Tag: burial

Weston Churchyard, Askwith, North Yorkshire

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Cup-and-Ring Stone:  OS Grid Reference – SE 1774 4663

Also Known as:

  1. Carving no.568

Getting Here

Dead easy this. From Otley, take the north road over the River Wharfe and turn left following the signs to Askwith, where you’ll hit Weston village first. Once here, take the small left turn down to Weston Hall and the accompanying church. Go into the churchyard and check the graves!

Archaeology & History

This is a real curiosity.  It’s found in the graveyard of All Saints church, Weston, where one of the graves has several small stones on it, with this small stone with the following cup-and-ring designs upon it.  A plaque has been attached to it as a memorial to one ‘Susan Mary Dawson’.  Strange…

Sid Jackson’s 1958 sketch
Cup-marked stone deliberately placed on a christian grave

It was first written about by Sidney Jackson (1957), but where it first came from and why it has been placed here in a christian setting is something of a mystery.  It’s also odd inasmuch as although we know that there was some form of  ritual or geomantic use of cup-and-rings in relation to neolithic and Bronze Age burials — that such a tradition has been performed by this particular family on this grave.  It is obviously highly unlikely that this family had any knowledge whatsoever of burial traditions in relation to cup-and-ring art (please, shoot me down in flames if you know otherwise), so this re-use of this prehistoric stone is likely to be little other than fortuitous. But then, the occult history of some of the influential families in and around this region in relation to witchcraft, ancient kingship and esoteric practices, might indicate otherwise…

Does anyone know anything about the Dawson family history which might throw light on this modern use of a prehistoric tomb marker?  It has all the hallmarks of once coming from a prehistoric cairn, but we know little of its history prior to 1957.

References:

  1. Boughey, Keith & Vickerman, E.A., Prehistoric Rock Art of the West Riding, WYAS 2003.
  2. Jackson, Sidney, ‘Cup-and-Ring Boulder, Weston Churchyard,’ in Cartwright Hall Archaeology Group Bulletin, 2:16, 1957.

© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian


Acrehowe Circle, Baildon Moor, West Yorkshire

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Ring Cairn:  OS Grid Reference – SE 14245 40686

Also Known as:

  1. Coll’s Burial Mound
  2. Rerehowe

Getting Here

Acrehowe site on 1852 map

Go up through Baildon centre and head onto the moors. Crossing the cattle-grid, a coupla hundred yards further up, turn left. Past the small reservoirs on your left, another 100 yards or so and you reach the brow of the hill.  As you begin going down the road, there’s a small car-park right by the roadside.  The curious remains of the earthworks at the side of the old circle are discernible in the grassland right to its side.

Archaeology & History

Illustrated on the 6-inch OS-map of 1852 as “Site of a Barrow” (similar to how it appears in the image drawn here by Mr. C.N.M. Colls) a short distance below Pennythorn Hill top, there are still considerable traces of the earthworks surrounding the east and southern sides of what was once some form of ring cairn or tumulus that was once at this prominent place in the landscape.

Aerial view of siteThe site was first explored by Mr Colls in 1843 (his results were reported a few years later), who found a loose double-ring of stones, fifty feet across, surrounded by a shallow trench which was most notable on the south and east sides. Two urns were also uncovered near the centre of the ring, nearly two feet down, containing the cremated remains of people.  A few years later, the Leeds historian James Wardell (1869) told a most fascinating note about what happened during their excavation, saying:

“This…examination was attended by a circumstance not soon to be forgotten by the persons engaged therein (on the excavation). They had almost reached the place where the broken urn and bones were deposited when, at once, such a fearful storm of thunder, lightning and rain came on, that they were not only considerably alarmed, but driven from the Common to seek shelter in the village.”

Colls’ 1846 sketch

We hear this sorta thing at many of our ancient places!

Colls 1846 plan

One anonymous writer in 1955 described the site as a ‘stone circle’, and a number of subsequent archaeologists copied this without question; but in all probability this site was more typical of an old cairn circle or ring-cairn, similar in size and design to the Roms Law circle two miles north of here.  However, the earthworks at its side give the impression of some sort of exaggerated hengiform enclosure.

The place-name element howe strongly indicates a burial site and is a suffix found at many prehistoric tombs across northern England.  The prefix ‘acre’ may relate to “a plot of arable or cultivated land, a measure of land (an acre) which a yoke of oxen could plough in a day” (Smith 1956), or may be a corrupted form of the Old English word, ‘acen’, relating to oak trees.  Early literary examples of the place-name would enable a clearer understanding of the prefix element here.

References:

  1. Anonymous, Colls’ Burial Mound Stone Circle, Baildon Moor, Museum Leaflets: Bradford 1955.
  2. Baildon, W. Paley, Baildon and the Baildons (parts 1-15), St. Catherines: Adelphi 1913-26.
  3. Barnes, Bernard, Man and the Changing Landscape, Eaton: Merseyside 1982.
  4. Bennett, Paul, The Old Stones of Elmet, Capall Bann: Milverton 2001.
  5. Colls, J.N.M., ‘Letter upon some Early Remains Discovered in Yorkshire,’ in Archaeologia, 31, 1846.
  6. Collyer, Robert & Turner, J.H., Ilkley: Ancient and Modern, William Walker: Otley 1885.
  7. Smith, A.H., English Place-Name Elements – volume 1, Cambridge University Press 1956.
  8. Wardell, James, Historical Notes of Ilkley, Rombald’s Moor, Baildon Common, and other Matters of the British and Roman Periods, Joseph Dodgson: Leeds 1869. (2nd edition 1881)

© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian


Reddicar Clough, Hallam Moor, South Yorkshire

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Long Cist:  OS Grid Reference – SK 2624 8688

Also Known as:

  1. Ash Cabin Long Cist

Getting Here

Despite a footpath being marked on the OS map, there’s none I could find and the only way to get there is to make your way through the heather.  Park at the Wyming Brook nature reserve car park on Redmires road, take the signposted path besides the notice board and follow the line of the dry stone wall. Go through the gate and continue till you come to the end of the wall where a path leads off to your left through the broken wall, follow the path through the boggy bit and head uphill till you get to the highest point of the path by another wall with a path the other side.  From here it gets a little tricky! You’ll now need to go off path heading NNE and down hill till you come to the post-and-wire fencing where you should pick up a slight path heading WNW (your left) and head for the high point about half a mile in front of you. Just before you come to the high point you’ll have to cross the stream (easily done). The cist lays on the flat ground just beyond the brow of the rise.

Archaeology & History

A long cist around 3 feet wide and 6 feet long in a well preserved condition aligned almost — but not quite — East/West on a prominent position on Hallam Moor, commanding views over Ash Cabin flat, Rivelin Valley and the A57 road.  The only restricted view is to the northwest, where the moor rises then drops down again towards the Headstone.

There are 3 side-stones still in situ: the largest around 1 metre tall, the others still in place being about 70cm.  The stones that would have made up the rest of the walls lay close by.

When you’re at the site it’s obvious why it’s in this location: the views are spectacular and afford excellent views of the surrounding area.  A burial site with a vista truly fit for a king!

Archaeologically there’s not much info kicking around that I can find and I’m indebted to Stubob for alerting me to it’s presence.  It’s very unlikely you’d be walking this area for any reason other than to visit the site, as there are decent paths across the moor to the most popular site in this area, the Headstone off to the North West.  Remains of the Ash Cabin Flat stone circle are about 750 yards southeast of here.

A real gem of a site and a “must see” if your in the area.

© Geoff Watson, The Northern Antiquarian


Devil’s Den Cups, Clatford, Wiltshire

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Cup-Marked Stone:  OS Grid Reference – SU 15211 69652

Getting Here

Follow the directions to reach the Devil’s Den, a half-mile north of Clatford up the footpath towards the Fyfield Down cup-marked rock.  You can’t miss it!  The cup-markings are on the top of the capstone.

Archaeology & History

First described and illustrated by local historian and photographer, Pete Glastonbury, as far as I’m aware these cup-markings have not previously been included in any of Wiltshire’s archaeological surveys (that can’t be, surely?).  The only reference I’ve found — not untypically — is from one of the early editions of the english Folklore Journal.

