To search for any sites in the northern counties of England (previously known as Brigantia), click on the list of relevant counties, below. Please note that not all these english counties were truly in Brigantia, but they came close to its southern edges; and as parts of them tickle the edges of the southern Pennines, I thought they should be included. Hope that’s OK with everyone!
Very little can be seen of this once large oval-shaped prehistoric enclosure, a mile south of Slaidburn, on the level below the rise towards Easington Fell. Few archaeologists know about the site and there has been little written about it. Although very little of it is visible at ground level today, three-quarters of the site is vaguely discernible from the air and on GoogleEarth, as the photo here shows. The Skelshaw Ring was described in Greenwood & Bolton’s Bolland Forest (1955), where they said, “The late Colonel Parker (Browsholme Hall) claimed to have found a good specimen of an ancient earthwork above Easington Green. Unfortunately, this has been ploughed over during the last war (WWII).” And little else appears to have been said of the place until the Lancastrian writer John Dixon (2003) wrote about it. More recently John said the following about the site:
Skelshaw Ring plan (after Dixon 2003)
“This oval earthwork, 320 ft. diameter, crowns a small hill on the general slope of the east bank of Easington Beck. It consists of a ditch and bank with a gateway through the bank and a causeway across the ditch on the west side. Inside the bank and ditch the ground rises gently into a rounded hill so that most of the inside of the earthwork is well above the level of the bank.
“During the spring of 1934 a preliminary excavation of the site was undertaken by the late Dr. Arthur Raistrick. Three sections were cut through the ditch and bank and the inner area was briefly explored.
“Although nothing was obtained to date the earthwork, the sections did show the ordered structure of the site and proved the presence of large floors that may well have been the site of huts.
“This site may be compared with the large ringwork at Fair Oak Farm, SD 648 458, as both have a similar size and the same features are displayed. Bleasdale Circle, SD 577 460, is a slightly smaller ringwork, but I consider all three monument (plus: Easington Fell Circle [no:2] SD 717 492 ) to have the same origins.
“These earthworks represent the first settlements of a people determined to tame, settle and cultivate the landscape. What we observe at Skelshaw is the possible farmstead of an extended family unit, part of a clan that worked the land here some 4000 years ago in what is referred to as the Bronze Technology Period.”
Go through the gorgeous old village of Waddington northwards, uphill, along the B6478 road, towards the villages of Newton and Slaidburn; or, if you like, go from Newton village uphill southwards along the B6478 road towards Waddington. Either way, when you reach the top of the moors, park up at the car-park beside the road where the view stretches for miles ahead of you. Walk on the road for 100 yards, then take the boggy footpath left, going first down and over a stream, then up to the right (northeast) towards a small cairn on the near-horizon. From the cairn-top you’ll notice a large moorland pond a hundred or so yards ahead of you. Walk towards and past its left side and onwards again for the same distance until, in front of you (before a nearly-dried stream running downhill) keep your eyes peeled in the deep grasses on where you’ll see a very large ring raised in front of you, defined in parts by scatterings of rocks along the tops and sides. You’re here!
Archaeology & History
This is an outstanding prehistoric site, all but lost in old literary records until relocated in recent years by Lancashire historian and writer, John Dixon. However, its precise nature remains a bit of a puzzle. When John took a small party of us to the site on June 16, 2011, there was a variety of ideas as to the precise nature of the place.
Southwestern arc of the Ring
Structurally similar to a number of prehistoric enclosures in the Pennine range, this very large near-circular monument consists primarily of a very large number of rocks and stones making up a thick outer wall, presently piled less than a yard high above the peat and approximately 6 feet wide on average. From north-to-south, outer wall to outer wall, it measures more than 42 yards (38.5m) across; whilst measuring 41 yards (38m) east-to-west. There are distinct entrances on its western and northern sides, and possibly another on the east. Certain sections of the inner region are now somewhat boggy in parts, perhaps indicating there was at one time an internal spring of water. A large singular stone is found on the inner eastern section, which may have been placed there deliberately. On the northwestern inner-edge of the walling is a notable long wide stone which may have stood upright.
My first impression of the site told it to bet at least Iron Age in date, though more probably Bronze Age. But without excavations, I could be talking bullshit! It is an obvious enclosure of some sort, but there are no visible internal structures on the present ground level. There are no notable internal or external ditches and banks, which may have given the site a ‘henge’ classification. More work is obviously needed here before we can say what it is for sure.
