Wheeldale Stones for Chris

The Wheeldale Stones 2

Image by Moth

fitzcoraldo Sep 18, 2003 13:45:17

Hiya Chris,
This may go some way to explain the recent origins of the Wheeldale stones.
" On the 11th October 1711, the justices of the peace sitting at Northallerton ordered that guide posts be erected at all cross roads"
Stanhope White

There are many parish boundaries and trackways on the moors that utilise lines of barrows or stones. This to me implies that the boundaries may a 'fossil record' of prehistoric tribal boundaries.
A good example of this can be seen with the Whitby Strand parish boudary that runs via low Woof Howe-High Woof Howe- Lilla Howe- Louven Howe -Ann Howe-Foster Howes-Robbed Howe-tumulus-Breckon Howe.
cheers

FourWinds Sep 18, 2003 13:50:22

Replying to fitzcoraldo

!!!

Chris Collyer Sep 18, 2003 19:57:01

Replying to fitzcoraldo

You’re a treasure-trove of information Fitz :-)

Are you going to post that on the Wheeldale page for future reference?
If these stones were cross road markers, how did they end up on the sides of a road with no junctions (apart from where it forks), do you reckon Moth’s right with his guide stone idea and that they were moved there at a later date for safe passage in bad weather? Also if they stood at cross roads maybe the holes held direction boards, but then they would only point in 2 directions I suppose. Not really megalithic but interesting anyway.
As for boundaries and trackways I’ve seen the same thing further south, Towthorpe Plantation is a line of barrows that are believed to stand next to a prehistoric trackway and they still mark the county boundary between Humberside and North Yorkshire.

-Chris

AtomicMutton Sep 21, 2003 21:17:19

Replying to fitzcoraldo

I'm willing to believe that these rectangular holes were made by an iron chisel after looking at these pictures
http://www.themodernantiquarian.com/image.php?image_id=19711
so Iron Age gateposts --- maybe.

The tradition of erecting stones is still alive - but only just ...

I made a lovely pair of standing stones last week (just little ones). No photographs. I also took a little one down and hid it where the stonecrusher man can't find it over the winter. There's a small chunky broken stone circle, two ballauns - one tiny one huge, and either the capstone of a cromlech or the missing fourth stone of a four-poster - in his way that I can't do anything about. Because the White Sultan's man built a road in the SSSI and put two enormous cairns through the crusher then the local landowners think it's open season on the antiquities - which are on the SMR but not Ancient Monuments. Lovely wall. It's a double circle at Kirkhaugh, with a diameter of about 70 - 75 m. Small henge is like a chevron across the middle 7m. wide and about 33m long. Strange construction - closed flat faces with a rubble filling. The circle can only be made out from the railway track - on the ground it's just a painful jumble of stones.