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.
The monument is part of a very extensive and important system of linear
boundary dykes in this area of the Yorkshire Wolds, dating back to the Bronze
Age. It contains well preserved sections, and is closely associated with
another adjacent complex of multiple banks and ditches, which together form an
integral system of boundary and defensive earthworks in this region. As such
it offers important insights into ancient land use and territorial divisions
for social, ritual and agricultural purposes in this area of the Yorkshire
Wolds.
Details
The monument includes a long section of Bronze Age linear boundary bank and
ditch (also known as a dyke), 1.6km in total length, commencing from the north
west side of the the head of Frendal Dale, Huggate Pasture, continuing in a
south west direction along the base of Frendal Dale, turning due north into
Tun Dale through Great Planation, and terminating in Greenwick Dale to the
north.
Lying close to an ancient trackway on the western side of the Wolds, the
surviving part of which forms the present-day Wolds Way, the monument is part
of a particularly elaborate complex of multiple dykes on Huggate Pasture,
single components of which run either along the top of the escarpment, or part
the way down the sides of the intervening dry valley systems of Frendal Dale
and Tun Dale, south in the direction of Pasture Dale, Millington Dale and Cow
Moor, or north and west towards Millington Wold and Millington Lings, linking
with other boundary dykes in those areas. These dykes were used to enhance the
natural topographical barriers of spurs and escarpments between valleys, with
additional physical barriers of banks and ditches. Natural conduits along the
floors of dry valleys were then `blocked' by other bank and ditch systems
to control access.
Well preserved sections of these linear boundaries are the subject of separate
schedulings, and in some cases, adjacent monuments may physically abut.
This elaborate complex of Wolds boundary earthworks is one of the best
preserved remnants of the original more extensive systems recorded and mapped
by early antiquarians such as J R Mortimer in the 19th century.
Excavations and observation of spatial relationships with other earthworks of
known date demonstrate this Wolds complex of earthworks to have originated in
the later Bronze Age, with several subsequent phases of elaboration and
augmentation.
The monument also forms part of a broadly related and extensive complex of
multi-period prehistoric earthworks, including bowl barrows, barrow
cemeteries, linear bank and ditch systems, trackways and enclosures dispersed
across Huggate and Warter Wolds, and Huggate and Millington Pastures. At its
north eastern end, the monument links up with an adjacent section of single
bank and ditch which runs to the north of and parallel with a 200m long
complex of four banks and three ditches. These adjacent features are the
subject of separate schedulings.
For much of its 700m length along the northern end of Frendal Dale, this
section of boundary dyke is not as well preserved as the other parts of the
same monument in Tun Dale, or adjacent and related linear monuments in Frendal
Dale, being broken or discontinuous in places, low and not clearly defined.
The bank material has been spread by effects of erosion and possibly by later
use of the bank as a trackway, leaving the bank visible as a low terrace on
the north of valley side, just above the floor. Where it is visible, the
monument broadly conforms to the line of the dry valley floor of Frendal Dale
leading south west until it meets the junction with Tun Dale, where it makes a
`U' turn due north into Tun Dale. Towards this junction with Tun Dale, the
faint lines of the infilled ditch can just be seen lying to the south, then
west of the bank, although it is scarcely visible before this point, being
infilled by hillwash. Towards its southern end the dyke is better preserved
and is up to 4m wide at the base, and between 0.5m and 1m in height.
At the junction of the two dry valleys, there is a short additional fork-ended
or `V' shaped branch of dyke at right angles to the monument, which connects
the lower arm of the dyke system lying on the east side of this valley -
the subject of a separate scheduling - with the linear boundary bank and ditch
described here. The junction is formed of two separate low banks forming a `V'
shape joining into a single bank and ditch which then climbs the eastern side
of the valley up the edge of the escarpment here, following an east-west
alignment, to link with the adjacent dyke which is also the subject of a
separate scheduling, itself running south along Frendal Dale towards
Millington Pasture. There is not, however, a clearly defined relationship
between the boundary bank in the valley floor and the fork-ended section
associated with it, the `V' shaped section of banks lose their definition
before they merge with the main parent section of linear here. The southern
side of the fork end is well defined, with the bank up to 4m wide at base and
1m-1.25m across the flat, worn top and around 1m-1.25m high. The ditch lies to
the south side of the bank, and is `U' shaped and up to 2m wide. The main
section of single bank and ditch broadly keep the same dimensions described
for the southern side of the fork. The northerly side of the fork is far less
well defined, being no more than around 0.5m-0.75m high and 4m wide.
The next 300m long section of boundary bank and ditch leading from the `U'
turn directly north into Tun Dale is better defined, following the line of the
dry valley here and conforming to the edge of the approximately north-south
aligned spur of upland leading back into Huggate Wold to the north. Here the
modern fence lines follows the outer edge of the ditch, which lies to the east
of the bank, between the edge of the hillside and the bank, and has, in
places, accumulated hillwash resulting in the appearance of a second bank.
This next section of bank running north into Tun Dale varies in height and
width, and is considerably better preserved towards the southern end of Tun
Dale than it is towards the north where it passes through Great Plantation.
This southern portion is from 0.75m up to 1.5m high and up to 4m wide. A
modern trackway leading from the junction of Frendal Dale and Tun Dale north
into Great Plantation, follows the line of the monument, and in places
converges with and overlies the bank, giving it a broad and flattened
appearance. The ditch, lying between the bank to the west and the dry valley
side to the east, is `U' shaped and shallow, and in places is up to 3m wide.
The modern fence has been situated along its outer edge.
There is a 60m section where both bank and ditch are not clearly visible,
probably owing to plantation activity in the past. For much of its remaining
600m length through Great Plantation, the bank is very low and worn,
particularly in the sections where it is overlain by the modern woodland path.
To the western side of the bank and path, the valley side climbs steeply up
again towards Millington Wold. The ditch is broad and shallow, up to 3m wide
and around 0.3m-0.5m deep at most. The bank appears up to 1m in height in
places, particularly where it is better preserved in sections along its
eastern boundary with the ditch, although its western side is ill-defined
owing to the presence of the trackway here. As the monument progresses
towards its northern end, it becomes more poorly defined.
Modern post and wire fences and animal feed and water dispensers are excluded
from the scheduling, although the ground beneath them is included.
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.
