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Details of stone on Pastscape

Bronze Age cup and ring marked stone (in situ).
SE 0928 4700. Carved rock known as the Anvil Rock. Scheduled RSM No 25364. (1)

Details of stone on Pastscape

Bronze Age cup and ring carving on stone reused as gatepost.
SE 0949 4696. Recumbent gatepost with cup & ring carving 57m W of the Swastika Stone. The gatepost measures 1.85m x 0.5m x 0.33m. The carving consists of two cups with rings. (1)

Details of stone on Pastscape

[SE 0944 4699] SWASTIKA STONE. (1)
The Swastika Stone, a sculptured rock, is considered by Cowling to belong to the E.B.A., but Elgee described the design as
‘essentially characteristic of Late Iron Age craftsmanship’. [See Illus. card] (2-3)
SE 0955 4696 The Swastika Stone is a large natural boulder with a well defined carving in swastika form on its upper surface. It is now scheduled (a) and is protected by iron railings. See G.P. AO/65/155/4 (replica in foreground). (4)
Surveyed at 1:10,000. Condition unchanged from report of 15.9.65. (5)
SE 0955 4696. Swastika stone, Ilkley Moor. Additional reference. (5a)
SE 0955 4696. Carved rock known as the Swastika Stone. Scheduled RSM No 25388. The carving consists of a curvilinear carved figure of Swastika shape wuth ten cups fitted into the five curved arms, and eight other cups on the east side. The additional carving on a smaller piece of rock is a copy made this century. Scheduled text classifies rock as Bronze Age. (6)

Details of site on Pastscape

The buried remains of an Early Mesolithic settlement site on the edge of a former lake at Star Carr. The site was identified by John Moore in 1947 and partially excavated in 1949-51. Further archaeological excavations in the 1980s and the 2000s have demonstrated in situ evidence of built structures. During the Mesolithic period the monument site was a peninsula of dry land that extended southwards into Lake Flixton, a former lake of nearly 5km by 2km. This peninsula can now be seen as a rise in the ground surface. Radiocarbon dating and archaeological evidence indicates that the site was occupied on a seasonal basis intermittently over about a couple of centuries around 9,000BC.

Excavations in the 1980s found parts of a timber platform with evidence of carpentry using stone tools, representing the earliest known example of carpentry in Europe. In 2008 a further structure 5-6 metres in diameter was identified, which was defined by scatters of flintwork and a hollow surrounded by post settings. It has been interpreted as a hut and is sited on higher ground than the platform on the western side of the peninsula. Discovered during the 1949-51 excavations was a brushwood floor thought to overlay what would have been reedbeds. Artefacts found at the site include organic material not found at any other Mesolithic site in Britain, antler frontlets, barbed points made from antler, flints, microliths and plant remains. Peat drainage is having an adverse affect on the unexcavated organic remains which rely heavily on waterlogged soils for their preservation.

Details of stone on Pastscape

Late Neolithic or Early Bronze Age standing stone in churchyard, with modern cap of metal, and suggested cup and ring markings. The stone is approximately 8 metres high, 1.75 metres wide and 1 metre thick, the stone tapers to a point which at some point has been broken and repaired with a lead hood. Excavations in the 18th century suggested the monument extends as deep below the ground as it stands above. The monolith is of gritstone, the nearest source of which is 10-20 miles away. It is unclear whether it was brought to the site in the Neolithic/Bronze Age or arrived much earlier in a glacier flow. It has been suggested that the stone marks the convergence of the Rudston cursus monuments. Cursus A passes to the east of the monolith and cursus C passes to the north, where they converge. The terminus of cursus B is probably on the spur of land on which the monolith stands, but this is concealed by the village. Cursus D runs along the valley floor below the monolith. There is no dating evidence to suggest which came first, but if the monolith is of Late Neolithic/Early Bronze Age date it almost certainly post-dates the cursuses.

Details of Beacon on Pastscape

A Bronze Age round barrow still extant as an earthwork mound circa 32 metres in diameter and 1.5 metres high. In the 1870s Greenwell described it as “almost entirely removed many years ago, when bones are said to have been found in large quantities”. There is documentary evidence for re-use of the mound as a beacon, possibly as early as 1573 if not before. More recently the mound has been damaged by the presence of an Air Ministry observation point and the erection of an Ordnance Survey trig point. (TA 09466558) Rudston Beacon (NR) (1)
(TA 09466558) Rudston Beacon; described by Greenwell (2) as “almost entirely removed many years ago, when bones are said to have been found in large quantities”. In 1963 (3) it survived as a mound, 19.8m diameter, 0.76 high, overgrown with brambles and bushes, and damaged by an Air Ministry observation post on the summit adjacent to an OS trig point. (2-3)
“There were beacons in 1573 at ‘Many Howes in Rudston Field’, presumably on the hill by the southern parish boundary, near several barrows, on which a later beacon certainly stood”. (a) The later beacon was probably taken down circa 1830 (b). (4) Now cleared of vegetation and visible as the remains of a turf-covered mound about 32m diameter and 1.5m in maximum height. It has been severely mutilated in the S (presumably by the observation post mentioned) where the interior has been removed almost to ground level. The OS, pillar occupies the highest part of the barrow in the NW. Published Survey (25”) Revised. (5) TA 095 655. Rudston Beacon (and round barrows to east). Scheduled No HU/68. (6)

Details of barrow on Pastscape

Two Bronze Age round barrows, both excavated, one contained a small cist in the centre, the other contained a crouched inhumation, an urn and some flint arrowheads, both still visible as slight earthworks
[TA 01107630] Tumuli [NR]. (1) Two tumuli on Willerby Wold at a place called Fry Moor.
The largest is 105 feet in diameter and 12 ft high. It contained a small cist in the centre but no other object.
The smaller barrow is 66 ft in diameter and at a depth of 6 ft a skull was found together with a few bones. A perfect skeleton of an adult was discovered 18” deeper. It was in a crouched position and in association with an “urn” 7” high (crushed but now restored). “Rude flint arrowheads” were found in the mound material.
[It is suggested that the above descriptions may refer to this site, but not confirmed. Fry Moor does not seem to be shown on 6” plan. (2) The site of the smaller barrow is marked by the silhouette of a mound 0.5m high on the fence bank, and amorphous remains to the east of the fence. The other is 1.0m high, and under pasture. Published survey (25”) of both revised. Fry Moor is unknown locally. (3) TA 011 763. Round barrow W of Willerby Wold House. Scheduled no. NY/788. (4)

Details of barrow on Pastscape

A round barrow still extant as a substantial earthwork. It was excavated in the later 19th century by Greenwell, who described it as a mound 100 feet in diameter and 9 feet high and “formed entirely of chalk, with the exception of a layer of dark fatty earth which rested on the natural surface” and was 1 to 2.5 feet thick. It was thickest towards the centre, and extended across the whole of the area covered by the mound. It contained much burnt earth and charcoal, as well as numerous animal bones, potsherds and flints. The mound included or covered the remains of at least 23 interments. The only ones beneath the mound were a child and the remains of a young female in a wood-lined hollow in the natural surface roughly 7 feet north-northeast of the centre. Greenwell regarded this as the primary interment. All the other interments were within the mound, and were predominantly crouched or incomplete inhumations of Early Bronze Age date, associated items included whole or fragmentary Beakers and Food Vessels. A group of 5 male inhumations, at least 3 of which were extended, may have been of Anglo-Saxon date although this is incapable of proof. The date of the suggested primary interment and of the barrow’s construction is unclear. Beaker and Food Vessel inhumations are clearly secondary, while leaf arrowheads are among the sizeable collection of material recovered from the mound.

Details of barrow on Pastscape

A round barrow excavated in 1889 by Greenwell and again in 1969 by Brewster, the latter due to extensive damage being caused by ploughing. Beneath the mound, Greenwell located two concentric ditch circuits, though Brewster was only able to locate the outermost of the two. Greenwell found several crouched inhumations. At the centre was a disturbed flint cairn containing the bones of an adult male and an adult female, one of them with a Beaker. The barrow is best known for one of the secondary burials. A grave containing a child inhumation was accompanied by three chalk “drums”, each decorated with a variety of incised designs. The inhumation would appear to be secondary to, and at best contemporary with, the central Beaker-associated interments, although the decorative motifs incised onto the drums has much in common with those found on later Neolithic Grooved Ware pottery. A considerable quantity of material, mainly pottery and flint, was recovered from the mound. These finds include Peterborough Ware and Bronze Age sherds, plus scrapers and cores. Brewster was able to locate most of the features excavated by Greenwell with the exception of the inner ditch. He also found some additional burials, one of them accompanied by 2 Beakers and 50 jet beads. He also excavated a pit beneath the mound containing two sherds of Early Neolithic bowl pottery.