...and again!
…and again!
Devil’s Den cup-markings

At least two well-defined cups stand out on the top of the capstone.  Each of them have ‘cracks’ running out of them, with the easternmost one of them (closer to the edge) turning into a channel which runs upwards on the stone, before then leading down off the edge of the rock.  Each cup-mark is very clear, about two inches across and about a half-inch deep.

Archaeologists can check these cups out and work out for themselves whether they’re natural or not.  They’re far more qualified than I on such matters and may be able ascertain other faint remarks on the stone.  The proximity of the nearby Fyfield Down cup-marked rock, several hundred yards to the north, shows that such petroglyphs can be found in this region.  Although we cannot expect many examples of rock art in this area (the rock’s damn tough and takes some burrowing into), it is likely that more carvings await discovery.

Folklore

The capstone on which these cup-markings are seen was told to be immovable and had lore said of it akin to that found at the great Whispering Knights, near the Rollright Stones.  But the main piece of lore describes the cups quite specifically.  In an article by Alice Gomme (1909), she told that:

“if anyone pours water into any of the natural cup-shaped cavities on the top stone at midnight, it will always be found in the morning to be gone, drunk by a thirst-tormented fiend.”

The tale is later repeated in Kathleen Wiltshire’s (1975) survey, where she too mentions the cup-marking (though only one), saying that,

“if a person pours water into the natural cup-shaped cavity on the top stone at midnight it will always be found to be gone in the morning — drunk by the devil.”

This folklore motif — repeated in Grinsell’s (1976) text — is found at rock-art sites in a number of the northern counties, where milk has been poured into the cup-markings (some of which were known as ‘cat stones’) and left overnight for the spirits to drink.   In the case we have recorded at Devil’s Den, the spirit of the place seems to have been demonized, as is common.

Miss Gomme (1909) also reported the curious ingredient that the spirit of a white rabbit with glowing eyes would appear on the capstone at midnight and help the devil demolish the site with the aid of eight oxen!  On this latter matter, I am duly informed by one-in-the-know that, to “those of us that know the locals and their humour, we just know this tale was made up for a visiting townie!”

References:

  1. Gomme, Alice B., ‘Folklore Scraps from Several Localities’, in Folklore Journal, 20:1, 1909.
  2. Grinsell, Leslie V., Folklore of Prehistoric Sites in Britain, David & Charles: London 1976.
  3. Wiltshire, Kathleen, Wiltshire Folklore, Compton Russell: Salisbury 1975.

© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian


Littlestone, Bingley Moor, West Yorkshire

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Cup-Marked Stone:  OS Grid Reference – SE 11209 43488

Getting Here

Follow the directions to reach the nice Big Rock carving.  Once here, walk up the gentle slope less than 100 yards eastwards.  Get here before the heather grows back, otherwise it’s unlikely you’ll find it!

Archaeology & History

The Little Stone, Bingley Moor
The Little Stone, Bingley Moor

Not previously catalogued, this is just a small trivial little stone with just a single cup-marking on it.  There’s a somewhat debatable line which looks more likely on the photo than when you actually see it in situ.  As we had the Big Rock just down the slope from here, I thought this could be a little rock, or Little Stone (makes sense!).  It was found by your very own Paul and those of you with the wills to seek it out, don’t be disappointed as most are with such a Littlestone. It’s certainly not as rosy as those close by, but hey – it’s another carved rock!

© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian


Teaspoon Rock, Bingley Moor, West Yorkshire

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Cup-Marked Stone:  OS Grid Reference – SE 10997 43357

Also Known as:

  1. Carving no.104 (Boughey & Vickerman)*

Getting Here

Follow the same directions to reach the Lunar Stone carving.  Once here, amble about a few yards to your immediate south and you’ll find it — assuming the heather aint grown back over and covered it!

