Aldro earthworks: a cross-dyke on Hanging Grimston Wold, 350m south-east of Brown Moor Farm

Overview

Location

Reasons for Designation

Cross-dykes are substantial linear earthworks typically between 0.2km and 1km long and comprising one or more ditches arranged beside and parallel to one or more banks. They generally occur in upland situations, running across ridges and spurs. They are recognised as earthworks or as cropmarks on aerial photographs, or as combinations of both. The evidence of excavation and analogy with associated monuments demonstrates that their construction spans the millennium from the Middle Bronze Age, although they may have been re-used later. Current information favours the view that they were used as territorial boundary markers, probably demarcating land allotment within communities, although they may also have been used as trackways, cattle droveways or defensive earthworks. Cross-dykes are one of the few monument types which illustrate how land was divided up in the prehistoric period. They are of considerable importance for any analysis of settlement and land use in the Bronze Age. Very few have survived to the present day and hence all well- preserved examples are considered to be of national importance.

The cross-dyke is well-preserved over most of its length and was part of an extensive system of prehistoric dykes which has been recorded on Birdsall Wold. It has further associations with other broadly contemporary monuments of similar type in the vicinity and parallels are also known from other parts of the Wolds and from the southern edge of the North York Moors. Such associations between monuments offer important scope for the study of division of land for social, ritual and agricultural purposes in different geographical areas during the prehistoric period.

Details

The monument includes a short length of a cross-dyke which rises over a spur of Hanging Grimston Wold, at the junction of Brownmoor and Birdsall Dale, and is one of a number of prehistoric monuments in the vicinity of Aldro Farm. The dyke comprises a 0.5m deep ditch flanked by slight earthen banks which are more pronounced on the ridge of the spur. The overall width of the monument is 30m.

MAP EXTRACT The site of the monument is shown on the attached map extract. It includes a 2 metre boundary around the archaeological features, considered to be essential for the monument's support and preservation.

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

20506

Legacy System:

RSM

Sources

Books and journals
Mortimer, J R , Forty Years Researches in British and Saxon Burial Mounds of East Yorkshire, (1905)

Legal

This monument is scheduled under the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979 as amended as it appears to the Secretary of State to be of national importance. This entry is a copy, the original is held by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport.