Rombalds Moor – Page 11

Glovershaw Quarry Stone, Baildon Moor, West Yorkshire

27/02/201024/10/2019 megalithix

Cup-Marked Stone: OS Grid Reference – SE 13044 40093

Also Known as:

Carving BM5 (Hedges)
Carving no.122 (Boughey & Vickerman)

Follow the same directions as those to reach the small Central Design Stone up past the top-end of Shipley Glen. You’ll notice the small disused quarry just a few yards away, and this partly-covered flat stone lies right at the very edge of the quarry itself.

Archaeology & History

CR122 - dr — Plan of CR-122 (after Hedges)

Unless you catch this stone in good light, many of the cups on this design are difficult to make out; but defocus for a bit and they’ll come to you. Around 13 cups have been counted on this stone, with a couple of grooves: one of which descends just by the small arc (a common local feature on Baildon’s carvings), near the eastern side of the stone. A larger basin below this, covered by earth, may or may not be natural. Two of the cups here may have been carved sometime in the late 19th or early 20th century, probably around the time the quarrying was being done.

As is common in some parts of Britain, this carving (and others nearby) was found in association with a small cairn-field, much of which has long since gone.

It’s very probable that there were other petroglyphs close to this one, but which have subsequently been destroyed as a result of the quarrying operations here.

References:

Baildon, W. Paley, Baildon and the Baildons – parts 1-15, Adelphi: London 1913-1926.
Bennett, Paul, Megalithic Ramblings between Ilkley and Baildon, private manuscript: Shipley 1982.
Boughey, Keith & Vickerman, E.A., Prehistoric Rock Art of the West Riding, WYAS: Leeds 2003.
Jackson, Sidney, “Cup-Marked Boulder near the Glovershaw Footpath,” in Cartwright Hall Archaeology Group Bulletin, 2:17, 1957.
Hedges, John, The Carved Rocks on Rombald’s Moor, WYMCC: Wakefield 1986.

Baildon Moor (126), West Yorkshire

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Cup-Marked Stone: OS Grid Reference – SE 13066 40095

Also Known as:

Carving no.9 (Hedges)
Central Design Stone

Getting Here

From the old Glen House pub, walk up the road onto ‘Shipley Glen’ as all locals call the place. Go up the Glen Road for about half a mile, watching out for the small dirt-track turning going the slope on your left-hand side just near where the road starting swerving uphill to the right. At this point where the track heads down and into the trees, there’s a footpath going into the bracken along to the right, heading onto level ground. Walk up and along here. After 100 yards or so you’ll notice the disused quarry on your left. Keep walking along the footpath (two end up running parallel to each other) and you’ll see this carving right beneath your feet!

Archaeology & History

CR126a — Baildon Moor carving no.126, near Glovershaw Quarry

This was one of the very first examples of “cup and ring stones” that I ever saw, when I was a mere 10 or 11 years old! I’m not quite sure what I expected to find, but something about this stone with its deeply set cup-markings obviously had an effect on me – as I’m still foraging about looking at them more than 35 years later! About 20 yards away from the Glovershaw quarry carving (Baildon Moor 122), this central design stone — as I used to call it — was first recorded in W. Paley Baildon’s (1913) magnum opus and was then all-but-forgotten until the Bradford Archaeology Group mentioned it again more than forty years later. Although you can only see three distinct cups on this small rock, another 2 or 3 seem in evidence under better lighting conditions, and a small line runs below the cups in the photo here, which you can just make out above the central cup.

This carving and others close by give the distinct impression that they were once part of some seemingly lost cairn-field, awaiting rediscovery…

References:

Baildon, W. Paley, Baildon and the Baildons – parts 1-15, Adelphi: London 1913-1926.
Bennett, Paul, Of Cups and Rings and Things, unpublished: Shipley 1981.
Bennett, Paul, Megalithic Ramblings between Ilkley and Baildon, unpublished: Shipley 1982.
Boughey, Keith & Vickerman, E.A., Prehistoric Rock Art of the West Riding, WYAS: Leeds 2003.
Cowling, Eric T., Rombald’s Way, William Walker: Otley 1946.
Hedges, John, The Carved Rocks on Rombald’s Moor, WYMCC: Wakefield 1986.