Archaeology & History

Teaspoon Rock, Stanbury Hill
Teaspoon Rock, Stanbury Hill

This’d probably be another of those carvings first found by Stuart Feather in his amblings here in the 1970s, but we can’t say for sure.  In Boughey & Vickerman’s survey (2003), apart from attributing it as being in two separate positions (mistaking some reference from the English Heritage doods as some other carving – though that shouldn’t surprise anyone!),* they then correctly describe it as having “one cup with groove” running outwards — which we can see quite plainly (lending Michala Potts to say, “it reminds me of a teaspoon!” – hence the title!).  There may be as many as four other cups on this rock, though it’s hard to say for sure.  Two of them, perhaps, may have a very worn line linking them together (as you can slightly work out on the top-half of the carving) — but again, this is hard to say for sure.  Certainly this poor little carving aint quite as decorative as its nearby partners!

References:

  1. Boughey, Keith & Vickerman, E.A., Prehistoric Rock Art of the West Riding, WYAS 2003.

* In their survey this stone was also listed as carving no.98 by mistake, which should now be deleted from subsequent survey listings.

© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian


Upper Killay, Swansea, Glamorgan

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Long Barrow (destroyed):  OS Grid Reference – SS 5848 9227

Also Known as:

  1. Cae Bryn-y-garn

Archaeology & History

Described in 1925 in a report by the Royal Institute of South Wales as “the remains of a long barrow,” it seems that all remains of this old site have been destroyed.  Where the long tomb once stood are now some bungalows (anyone know if they’re haunted!?).

The tomb was quite an impressive one from all accounts: aligning north-northeast, it was some 20 yards long and 10 yards wide (at its widest), standing between 6-8 feet tall.  When building operations started here in 1959, a disturbed mound of stones was noticed, but by 1965 the bungalows had been built where once rested the ancient dead.

The field-name to its immediate east — Cae Bryn-y-garn — tells us the old name of the cairn, as known to local folk.  Quite what its folklore may have been, I’ve yet to hear…

References:

  1. Royal Commission on the Ancient & Historical Monuments, Wales, An Inventory of the Ancient Monuments in Glamorgan – Volume 1, HMSO: Cardiff 1976.

© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian


Ringtail Stone, Stanbury Hill, Bingley Moor, West Yorkshire

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Cup-and-Ring Stone:  OS Grid Reference – SE 10970 43348

Also Known as:

  1. Carving no.96

Ringtail Stone carving

Getting Here

Follow the same directions to find the Lunar Stone.  Once here, walk just 20 yards southwest and keep your eyes peeled!  This is a long flat stone which can easily get overgrown in the heather, so you might need to search around till you find it.

Archaeology & History

Ringtail Stone - facing south
Ringtail Stone, Stanbury Hill

Thought to be another carving first located by Stuart Feather in 1978, though we can’t bne totally sure on that.  Curiously omitted from Hedge’s (1986) survey, this old glyph comprises of a single cup-mark near the western end of the stone and a complete cup-and-ring at the eastern-end.  It was first illustrated in Boughey & Vickerman’s (2003) fine survey, but they missed seeing a quite distinct line or ‘tail’ coming out the northern side of the cup-and-ring.  Nowt special in archaeological terms, but of obvious relevance to the dood who carved it! They thought there may have been two faint cups in the ring, but it isn’t clear by any means.

As with the other carvings nearby, we find it amidst a scattering of prehistoric walling and the remnants of old cairns.

References:

  1. Boughey, Keith & Vickerman, E.A., Prehistoric Rock Art of the West Riding, WYAS 2003.

© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian


Stanbury Hill Enclosure, Bingley Moor, West Yorkshire

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Enclosures:  OS Grid Reference – SE 109 433

Getting Here

Follow the same directions as to find the Lunar Stone, Spotted Stone, etc.  Go thru East Morton village up the steep moorland road, east, and where the road levels out there’s a right turn and a trackway on your left which leads onto the moor.  Go ½-mile up this track till you hit a moorland ‘footpath’ signpost.  Stop here and walk due west (left) for a coupla hundred yards.  If the heather’s grown back you aint much chance of finding owt – but if there’s only low growth, amble about zigzagging – and keep your eyes peeled!