Very little has been said of this huge ring in the past. John Dixon’s research found the site briefly described in Greenwood & Bolton’s (1955) work, saying:
“On page 24 they refer to the above site thus: ‘There is also a rough stone circle on top of the fells above Easington, like the remains of an ancient fort (the ringwork)…'”
Also mentioning how Richard Rauthmell’s Antiquitates (1746) very briefly mentions the place aswell. Apart from these passing remarks, John has found little else.
On other parts of this moortop we found scattered evidences of other early human remains (walling, cairns, hut circles), much of it unrecorded. There may well be other important prehistoric remains hidden upon these hills…
An intriguing and little-known carved stone whose existence has been brought to our attention by historian and author John Dixon. Its precise history and nature seems unknown; but aspects of the carving possess symbols that are found on early christian remains, as well as some cup-and-ring designs. John wrote:
Artist’s impressionFoulscales Stone
“This enigmatic stone (27 inches height, 12 inches wide, 6 inch thickness), anciently known as the Yolstone and later as the Bonstone, once stood behind Foulscales Farm, near Gibbs. For some reason the stone was removed from this site and taken into the cellars of Knowlmere Manor under the authority of the Peel Estate.
The stone displays possible early native chi-rho symbols that may have a 6/7th century provenance. The lettering ‘HT’ look to be of 16/17th century origin and may refer to the Towneley family who held lands in Bowland.”
Was it a boundary stone? A gravestone? Was it an early christian stone? A Romano-British stone? The carved circles with ‘crosses’ inside them are typical Romano-British period designs, covered extensively in the early works of J. Romilly Allen and found to be widespread across Britain. Any further information on this stone would be greatly appreciated.
From Masham take the Fearby Road & go through the village, onwards & past Healey village and less than a mile on where the road forks, bear to the right past and go along the gorgeous little-known vale of Colsterdale. Less than 2 miles on, walk up the notable track veering to your right that goes diagonally uphill and past the bottom of West Agra farm along the wallside till you reach the gate. Thru the gate, walk immediately uphill on your right following the walling for a coupla hundred yards until you reach another gate into the field on your right. You’ll see a cluster of large boulders in the first field, which you need to walk past and look at the large boulder up against the walling in the next field. You can’t miss it!
Archaeology & History
Photo by Geoff Watson
First mentioned — albeit briefly — in Brown’s (2008) work, this large bedrock stone, covered down its eastern side by a line of drystone walling, has a good scattering of cups and lines, mainly on its central and westerly side. A cluster of them were etched onto a natural rise near the middle of the rock, which itself has a long circuitous line running around its northern and western sides, which you can just see below centre in the photo (below left). Altogether on this side of the rock surface there appears to be some 56 cup-marks plus a number of long carved grooves curling in differing directions: some of these appear to have been Nature’s handiwork that were subsequently modified by human hands. It’s an impressive-looking petroglyph.
Main rock surfaceCluster of cups – by QDanT
If we go over to the other side of the walling, we find more cup-markings. This discovery led Paul & Barbara Brown (2008) to classify the site as being two separate carved rocks — calling them 3a and 3b — thinking that the much smaller carved area on the other side of the wall, “may have originated from WAP 3a’s quarried southern section.” On this smaller section we find some 7 cup-markings with possible carved lines running off the edge of the stone and some running roughly parallel to the walling. Whatever the truth of the Browns’ assertion, this is a fine carving well worth looking at!
References:
Brown, Paul & Barbara, Prehistoric Rock Art in the Northern Dales, Tempus: Stroud 2008.
From Masham, take the Fearby Road to the village, keep going on the same road through Healey village and less than a mile on where the road forks, bear to the right past and go along the gorgeous little-known vale of Colsterdale. It’s bloody beautiful! Less than 2 miles on, walk up the notable track veering to your right that goes diagonally uphill and past the bottom of West Agra farm along the wallside till you get to the gate. Thru the gate, follow the wall immediately uphill to the right for a coupla hundred yards until you reach a gate into the field on your right. The cluster of large boulders in front of you is where you need to be!
Archaeology & History
Cluster of cups on WAP-2b (image by ‘QDanT’)
This carving is to be found on the largest of the boulders in this cluster. It’s a large scattered cluster of cup-markings and natural bowls all over the rolling surface of the rock. It was first described in the Browns’ (2008) survey, although as they have given this and one of the adjacent stones incorrect grid-references, it made it troublesome to initially work out which carving was which! But the photos here certainly lets you know which one I’m describing! In the event that I’ve got the wrong title for this one, someone lemme know and I’ll remedy the situation!
Brown (2008) describes this design as being “cups some linked by grooves, a rectangular feature and eroded cups and depressions.” We couldn’t work out any further elements on the stone, but the cloudy conditions when we were here prohibited a decent view of the surface.
References:
Brown, Paul & Barbara, Prehistoric Rock Art in the Northern Dales, Tempus: Stroud 2008.
From Masham, take the Fearby Road to the village, keep going on the same road through Healey village and less than a mile on where the road forks, bear to the right past and go along the gorgeous little-known vale of Colsterdale. It’s bloody beautiful! Less than 2 miles on, walk up the notable track veering to your right that goes diagonally uphill and past the bottom of West Agra farm along the wallside till you get to the gate. Thru the gate, follow the wall immediately uphill to the right and, about 100 yards up, watch out for the large flat stone by the side of the footpath. You can’t really miss it.
Archaeology & History
Initially we thought that this carving was one described in Paul Brown’s work as ‘West Agra Plantation no.1’, but this is clearly a different carved stone. It is found close to WAP-1 (as he called it), but a few yard further up alongside the footpath by the walling. With two large bowls on the top of the stone and another at the edge, two average-sized cup-markings are several inches away to the bottom-right of the largest bowl. What seems to be a carved line runs from one of the cups. We need to visit this stone again and look at it when there’s better lighting conditions so we can get a more accurate assessment of its nature.
References:
Brown, Paul & Barbara, Prehistoric Rock Art in the Northern Dales, Tempus: Stroud 2008.
From Masham, take the Fearby Road to the village, keep going on the same road through Healey village and less than a mile on where the road forks, bear to the right past and go along the gorgeous little-known vale of Colsterdale. It’s bloody beautiful! Less than 2 miles on, walk up the notable track veering to your right, diagonally uphill. Walk along till you get to the moor edge. Go thru the gate and follow the swerving uphill path to the bottom of Slipstone Crags. Once you level out at the Crags top, look across the small valley to your left and, on t’other side, you’ll notice a standing stone upright in the heather, just 100 yards on the flat on the other side of the valley. Head right for it!
Archaeology & History
Looking west
There are no known written references to this standing stone, which we visited for the first time yesterday, in a brief wander to the nearby Agra Woods cup-and-ring stones a few hundred yards southeast. The monolith stands some four-and-half-feet tall and, at its base, is more than three feet broad and just one foot wide. Just to its side and almost completely covered in peat and vegetation is what may have been another once-upright companion asleep in the Earth. Another possibly fallen stone is less than 10 yards west. The upright stands on the flat moorland overlooking the confluence of two (once) fast-flowing waters of Brown Beck and Birk Gill; and the landscape that reaches out from here is something to behold!
We found the remains of other old monuments on the moor, but some were obviously related to the industrial mining not far away. However, two or three other small upright stones and a large stone circular structure were also located which very obviously predated any industrial or medieval workings. We need to revisit this moorland and spend more time exploring to see what other things are hidden, lost midst the peat and heather.
From Kelbrook village head south past Old Stone Trough then continue as far as the lane goes. Then head eastwards for about 1 mile on footpaths to a building called Laycocks. From here continue east along footpaths for another 1 mile or so until you reach Copy House (now called Hawres Farm). Go to the back of the farm where you will see in the wall a cross-incised boundary stone. At the side there is a square-shaped holy well. (You may need to ask permission at the farm).
Archaeology & History
Dissenters Well & Cross (image courtesy ‘QDanT’)
The so-called Dissenters’ Well is a rectangular feature in the ground next to the wall. It is said locally to date from the 17th-18th century, but is most probably an ancient moorland spring. The well was in use from the 17th century by Quakers, Baptists, Methodists and possibly Roman Catholics, at a time when there was much animosity towards non-Conformists. Legislation was passed stopping all illegal gatherings to be held within a 5 mile radius of any church – thus leading to religious gatherings in bleak, remote places on the moorland above towns and villages. In 1812 an Act of Parliament against non-Conformists was repealed and dissenters were given equality regarding where they could worship. The water in the well no doubt had some medicinal qualities or, was a source of spiritual up-lift at the time.
By the well there is 3 foot high pointed boundary stone or waymarker known as ‘Tom’s Cross’ and it has a thin incised cross carved onto it. The stone is partly embedded in the wall. It probably marks the old boundary between Lancashire and Yorkshire. I don’t know who Tom was though he may have been the person who set up the stone. The age of the stone is not known.
From Masham, head westwards along the country lanes to Fearby village (passing the old cross on the green), through old Healey village (where once stood four stone circles, seemingly destroyed) and onwards to Gollinglith. From here, keep going up the winding steep lane until you’re at the top where, on the right-hand side of the road, a footpath takes you diagonally northwest over the uphill fields. When you hit the walling which leads to the woods, follow it up and, once at the corner of the trees, follow the track back eastwards along the wall edge, keeping your eyes peeled when you pass the second line of walling that runs down the slope. You’re damn close!
Archaeology & History
One of a cluster of fascinating carvings in this remote region of the upland Dales, this is perhaps the most impressive multiple-ringed carving of the group, known collectively as the West Agra Plantation group. The carving was rediscovered sometime in 2002 by Emily McIntosh and was described by Brown & Brown (2008) thus:
“This boulder measures 5.5 x 3.1 x 1.28m and has a multiringed motif 50cm in diameter linked by a number of grooves and isolated cups.”
Teddy with his rings! (after ‘QDanT’)Primary cup-and-multiple-rings (after ‘QDanT’)
But this barely does the stone justice. The main focus is on the cup with six surrounding rings, intersected by an intrusive double-line from outside the series of rings then running into the central ring itself — though not touching the focal cup at the very centre. This double line points to the southeast and is somewhat akin to a sliver of light running to or from old solar designs. It is a little bit like some aspects of the carved stones found on Ilkley’s Panorama Stones (though Ilkley’s carvings are much fainter). At the end of the intrusive double-line is a small cluster of cup-marks. There’s also another curious singular carved line running outwards from the third ring, running out of the concentric rings then heading off further down the stone. More cups and lines scatter other parts of the stone and there may be another faint line running from near the central cup all the way out of the rings close to the main ‘ray’ of lines.
Photo by Geoff Watson
A large standing stone can be seen if you walk a few hundred yards east along the side of the wall. It’s quite impressive.
Apparently the woodland in which this carving (and its associates) can be found is supposedly ‘private’ and one is supposed to contact some group calling itself Swinton Estates to set foot in the woods. Not the sorta practice we usually put up with in Yorkshire. If anyone has their contact details, please add them below in the event that anyone has need to ask ’em about going for a walk here.
References:
Brown, Paul & Barbara, Prehistoric Rock Art in the Northern Dales, Tempus: Stroud 2008.
The village of Eyam is located some 9 miles south-east of Chapel-en-le-Frith and about the same from Sheffield, which lies to the north-east. Go to the centre of the village and find the church of St Lawrence standing beside the road to Foolow close to Eyam Hall and just west of the B6521 road to Sheffield. The Saxon cross stands in the churchyard.
History and Folklore
Eyam Cross, east face (from Wikipedia)
This very fine Anglo-Saxon (Mercian) cross stands 8 foot tall and dates from the 8th-9th centuries. It was apparently set up by missionaries from the north at Cross Low on the moors to the west of Eyam. Originally it was a wayside preaching cross that was 10 feet high and certainly must have looked very spectacular, but now it is only 8 feet high due to it being knocked about a bit in more recent times and losing one of its shaft sections. In the 18th century the cross was discovered beside a trackway on the moors, from whence it was brought to the churchyard of St Lawrence’s church; but then for a long time it stood abandoned and uncared for in the corner of the churchyard. Eventually it was restored and placed in the churchyard where it now stands proudly.
The cross is said to be the only one of its type in the Midlands that retains its cross-head. It has some very rich decoration on the west face with fabulous interlacing scroll-work running up the shaft that is typically Mercian in origins. On the west-face, especially the upper section, there are human figures probably St Mary the Virgin with the baby Jesus, angels and Christ in glory, each in their own sections or panels. The cross is grade 1 listed. St Lawrence’s church houses a Saxon font.
References:
Rev. Arthur, C., Illustrated Notes on English Church History, Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge: London 1901.
Rodgers, Frank, Curiosities of Derbyshire and the Peak District, Derbyshire Countryside Ltd 2000.
