Feizor Thwaite, Lawkland, North Yorkshire

Ring Cairn:  OS Grid Reference – SD 79798 67473

Getting Here

Feizor Thwaite circle (after ‘QDanT’)

From Feizor village, take the dirt-track south that cuts up between the two cottages and walk onto the level.  From here, the walling bends round and a small cut runs up the slope on your left.  Go up here and onto the top, bearing left again when you reach the footpath near the top of the slope.  Walk along here until the hills open up before you and less than 100 yards along, just on the right-hand side of the path, you’ll notice the overgrown outline of a ring just by the side.  Don’t miss it (like I did!).

Archaeology & History

Danny, Paul and I visited here a few weeks back on a fine sunny day and, my attention caught by some nearby rocks that got mi nose twitching, I just about walked past the place until Danny called me back and said, “Oy – ‘ave y’ not seen this?”  Right under my nose no less!

Feizor Thwaite circle, looking northwest

The site’s a little known circular monument east of Feizor village, less than a mile northwest of the cairnfield above Stackhouse (where lives the Apronful of Stones and other prehistoric friends).  Marked on modern OS-maps as an ‘enclosure,’ the site here is in fact an overgrown cairn circle, typical in size and form of the ones found at nearby Borrins Top, Burley Moor, Askwith Moor and elsewhere in the Pennines.  Measuring (from outer edge to outer edge) 66 feet 6 inches east-west and 59 feet north-south, the remains here consist of a raised embankment of stones, encircling an inner flatter region consisting of many smaller stones beneath the overgrowth of grasses and vegetation.  Locals told me that the some of the cairns up here were explored early in the 20th century by a local man called Tot Lord, but I’m unsure whether he looked at this one.

There are a couple of other smaller circular remains on the same grassland plain, clearly visible from aerial imagery, along with other crop-marks of human activity on this part of the Feizor Thwaite landscape.  More antiquarian analysis could do with focussing here to see what can be found!

Links:

  1. Feizor Thwaite & other nearby prehistoric sites
  2. Feizor Thwaite Computer Art

© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian


Feizor, Lawkland, North Yorkshire

Standing Stone (destroyed):  OS Grid Reference – SD 78570 67177

Archaeology & History

Feizor on 1851 map
Feizor on 1851 map

There have been no previous archaeological reference to this site (until now), which was included in early place-names records (Smith 1961) and was also highlighted on the first Ordnance Survey map of the region around 1851.  Probably as a result of the archaeological lacking, the upright stone has finally succumbed to the destructive actions of modern man. When we asked the farmer if he knew owt about any standing stone here, he said he knew “nowt abaat that.”

Feizor stone stump
and from another angle

All that can be seen today is the very small stump of stone, just visible above ground level, in the middle of the field.  It’s not easy to spot either, as the grasses grow over what’s left.  But we found the slim remnant of the stump embedded in exactly the spot marked on old and modern maps, measuring 24 inches in length and just 4 inches across at the widest, with what seemed like worn rounded edges at either end.  We were unable to ascertain the depth of the remaining stone in the ground. The stone looks simply as if it’s been snapped at the base.  We have no idea how tall this standing stone was.

If any local people know anything more about this stone, or have any old photos, we’d love to hear from you — and would obviously give due credit for any help on this matter.

References:

  1. Smith, A.H., The Place-Names of the West Riding of Yorkshire – volume 6, Cambridge University Press 1961.

Links:

  1. Feizor stone remnants & walks to nearby prehistoric sites

© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian