Reasons for Designation
Linear boundaries are substantial earthwork features comprising single or
multiple ditches and banks which may extend over distances varying between
less than 1km to over 10km. They survive as earthworks or as linear features
visible as cropmarks on aerial photographs or as a combination of both. The
evidence of excavation and study of associated monuments demonstrate that
their construction spans the millennium from the Middle Bronze Age, although
they may have been re-used later.
The scale of many linear boundaries has been taken to indicate that they were
constructed by large social groups and were used to mark important boundaries
in the landscape; their impressive scale displaying the corporate prestige of
their builders. They would have been powerful symbols, often with religious
associations, used to define and order the territorial holdings of those
groups who constructed them. Linear earthworks are of considerable importance
for the analysis of settlement and land use in the Bronze Age; all well
preserved examples will normally merit statutory protection.
Details
The monument includes a section of linear earthwork on the Yorkshire Wolds. It
is 700m long and up to 20m wide. It includes two parallel ditches each 2m wide
and 0.5m deep between which is an earthwork bank 5m wide and 0.5m high.
Slighter earthworks banks 5m wide and up to 0.75m high flank the outside of
the ditches. Together the various elements form a complex 20m wide. The
earthworks are visible throughout Collingwood Plantation although they survive
best at its south western and north eastern ends. They also extend into the
field to the immediate south east of the plantation. Here they have been
reduced by former cultivation and the ditches have been largely in-filled and
the banks spread to form low mounds 0.3m high and 6m to 8m wide.
The linear earthwork originally extended further to both south west and
north east; however beyond the ends of the scheduling the earthwork is not as
clearly visible and the extent of any surviving remains is not fully
understood.
Legacy
The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.
Legacy System number:
21222
Legacy System:
RSM
Sources
Other
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 Culture, Media and Sport.
End of official list entry