Details of barrow on Pastscape

A round barrow of Neolithic origin excavated in 1894 by Mortimer. At the time, it was 83 feet in diameter and 12 feet high. Apparently the top had been flattened and its circumference increased by “rabbit diggers, &c.“, according to Mortimer, who suggested that its original dimensions had been a maximum 75 feet diameter and 15 to 18 feet in height. In the early 1990s, the mound was steep-sided, 2.75 metres high and circa 40 metres in diameter, surrounded by a ditch surviving as a slight depression on the northeast side, but apparently visible on air photographs as a concentric segmented cropmark. Excavation showed the inner core of the mound to comprise peaty soil, with an outer covering of white chalk gravel. 18 feet south-southeast of the centre, laid onthe original surface, were the remains of 5 skeletons, some at least representing crouched inhumations. The skull and bones of a pig were with them, and some Neolithic potsherds were nearby. 25 to 30 feet west of the centre was an arc of shallow slots, each circa 6 feet long, up to 18 inches wide and 10 inches deep. No artefacts were in the fills. Above the ground surface, within the inner mound, were further burials. 7 feet southeast of the centre were the remains of a cremated child, and nearby were 2 unburnt skull fragments (from an adult). 9 feet east of the centre was a crouched inhumation with a leaf arrowhead by the pelvis. Just east of the centre was another cruched inhumation. Other finds recovered, presumably all from within the mound, include a sandstone pounder, a number of flints, potsherds, animal remains and a red deer antler, as well as large quantities of frog and toad remains.

Rudston cursus A

Monument No. 79500

Details of cursus on Pastscape

The Rudston cursus group consists of four cursuses stretching along the bottom and sides of the Great Wold Valley. At least one end of each of the monument are to be found on the elevated chalk ridges which surround Rudston. The valley contains the Gypsey Race, one of the rare streams across the chalklands, and two of the cursuses (A and C) cross this stream. The Rudston group contains an unparalleled concentration of cursus monuments. Cursus A is the southern most of the group. The southern end of the cursus survives as an earthwork and the remainder is visible on air photographs as two parallel ditches. The cursus is 2700 metres long by circa 58 metres, it tapers to 41 metres at the south terminal. Cursus A is the only one of the group where both ends are visible, both of the terminals are square in plan. The earthwork was excavated in the mid 19th century by Greenwell and showed what appeared to be a round barrow raised upon the surface of a long mound. This excavation produced six burials (two with Beakers), only one of which Greenwell considered to be primary, and a considerable amount of pottery. These burials were inserted into the south end of the cursus monument in the early bronze age. Greenwell also found sherds of earlier Neolithic pottery, along with worked flint and animal bones on the ground surface beneath the bank of the cursus. A second excavation across the west ditch in 1958 recovered 24 small pieces of Beaker pottery from the bottom 18 inches of the ditch fill, excluding the primary fill, and 4 larger pieces from the primary fill. There is evidence to suggest that the ditch was recut at this point explaining the presence of the later pottery.

Rudston Cursus B

Monument No. 1036040

Details of cursus on Pastscape

One of a group of 4 Neolithic cursus monuments. The cursus is visible as a cropmark along a dry valley floor. The end of the cursus is probably concealed by Rudston village. The cursus is 1550 metres long by 65-80 metres wide. It has been suggested that cursus B and cursus D may be part of the same cursus that bends somewhere under the village, but this is unlikely, as it would require a change of angle of around 60 degrees.

Rudston Cursus C

Monument No. 1036047

Details of cursus on Pastscape

One of a group of 4 prehistoric cursus monuments, Cursus C is visible as a cropmark. The cursus is 1480 metres long and 50-60 metres wide, though neither of the terminals are visible. The western end of the cursus fades out near the York road and to the east the ditches disappear into the Bridlington Gate Plantation. Two trenches were excavated by Kinnes in 1978 but no artifacts were recovered. The cursus crosses Gypsey Race at right angles.

Rudston Cursus D

Monument No. 1036049

Details of cursus on Pastscape

One of a group of 4 cursus monuments, Cursus D is visible as a cropmark. The cursus is 4000 metres long by 50-90 metres wide. The north terminal of the cursus is visible but the south end probably lies under the village of Rudston. It has been suggested that cursus D and cursus B are part of the same monument that join somewhere under the village , but this is unlikely as it would require a change of angle of around 60 degrees.

The Kilmarth Rocks are a lofty range of half a mile in length, running east and west, about two miles northward from the Cheesewring, and in the parish of Linkinhorne, Cornwall. The westernmost pile, represented in the sketch, stands on the summit of this elevated ridge, and is in itself about twenty-eight feet high. It overhands at least twelve or fifteen feet towards the north, and when viewed from the east appears so slightly based, that a man or a strong gale might suffice to shove the whole mass over the tremendous precipice; but when surveyed from the western side its foundation appears more solid, and it will require perhaps many ages to subvert the wonderful pile.