Archaeology & History

Section of cairn rubble & walling
Section of cairn rubble & walling

Although there’s been no written record of the Stanbury Hill remains until very recently, it seems quite probable that Mr Stuart Feather would have come across at least parts of these remains when he uncovered the rock-art in the same vicinity, but he never made public his finds.  He was a diligent researcher and finder of cup-and-ring stones, nose to the ground sorta chap, and it would be odd for him to miss the other remains on this hill.  For as we now know, there are undeniable evidences of considerable neolithic and/or Bronze Age walling scattered along (mainly) the southern side of Stanbury Hill, running mainly along an east-west axis, but there are also examples of the walling running roughly north-south.  In at least one position near the western end of the ridge, halfway down the south-facing slope, is what seems to be the unmistakable trace of an enclosed hearth.  At the time of writing a series of archaeological digs are, slowly, being done hereabouts, so it will be good to read their final evaluations.

Very close to some parts of the walling we find the remains of old cairns, and at least one cup-and-ring stone has been carved along the axis of one line of walling (it reminded me very much of the Bronze Age settlement remains found at Snowden Moor, over the northerly horizon, in the Washburn Valley).  Several other previously unreported cup-marked stones have also been found here (we’ll highlight them on TNA in the coming weeks).

Upon first impression the remains found upon and around Stanbury Hill seem more related to mortuary practices than what we’d call ‘domestic’ living practices, as the prevelance of carvings and cairns indicates.  But we’ve gotta be cautious here, as in many sites the dead were kept with the living; and as we find in many traditional or aboriginal cultures, the land of spirits and that of the living are much more closely allied than in our profane ‘Western’ paradigm.

More from this site in due course…

© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian


Spotted Stone, Stanbury Hill, Bingley Moor, West Yorkshire

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Cup-and-Ring Stone:  OS Grid Reference – SE 11025 43334

Also Known as:

  1. Carving no.84 (Hedges)
  2. Carving no.105 (Boughey & Vickerman)

Getting Here

General Plan of Spotted Stone
General Plan of Spotted Stone

Same direction as the Lunar Stone: from East Morton village take the moorland road, east, up the steep hill.  Where the road levels out there’s a right turn and a trackway on your left which leads onto the moor.  Go up this track and keep walking till you hit a moorland ‘footpath’ signpost.  Stop here and walk due west (left) onto the gently sloping rise of Stanbury Hill.  Keep walking for a 250 yards or so, where the land has sloped gently down to the end of the spur; and just 50 yards before it drops down to the stream below, you’ll find a cluster of rocks scattered about.  One of the stones here is this one!

Archaeology & History

First reported by Stuart Feather in 1977, this is an excellent carving with an apt title suiting its appearence.  Just 13-14 yards west (towards the cluster of other carvings very close by) are the denuded remains of what looks like a robbed cairn.  Initially I thought that the archaeologists had been here and turned it over – but it seems not!

Spotted Stone - looking west
Spotted Stone – looking west
Close-up of NE section
Close-up of NE section

There are between 55 and 61 cup-markings etched onto this stone, with several short lines and ringlets; with one small ridge of two curves ‘arching’ over a couple of cups giving the impression of owl’s eyes! (O.G.S. Crawford would have loved this one in his book, The Eye Goddess!)  The stone gave me the distinct impression that it had either once stood upright, or else was part of a burial; and the finding of a prehistoric cairn just a few yards to the west reinforced this thought (although, gotta be said, knowing that cup-&-rings and death is a common theme upon these moors, it’s likely to sometimes afflict my ability to see these carvings with fresh eyes each time I come across them). Added to this is that the carving is in a very good state of preservation, with a considerable lack of general erosion on the cup-marks (as found on the majority of carved rocks on these moors) adding considerably to the thought that this might have once served part of a tomb, or perhaps cist cover and only been brought to the surface in quite recent years.  This seems undeniable.

Unless, of course, this carving was etched sometime in the last century…

References:

  1. Boughey, Keith & Vickerman, E.A., Prehistoric Rock Art of the West Riding, WYAS 2003.
  2. Hedges, John (ed.), The Carved Rocks of Rombald’s Moor, WYMCC: Wakefield 1986.

© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian