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 is a section of linear earthwork on the Yorkshire Wolds. It
is 1050m long and up to 25m wide. It includes two parallel ditches each of
which is between 0.3m and 0.75m deep and 5m wide between which is an earthwork
0.5m high and 5m wide. Earthwork banks up to 0.5m high and 5m wide flank
the outside of the ditches. Together the various elements form a complex 25m
wide. The earthworks are visible throughout Pasture Plantation although the
ditches have been partially in-filled immediately to the rear of the farm
complex. They also extend, after an 80m long break caused by quarrying and the
excavation of a pond, into a plantation to the south west. This area is the
subject of a separate scheduling.
The linear earthwork originally extended further to the 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:
23831
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