Cliffe Castle Carving, Keighley, West Yorkshire

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Cup-and-Ring Stone: OS Grid Reference – SE 0577 4210

Also Known as:

Carving no.144 (Boughey & Vickerman)

Getting Here

Dead easy! Avoiding Keighley (as common sense dictates), but going to its outskirts, get to the huge Cliffe Castle (tis free) on the northern outskirts of the town. Go inside and look around!

Archaeology & History

CR144-1 — Carving in Cliffe Castle Museum

Initially located in the ground a few yards south of Dobrudden caravan park amidst a large gathering of other carved rocks, this grand-looking cup-and-ring stone is no longer in situ. As with a several other carvings, this has been on a bittova wander in the last century! It was first uprooted from the Earth and archaeologically transferred to Bradford’s Cartwright Hall Museum sometime after World War 2, where it lived peacefully for a number of years, before being moved to Cliff Castle Museum, where it still lives, quietly (along with another prehistoric carved rock, the Comet Stone, that was nabbed from the uplands near the Roms Law circle).

CR144 (Baildon 1913) — W.P. Baildon’s 1913 drawing

As we can see from the photos (taken in poor lighting in the museum – sorry…) there are five cup-and-rings with one cup-and-2-rings standing out (plus about another 10-12 cups scattered here and there); though when W. Paley Baildon drew a picture of the stone around 1913, he could clearly see another cup-and-ring etched onto the stone, but this has faded somewhat in the last century. Messrs Boughey & Vickerman (2003) were unable to see it.

References:

Baildon, W. Paley, Baildon and the Baildons – parts 1-15, Adelphi: London 1913-1926.
Boughey, Keith & Vickerman, E.A., Prehistoric Rock Art of the West Riding, WYAS: Leeds 2003.
Hedges, John, The Carved Rocks on Rombald’s Moor, WYMCC: Wakefield 1986.
Jackson, Sidney, ‘Cup and Ring Boulders of Baildon Moor,’ in Bradford’s Cartwright Hall Archaeology Group Bulletin, 1, 1955.

Long Stone, Ilkley Moor, West Yorkshire

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Cup-Marked Stone: OS Grid Reference – SE 13282 46222

Also Known as:

Carving no.161 (Hedges)
Carving no.326 (Boughey & Vickerman)

Getting Here

Follow the same directions to reach the Pancake Stone, but about 100 yards west, following the footpath that runs along the edge of the ridge (towards the large Haystack Rock a few hundred yards west), watch out for these large seemingly split rocks, with one elongated length of stone by the pathside. You can’t really miss it!

Archaeology & History

Very little’s been said of this carving as it’s just one more of the many rocks with just a solitary cup-marking etched on top — as we can see in the photo. The cup-mark is near the bottom, southeast-ish portion of the rock and is plain to see.

(Note: I’m not 100% sure that I’ve got Boughey & Vickerman’s (2003) numbered carving correct here. They describe a carved rock very close by here as an “upstanding rock, part of a large split rock,” as their ‘number 326’ carving — which is roughly similar; though I’m not totally sure! No other single cup-marked stone is listed in their survey close by, so assume it’s the same one as in their work.)

References:

Boughey, Keith & Vickerman, E.A., Prehistoric Rock Art of the West Riding, West Yorkshire Archaeology Service 2003.
Hedges, John, The Carved Rocks on Rombalds Moor, WYMCC: Wakefield 1986.

Teaspoon Rock, Bingley Moor, West Yorkshire

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

Also Known as:

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

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:

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.

Ant’s Stone, Rivock, Keighley, West Yorkshire

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Cup-Marked Stone: OS Grid Reference – SE 0791 4422

Archaeology & History

Discovered today, amidst a cluster of other carvings not previously catalogued. This was hidden beneath a mass of vegetation, but after cutting and digging into the peat on top of the stone, several cup-marks became evident. By the side of the rock, measuring roughly 8 feet by 5 feet, was a small ant’s nest — hence the convenient name of the carving.

The main feature is the large, perhaps natural cup-mark, about 3 inches across. But three distinct artificial cup-markings were etched around the edges of this larger ‘cup’. When we found this stone, the daylight was nearing its end and we were unable to ascertain any further features carved onto the rock. Several other carvings were close by, none of which were included in the survey by Boughey and Vickerman. (2003) After we’d finished here, we covered the stone back over with its peaty quilt and hoped that the ants weren’t too pissed off about us disturbing them…

Abacus Stone, Holden, Silsden, West Yorkshire

04/10/200917/03/2020 megalithix

Cup-Marked Stone (lost): OS Grid Reference – SE 060 440

Getting Here

This carving is somewhere between Rivock’s western woodland edge, into the meadowlands next to it, down towards Robin Hood’s Wood. Good luck if you find it!

Archaeology & History

I found this carved ‘design’ when I was but a nipper, as they say! I was up all day, bimbling abaat checking out the stones and stuff, with notepad and pencil and found a number of cup-marked stones that I hadn’t come across in Stuart Feather’s surveys (the Hedge’s [1986] survey hadn’t been published at the time). I’ve been back up round the Holden and Robin Hood’s Wood district several times in recent months, hoping to re-locate this carving — but without success. I recall that when I found it all those years ago, how the design itself seemed almost ‘numeric’ in quality to look at (hence its title) and was hoping to come across it again, but the little fella’s hiding away somewhere!

The faded design was etched onto a small, slightly raised natural stone, no more than 3ft x 3ft and about 2 feet high. I thought that it might have been Boughey & Vickerman’s carving number 53 (Hedges survey, no.17), but it wasn’t to be. If anyone finds it again, I’d love to know!

References:

Bennett, Paul, Ramblings of Archaeological Remnants in West Yorkshire, unpublished: Shipley 1984.

Ringtail Stone, Stanbury Hill, Bingley Moor, West Yorkshire

29/09/200929/10/2019 megalithix

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

Also Known as:

Carving no.96

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:

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

Spotted Stone, Stanbury Hill, Bingley Moor, West Yorkshire

27/09/200930/10/2019 megalithix

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

Also Known as:

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

Getting Here

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

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:

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

Lunar Stone, Stanbury Hill, Bingley Moor, West Yorkshire

27/09/200917/05/2024 megalithix

Cup-and-Ring Stone: OS Grid Reference – SE 10991 43362

Also Known as:

Carving no.81 (Hedges)
Carving no.102 (Boughey & Vickerman)

Getting Here

From East Morton village, take the moorland road, east, and up the steep hill. Where the road levels out there’s a right turn, plus (more importantly!) a trackway on your left which leads onto the moor. Go up this traclk and keep walking till you hit a moorland ‘footpath’ signpost. Stop here and walk due west (your 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 tot he stream below you’ll find a cluster of rocks scattered about. One of the stones here is this one!

Archaeology & History

This is an excellent carving first recorded, it seems, by Stuart Feather in 1977, as cited in the Yorkshire Archaeology Journal’s ‘Listings’ for 1978. It can be found some 27 yards west of a prehistoric cairn near the top of the ridge (14 yards east of the same cairn is the Spotted Stone carving).

Southeast section, with 3 cup-and-rings?

We have to assume that when Mr Feather first located this stone that the faint cup-and-rings on the topmost southeast section of the rock had been exposed to the elements from Day 1, so to speak: as the designs here are quite faint and well-worn. Another not unreasonable assumption is that Mr Feather then proceeded to dig away at the rest of the rock, exposing other features on the stone which had laid under the soil for countless centuries, as the northernmost part of the carving has minimal erosion effects on it. Indeed, unless this is true, we have to start thinking that the carving was made over quite lengthy periods of time, due solely to the greater and lesser effects of weathering on different sections of the stone.

As seen in both the diagram and photos, this is a quite extravagent design. Consisting of several cup-and-rings, aswell as a double-ring, it is found amidst a small cluster of equally impressive, albeit very different carved rocks, all appearing to have a quite specific relationship with death and ritual. This and the other stones are found on the western end of a small serpentine ridge of land (Stanbury Hill), with streams flowing on the north and western sides and small remains of marshland to the south. The geomantic feature here, if relevant, relates to movements between the Earth, water, death and the setting sun: quite potent and important issues in the lives of the neolithic and Bronze Age peoples who lived hereby.

Northern section of carving - with calendrical cups? — Northern section of carving – with calendrical cups?

The title of this stone carving — the Lunar Stone — should be quite evident: the design has all the hallmarks of celestial lunar movements around the ridge of the heavens; or here, pictured along the edges of the rock (symbolic of the firmament), upon and amidst which the moon travels in its rhythmic motion through the heavens. But don’t take that too seriously: it’s just an imaginative flutter that struck my otherwise distraught inability to know what I’m talking about!

References:

Hedges, John (ed.), The Carved Rocks of Rombald’s Moor, WYMCC: Wakefield 1986.