a settlement occupied by the Neolithic builders and users of the henges, while proposed extension would obliterate the remainder, preventing it being studied by researchers in the future.
"The archaeological value of Ladybridge cannot be over-estimated. It has a unique contribution to make to understanding both Thornborough's archaeology and settlement patterns in later Neolithic Britain," Dr Harding said. Tarmac plans to employ similar rescue techniques for any buried archaeology at Ladybridge to those it has used in Nosterfield quarry but these are dismissed by Dr Harding as "badly conceived". In a strongly worded critique of the company's proposals submitted to County Hall, he says:
"It would be misguided for the shabby treatment of an archaeological landscape of regional, national and international significance to be followed with the rapid and complete destruction of what remains of the settlement area to the north of the henge complex."
Dr Harding has warned county councillors that allowing quarrying to go ahead would be "widely condemned as an act of vandalism." County Hall has allowed until tomorrow for public comments about the Tarmac proposals. But Tarmac Northern's company estates manager, Rob Moore, said yesterday:
"It is usual with planning applications of this nature for the planning
authority to seek additional information on a wide range of issues.
"Among the additional information that we will be providing is a detailed archaeological evaluation of the Ladybridge Farm site following the completion of investigations involving geophysical surveys, field walking, test pitting, trial excavations, sieving and sampling.
"This evaluation was proposed in the environmental impact assessment that we submitted as part of our application and is designed to provide the county council and other interested parties with an accurate picture of the archaeological make up of the Ladybridge site."
Original article.
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Council Calls Extra Time for Henges Campaign
Campaigners fighting to preserve one of the most important ancient sites in Britain have been given a six-month breathing space before its future is decided.
As the 24 Hour Museum has previously reported, the land surrounding Thornborough Henges, Yorkshire, has been threatened by an application for quarrying work, which would dash undisturbed archaeological evidence.
However, building materials supplier Tarmac Northern, which wishes to extract gravel from nearby Ladybridge Farm, failed to meet North Yorkshire County Council's September deadline for producing an essential archaeological report.
The henges measure 240 metres across and stretch over 20 miles of Yorkshire countryside. Courtesy Friends of Thornborough
In the absence of the report, the council have chosen to delay any planning meetings about the application until 2005.
George Chaplin of the Thornborough Action campaign group told the 24 Hour Museum: "We know there's a high chance of nationally important archaeology sitting with Ladybridge … The archaeology report will now be available to the planning committee when they discuss the application, this is very good news."
The 5000-year-old complex of henges at Thornborough, close to Ripon, is considered by archaeologists to be one of the most important and best preserved prehistoric sites in the country.
The henges themselves are scheduled ancient monuments, and thus protected, but the surrounding land is not, although it is of high importance to researchers because it makes up the ritual landscape – an area stretching at least a mile around the site believed to contain hundreds of archaeological features related to ceremonial practices.
George feels that Thornborough Action has been given a platform to galvanise their campaign: "This additional six months is welcomed by us. We're now going to concentrate on spreading the word – by next year we'll have more objection letters than ever before."
Support for the campaign is not confined to locals anymore – a recent meeting in London attracted a healthy contingent, while more and more people are attending Yorkshire meetings. Considerable interest has also been shown by farmers when the group has taken its message to Masham Sheep Festival.
"We're building up a head of steam," George continued. "We have to break that critical mass."
The next campaign meeting will be held at the Forest of Galtres Society, Easingwold on September 28. Attendees can expect an interesting talk from George, who enlivens the evening with a multimedia presentation. The meetings focus on informing people about the henges themselves – George believes that after people are educated about "Britain's ancient ritual capital", they realise why preservation is so important.
The ritual landscape will see another Christmas thanks to the council's decision to hold off planning meetings until 2005. Courtesy George Chaplin.
The campaign group has also produced a range of Christmas cards depicting the henges. By the time they start dropping on doormats, Tarmac's report should be in the hands of the council.
George said: "Of course, even if the archaeological report goes some way to confirm the clear signs of ritual culture that have already been noted on the site, Tarmac will still apply to quarry the lot."
A spokesman for Tarmac Northern stressed that it is usual for planning authorities to seek additional information with applications of this nature.
He said: "Among the additional information that we will be providing is a detailed archaeological evaluation of the Ladybridge Farm site following the completion of investigations involving geophysical surveys, field walking, test pitting, trial excavations, sieving and sampling."
http://www.24hourmuseum.org.uk/nwh_gfx_en/ART24211.html
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Thornborough Quarry plans suffer delay set-back
Quarry firm Tarmac Northern Ltd wants to open up a new area of extraction at
its sand and gravel quarry close to the Thornborough Henges. These proposals
have been the focus of widespread condemnation from heritage groups across
the UK.
In June 2004 Heritage Action raised concerns that Tarmac were trying to
derail the planning process by failing to submit important archaeological
documents with their planning application. The archaeological significance
of the Thornborough Henges is a paramount concern for a great many people.
Any plan submitted without taking into account archaeological evidence of
what is "in the ground" at Ladybridge is clearly not in accordance with
planning guidelines.