The immense size of many of the granite rocks of which this ridge is formed, and the rude and heterogeneous manner in which they lie one upon another, together with the wildness and extent of the surrounding panorama, overpower the mind with awe and astonishment at the grandeur of the operations of Nature. Towards the north is seen the top of Launceston Castle, also, in clear weather, the Bristol Channel and Lundy Island; to the south-east Plymouth, its Sound, and Mount Edgcumbe; and towards the south-west the Deadman Point and the English Channel, with the bleak midland hills of Devonshire and Cornwall.

A large rock-basin, of about three feet diameter and one foot deep, is on the summit of one of the eastern rocks of Kilmarth.

I would go for the rock basin alone, I love a rock basin.

From
The Cheesewring, Kilmarth Rocks and Trevethy Stone, Cornwall. Penny magazine of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, Jan 23, 1836, 28-29.

...I propose to give a few hitherto unpublished particulars [of the Tolven stone]. It stands at the back of a small farmhouse in Tolven (or Tolvan) Cross, about half a mile from Gweek, on the road from Helston to Truro, and just at the intersection of that road, with a less important one connecting Constantine and Wendron.

The farmhouse was built in 1847 by a John Moyle, whose descendants still occupy it. At the time the house was built the surrounding countryside was wild moorland, overgrown with furze and bracken, and this was cleared by Moyle to make the present Tolven Cross Farm. The two adjoining farms – Upper Tolven and Lower Tolven – were already in existence at the time Moyle commenced to reclaim his little corner of moorland.

When he built the house the Tolven Stone was lying flat upon the moor at the intersection of the roads, and a few feet only from the back wall of the house, and the old man was struck with the idea that by raising it up on one of his edges he would be spared the necessity of building some three yards of the wall separating a little patch of garden from the farmyard, or rather, a pathway from the farmyard to his back-door. This he did, and the stone stands today in the place where the old man put it.

John Moyle died thirty years ago, but his daughter-in-law, who lived in the same house with the old man for some years previous to his death, is still living there with her daughter and grandson, the latter farming the land attached to the house.

One can’t help thinking that the weirdness of the stone is the reason people walking on the ancient roads crossed at that spot (because it was an interesting and obvious landmark). But I’m not sure Mr Beesley would go for this theory. His theory is that the holed Men-An-Tol and this stone are holed because they’re cross bases. That’s a big stone to pick for a cross base though, you have to admit. He says I therefore leave my case in the hands of my readers, who, if they cannot accept my solution of the mystery, will, I feel sure, be tolerant. Ah if only there’d been the TMA Forum in those days. But no, you had to go and find a goose for a quill and boil up some ink, write it in your best handwriting and pop your exasperated response in the post. By which time you probably did feel quite tolerant. Ah they’d have loved the forum wouldn’t they.

From ‘What is the Men-an-tol?’ by George J Beesley, in The Antiquary 8 (April 1912)

Correct Co-ords for this are 51°39’32.5"N 9°04’01.5"W

There are four cairns in a linear group towards the northern end of the summit ridge of Mynydd Rhiw. A further cairn was destroyed by the erection of the radio transmitter to the west of this group.

Coflein details, south to north:

Cairn I (destroyed) (SH2297229496)

No trace of this cairn survives; it was removed during the construction of a radio station and mast. In 1939 it was described as being 18m in diameter.

Cairn II (SH2325029497)

Cairn situated on a prominent SW to NE aligned ridge of volcanic rock crossing the summit of Mynydd Rhiw.

An impressively sited cairn, comprising a max 17m diameter spread of stone that falls away down the hillslope. Within this spread there is a 6m diameter core some 1.5m high, within which a modern structure/shelter has been constructed.

Cairn III (SH2327429600)

The cairn is situated just 9m south of and below a more prominent cairn (Cairn IV). It comprises a low spread of stone 14m in diameter and 0.5m high into which a recent structure has been constructed. Around the north-west edge of the cairn, a series of stones may represent the original kerb.

This cairn appears to have been used as a sighting point on the line of the Parish Boundary. The boundary runs up and changes direction at the cairn and there is some suggestion that parts of the parish boundary may have earlier antecedents.

Cairn IV (SH2327829625)

The cairn sits on a high point of the ridge and is one of the largest, comprising a wide spread of stone 23m in diameter that is partly mixed with natural scree. Within this spread a 10m diameter pile stands up to 3m high and has a number of modern structures/shelters constructed in it.

Cairn V (SH2330429679)

The cairn comprises a spread of stone 12m in diameter, of which some material has fallen down the slope. The cairn stands up to 0.7m in height and is comprised sub-angular stones 0.2m to 0.4m in size. A small modern cairn has been constructed onto this cairn.