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Pit alignment, part of the Cleave Dyke prehistoric boundary system and round barrow 450m south east of High Paradise

Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places

Overview

Heritage Category:: Scheduled Monument
List Entry Number:: 1015576
Date first listed:: 03-Jan-1997

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Official list entry

Heritage Category:: Scheduled Monument
List Entry Number:: 1015576
Date first listed:: 03-Jan-1997

Location

The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.

County:: North Yorkshire
District:: Hambleton (District Authority)
Parish:: Boltby
National Park:: NORTH YORK MOORS
National Grid Reference:: SE 50615 88363

Reasons for Designation

The Cleave Dyke system is the most westerly of a series of dyke systems on the Tabular Hills of north east Yorkshire. The name has been given to a series of linear ditches and banks stretching north-south over 9km parallel with and close to the western scarp of the Hambleton Hills. The system was constructed between the Late Bronze Age and the Iron Age to augment the natural division of the terrain by river valleys and watersheds. Significant stretches remain visible as upstanding earthworks; elsewhere it can be recognised as a cropmark on aerial photographs. The system formed a prehistoric territorial boundary in an area largely given over to pastoralism; the impressive scale of the earthworks displays the corporate prestige of their builders. In some instances the boundaries have remained in use to the present day. Linear boundaries are of considerable importance for the analysis of settlement and land use in the later prehistoric period; all well preserved examples will normally merit statutory protection.

Pit alignments are associated with various sections of the Cleave Dyke System and are considered to be a variation of the form but continue the function of the dyke system. Although no longer visible as surface features the pits are clearly visible on aerial photographs and will contain important archaeological remains. Round barrows are funerary monuments dating from the Late Neolithic period to the Late Bronze Age. They were constructed as earthen or rubble mounds, sometimes ditched, which covered single or multiple burials. Often occupying prominent locations, they are a major historic element in the modern landscape and they provide important information on the diversity of beliefs and social organisations amongst early prehistoric communities. Although the round barrow included in the monument is much reduced by agricultural activity, significant information about the original form, burials placed within it and evidence of earlier land use beneath the mound will be preserved. It is known to have been constructed before the dyke, and in common with other similar round barrows on the Hambleton Hills, is thought to mark an early boundary. There are similar associations of barrows and linear boundaries in other parts of North Yorkshire. Such groupings of monuments offer important scope for the study of the division of land for social, ritual and agricultural purposes in different geographical areas during the prehistoric period.

Details

The monument includes a pit alignment which forms part of the prehistoric linear boundary system on the Hambleton Hills, known as the Cleave Dyke. Also included are the buried remains of a round barrow. Orientated north to south and parallel to the scarp slope, the monument extends for 475m. The pit alignment is composed of a single line of elongated pits each c.1.5m in length and clearly visible on aerial photographs. The pit alignment swings around an earlier round barrow 100m north from the south end. This barrow had an earth and stone mound 10m in diameter and was surrounded by a ditch up to 3m wide. The barrow has been reduced by agricultural activity and is no longer visible as an earthwork, although the remains of the mound and the encircling ditch are clearly visible on aerial photographs. The pit alignment is part of a wider system of prehistoric linear earthworks continuing for 9km north to south along the western edge of the Hambleton Hills. Shorter east to west earthworks linked valley heads to the main dyke and thus divided the terrain into discrete units for agricultural and social purposes. The dyke is associated with earlier round barrows which also marked the division of land. Together the monuments on this area of the Hambleton Hills provide important evidence of territorial organisation and the development of settled agricultural practices. Modern walls and fences are excluded from the scheduling, although the ground beneath 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.

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:: 26942
Legacy System:: RSM

Sources

Books and journals
Spratt, D A , 'The Archaeological Journal' in The Cleave Dyke System, , Vol. VOL 54, (1982), 33-52

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.