EH working with local police to protect Eston Moor
Kate Wilson, inspector of ancient monuments for English Heritage North-East has called for action to stop arsonists on Eston Moor who are destroying the heather which protects archaeological sites. Trials bikes and off-road vehicles are also damaging the earthworks... continues...
07/05/2016 - After missing the view on our misty trip to Erra Moor in the morning, we thought we'd try another hill in the afternoon but if anything the cloud was even worse on this one. Starting from the Cross Keys hotel on the A171 to the south, footpath heads north up the hill all the way to the top. Nice walk and the hillfort looks decent from what I could see of it!
When Eston nabbe puts on a cloake,
And Roysberrye a cappe,
Then all the folks on Clevelands clay
Ken there will be a clappe.---Yorkshire.
on p130 of
Weather Proverbs and Sayings Not Contained in Inwards' or Swainson's Books
C. W. Empson
The Folk-Lore Record, Vol. 4. (1881), pp. 126-132.
Apparently also in the Denham Tracts from 1850.
"In times of old, when British nymphs were known
To love no foreign fashions like their own;
When dress was monstrous, and fig-leaves the mode,
And quality put on no paint but woad"
A a, flea fly, a magpie an bacon flitch
Is t' Yorkshireman's coit-of arms.
An't reason they've chozzen theaze things soa rich
Is becoss they hev all special charms.
A flea will bite whoivver it can-
An soa' mi lads, will a Yorkshireman;
A fly will sup wi' Dick, Tom and Dan-
An soa i'gow will a Yorkshireman;
A magpie can talk for a terrible span-
An soa an' all, can a Yorkshireman;
A flitch is noa gooid whol* it's hung, ye'll agree-
No more is a Yorkshireman, doan't ye see.
"Reference is made in Ord to a 'hillock in Court Green' which was destroyed by workmen. In it were found, below a paved surface, 5 urns of 'flowerpot shape' arranged in a circle. The present location of the finds in unknown, as is the site of the location itself. Ord further reports, though he did not see it himself, the existance of a 'number of upright stones set in a circle' near the mound.
The mound in question does not appear to be Court Green Howe as it is recorded as having been destroyed. Ord refers on several occassions to the whole of the Eston Hills as 'Court Green', so the alleged barow and stone circle may be anywhere on those hills.
Bronze Age Burial Mounds in Cleveland
G.M. Crawford
"The Cleveland north from these, a state that doth maintain,
Leaqning her lusty side to the great northern main,
Which if she were not here cofined thus in me,
A shire even of herself might well be said to be"
According to J.W. Ord in his book "The History and Antiquities of Cleveland" published in 1846
A stone circle formerly stood at Court Green approx 1 mile East of Eston nab
Frank Elgee in his book " Early Man in North East Yorkshire" describes his excavations of Eston nab.
Flints were discovered on the higher platform, "Good implements were scarce; chips, flakes and pieces numerous." Further in the camp he discovered several cremations, flint scrapers, a leaf shaped arrow-heads, many quartzite hammer stones, a stone chopper, stone rubbers or polishers and numerous fragments of food vessels. he discovered a cup marked rock in the fosse and evidence of stone walling.
One disturbing feature he discovered was "minute pieces of calcined human bone suggested either cremations had been carried out on the discovered hearths or that a cannibal feast had be held"
The camp is dated to the bronze age by the food vessels.
"Eston Nab is one of the most attractive of Clevelands hills. It's lofty summit overlooks a vast extent of country, and it's antiquarian remains and historical associations invest it with much interest."
The Watering Places of Cleveland
Samuel Gordon
Pub. 1869
"On the summit of this promontory , which spreads out to the forthwards into an extensive plain, there is an ancient encampment, conjectured to be of Saxon origin, consisting of a double circle of rough loose stones: the inner rampart or entrenchment being 150 paces in cirmcuference; and the whole still perfect except on the north, where a small portion of the circle is cut off by the abrutness of the rock,which on that side is nearly perpendicular. This was probably constructed by the Saxons about the year 492 when they were overthrown by the Britons at the battle of Badon-Hill"
The History of Cleveland by John Graves published 1808
This is taken from the book: "The Story Of Cleveland" by "Minnie C. Horton" . p278
"The eastern end of the Eston Hills known as Court Green was, in the opinion of Mr. O. hill, a place of importance in the mid Bronze Age, for not only were there barrows, but a stone circle is reputed to have stood there."
I dont know much about Mr O hill except that he was a historian and the information came from the local news paper the Evening Gazette in 1959.
The front door closes...my new fiancee off to Barcelona with daughters for a girlie minibreak....right, where's the nearest archaeology to her place? Atop the Eston Hills, that's where. Pfft... I scuttled off, parked at Flatts Lane Country Park and made my laborious way up the slippery, icy and muddy path up the scarp towards the Nab and its hillfort. Boy, was the see for miles view over Teeside worth it. One hell of a panorama. The rock art was my prime aim, but I couldn't resist a detour to Mount Pleasant round barrow, with its view to Roseberry Topping en route. Retracing my steps to the scarp path I head for Carr Pond. I know from TMP that my goal is nearby, but, without GPS, finding it in two foot high heather was a swine. On the point of giving up after aligning myself with a photograph from four years previously and coursing to an fro I at last saw what I had come to see off to my right. Worth the hunt, close to two metres and plenty of cupmarks. A trig mark too, but so be it. Still well worth the effort. For those who may want to follow - have I really been the first since Fitzcorraldo fifteen years ago? - simply skirt round the eastern edge of Carr Pond. A reasonably clear path, not on OS, becomes visible. Follow it for about a hundred metres till you reach a patch of tall gorse on the paths right hand side. On your left there will be some nearby silver birch saplings. Leave the path and walk past them through the heather, aiming for a grassy patch beyond. The stone is 22 paces from the path. Simples. There are over thirty other examples of rock art lurking up here, apparently. Good luck.