A large, near-rectangular cup-and-ring-marked block of sandstone (some 116 x 71 x 14cm) was unearthed by farm workers ploughing a field at Fulforth Farm, Witton Gilbert, in September 1995. Academics believe the stone dates to the late Neolithic or the early Bronze Age. The carvings are in such excellent condition that they are believed to have been buried soon after carving and therefore protected against the erosion of millennia of weathering. It was subsequently discovered that the stone was the lid of one of two circular cists, in which were found fragments of bone and charcoal, a flint knife and a polished stone axe. These two cists were at one time covered with what is thought to be a cairn of river cobbles, traces of which remained. Other fragments of carved stone were found nearby, and these are thought to be the remains of a curb around the cairn. This sounds very much like a Cumbrian-style ring cairn (like Glassonby, for example) that has wandered to the east of Cumbria. The map reference given here is accurate to within 1km.
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Posted by TomBo
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