At that time North Yorkshire County Council chose to press ahead with the
application despite this report being omitted from the application. At that
time, Tarmac had apparently made a commitment to provide the missing report
by September 2004.
However, that report has not been forthcoming and is now not expected until
sometime around Christmas. With this in mind the council have decided to
delay any discussion about the Ladybridge application until the new year.
This turn of events is welcomed by Heritage Action. It should effectively
mean that a new consultation process will start the New Year, with a
revamped planning application that should fully take into account all of the
items required by planning rules, not just a selected few.
So far, North Yorkshire County Council have received an unprecedented number
of objections to the planning application thanks to Heritage Action's
Thornborough Campaign Team, who have been extremely proactive in lobbying
against this development.
A preliminary report of the plans was set to go before council committee
next month, but both Tarmac and English Heritage are now collecting further
archaeological information regarding the site. As a result, a new public
consultation process will have to follow early next year.
Chris Jarvis, of North Yorkshire County Council's Planning and Countryside
Unit, confirmed the delay this week.
He said: "The archaeological information being collected all forms part of
the consultation process and it is going to be some time before we get
anywhere."
Among those opposed to any further quarrying is top archaeologist Aubrey
Burl, who likened Tarmac's plans to "dropping Stonehenge into the River
Avon".
The Council for British Archaeology (CBA), the Yorkshire Archaeological
Society (YAS) and the British Archaeological Trust (BAT) also oppose the
plans and the issue has been featured in the national press and the UK's
most popular archaeology publications.
Thornborough is now the target for growing international concern and is
becoming increasingly accepted as one of the UK's top heritage sites. Mr
Chaplin said "Tarmac and its parent company Anglo American Plc need to think
carefully how this (their application) is going to impact on their
international reputation".
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Time Team's big finds
Thousands of years of history were uncovered when excavations started in a village near Stamford last week.
Archaeologists spent three days carving trenches out of the landscape to uncover artefacts which dated the site at Northborough to 6,000 years ago .
The experts think the site is one of only seven of the same type of Neolithic site in the country.
Time Team researcher Karen Kirk explained they thought the site may have been a meeting place or have a ritual significance.
Either way there have been some exciting finds, including a leaf shaped arrow head and a piece of flint.
The team also uncovered pottery from 3,500 BC and animal bone with marks on it consistent with them being hit.
Both presenter Tony Robinson and Dr Francis Pryor, who discovered Flag Fen at Peterborough, were at the site looking at the finds and taking part in the dig alongside archaeologists from around the country.
Using state-of-the-art technology they were able to find archaeological hot spots and dig in the right places.
Karen said they liked to use local people with local knowledge to help them out, and they have also used people with metal detectors to help with digs.
She said: "We had our own diggers, Wessex Archaeology, Northampton Archaeology Unit and Flag Fen diggers on the site."
The Deepings' Red Cross ambulance was also on hand to keep a watchful eye on the team and ensure any injuries could be attended to.
Although the site has now been filled in, all finds and significant items have been logged and recorded by the team for the future.
The show will be aired next year between January and March as part of Time Team's 12th series.
From Stamford Today, 16th September 2004.
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28 Archaeological Sites on M3 Motorway Route
From the Irish Times - 08.09.04
The controversy over the routing of the M3 motorway near the historic Hill of Tara has been revived, with Meath county councillors agreeing to consult archaeologists about the treasures which may lie beneath the site of the road.
County council official Mr Oliver Perkins has told local councillors that surveys have identified 28 sites of potential archaeological importance on the section of the proposed motorway near the Tara/Skryne valley in Co Meath.
The Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government and the National Museum of Ireland are to confer and produce a report shortly.
Mr Perkins added, however, that the schedule for appointment of a contractor remains September 2005. It is hoped to start construction at the end of 2005.
County councillors have no statutory role in the routing of the project, which has been confirmed following an oral public hearing by An Bord Pleanála two years ago.
However, some councillors, including Sinn Féin member Mr Joe Reilly, are arguing for the right of county councillors to continue campaigning for a change of route.
Independent councillor Mr Brian Fitzgerald said the motorway should be built in phases, starting with the section from Clonee to Dunshaughlin.
He said this would relieve traffic chaos, while allowing time for further archaeological research on the Dunshaughlin to Navan section.
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Bronze Age Burial Ground is Unearthed in County Down
By Ben Lowry ([email protected]) - 31st August 2004
A Bronze Age burial ground in Co Down has been unearthed during work on a dual carriageway on the Belfast-Dublin route.
The construction scheme on the A1, between Loughbrickland and Beech Hill, has led to a number of important archaeological finds that provide evidence of a settlement site stretching back thousands of years.
A cemetery of eight early Bronze Age ring ditch barrow cremation burials, dating to 1800 BC, have been excavated and recorded, following three months of work by 12 archaeologists.
Kev Beachus, the head archaeologist, said: "The wealth of archaeology uncovered provides a fascinating insight into the lives of our
ancestors."
Read the rest at...
http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/story.jsp?story=556975
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Traces of prehistoric homes open door on early man
An article by David Hartley from The Scotsman:
They were the first people to live in Scotland, nomads who left little trace of their day-to-day lives. But the first evidence that early man built homes as far north as Orkney up to 10,000 years ago appears to have been uncovered by archaeologists.
Tiny slivers of stone - combined with previously puzzling results from a geophysics survey - point to the presence of a settlement created by Mesolithic hunter gatherers.
The discovery of the islands' first houses would represent a major step forward in understanding the shadowy lives of our earliest ancestors.
Jane Downes, from Orkney College, one of the archaeologists leading the excavation at Mine Howe, said: "To find evidence of a settlement would be a first for Orkney.
"But it would also be incredibly unusual for Scotland, because the lifestyle of the Mesolithic people meant they left few traces for us to find," she added.
Orkney is internationally famous as the home of some of the Neolithic period's greatest architectural masterpieces. Stone monuments like Skara Brae and Maes Howe date from about 5,000 years ago.
A more detailed survey of the area will now be carried out by the new geophysics unit at Orkney College.
http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/scotland.cfm?id=1018502004
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Country 'waking up' to Thornborough henges threat
CAMPAIGNERS fighting to safeguard the Thornborough Henges say the country is "waking up" to the threat facing the nationally important site near Ripon.
Just over one month ago the campaign group Heritage Action vowed to make Thornborough a national issue, and already senior figures within the archaeological world are coming forward to denounce proposals by Tarmac to extend its quarrying operations closer to the triple henge complex.
And Thornborough is gaining widespread media attention. The henges have been featured in The Times, The Guardian, BBC Radio Five, and a number of national magazines.
Top archaeology title Current Archaeology called the situation a "crisis" and commented that quarrying the Ladybridge site adjacent to the henges would "cause the loss of another 111 acres of archaeology of critical importance".
George Chaplin, Thornborough campaign co-ordinator for Heritage Action, said this week: "The signs are that Britain is waking up to this savage threat to our heritage."
He says the archaeology world is not well known for either speaking out or co-ordinating activities, but now it seems that a strong consensus against the quarrying at Thornborough is building. Both the Council for British Archaeology (CBA) and the Yorkshire Archaeological Society (YAS) have voiced their opposition to the quarrying.
"The proposals are contrary to national and local policy. The application is incomplete, non-compliant with regulatory requirements, and granting consent would set unacceptable precedents", says the CBA's director, George Lambrick, in a letter to North Yorkshire County Council.
Peter Addyman of the YAS says: "This area is part of an extensive area of archaeological importance and potential, the destruction of which, even with archaeological recording and survey, is not in the local, regional or national interest.
"The proposed extraction is part of the setting of the most important prehistoric monuments of their date in Yorkshire. It is clear that the landscape as a whole around Thornborough is of archaeological significance and only now becoming even partially understood."
Top archaeologist Aubrey Burl has likened Tarmac's plans to dropping Stonehenge into the River Avon, while TV's Dr Mark Horton, Head of Archaeology at Bristol University, commented that his was no longer a lone voice. "Increasingly, fellow archaeologists are coming forward to condemn this application," he said.
To take the campaign to an even wider audience, Heritage Action have produced a re-vamped Thornborough website, which includes brand new aerial photos demonstrating the impact of the Ladybridge application. The website now also offers an online 'objection letter kit' which aims to make the task of objecting easier for the general public. Full details are available at www.heritageaction.org/thornborough
Heritage Action have also organised a large number of talks and events aimed at providing as many people as possible with an in depth understanding of the issues.
Among events it is attending this month are the York Peace Festival (September 11), Nidderdale Show (September 20) and Masham Sheep Fair (September 25 and 26).
3rd September 2004
http://www.nidderdaletoday.co.uk/ViewArticle2.aspx?SectionID=18&ArticleID=850122
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Neolithic homes unearthed at roadside
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/northern_ireland/3613882.stm
A Bronze Age cemetery is one of a number of prehistoric settlements that have been discovered in County Down.
Neolithic homes, which date to 4000 BC, were also uncovered by archaeologists along the A1 road near Newry.
Evidence from the excavation is being preserved before work begins on upgrading the road at Loughbrickland.
Head archaeologist Kevin Beachus said the find, which he described as "significant" was far more then his team expected.
"We didn't expect quite so rich a find, we knew there would be something there or supposed there would be, but we had no idea it was going to be as wealthy as it is.
"The three neolithic houses which are about 6,000 years old, there are perhaps 30 maybe 35 in the entire UK known.
"We have got three of them, so they are very important.
"I think our findings are going to be used by universities, I would have thought, as a teaching aid for many years to come.
"The burials have been buried inside bronze age pots, each pot is buried in the centre of a circle or a ditch and then that is filled over the top."
The archaeologists, which were brought onto the site by the Roads Service, have only a few days to collect their findings before work begins on the project.
"I'm afraid the road is going to be bulldozing its way straight through the site in the next few days," said Mr Beachus.
However, he added that he was confident everything would be preserved in time and that future generations would learn a lot from the artefacts.
"I have got a wonderful team on site and I have no doubt that we will have it cleared by then."
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