Cairnfield in Slate Pits Wood, 170m north west of Oak Cottage
Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places
Overview
- Heritage Category:
- Scheduled Monument
- List Entry Number:
- 1018557
- Date first listed:
- 10-Oct-1980
Location
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Discover moreOfficial list entry
- Heritage Category:
- Scheduled Monument
- List Entry Number:
- 1018557
- Date first listed:
- 10-Oct-1980
- Date of most recent amendment:
- 19-Mar-1999
Location
The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.
- District:
- Kirklees (Metropolitan Authority)
- Parish:
- Meltham
- National Grid Reference:
- SE 11902 10926
Reasons for Designation
Cairnfields are concentrations of cairns sited in close proximity to one another. They often consist largely of clearance cairns, built with stone cleared from the surrounding landsurface to improve its use for agriculture, and on occasion their distribution pattern can be seen to define field plots. However, funerary cairns are also frequently incorporated, although without excavation it may be impossible to determine which cairns contain burials. Clearance cairns were constructed from the Neolithic period (from c.3400 BC), although the majority of examples appear to be the result of field clearance which began during the earlier Bronze Age and continued into the later Bronze Age (2000-700 BC). The considerable longevity and variation in the size, content and associations of cairnfields provide important information on the development of land use and agricultural practices. Cairnfields also retain information on the diversity of beliefs and social organisation during the prehistoric period.
The cairnfield in Slate Pits Wood survives well and will retain important archaeological information. It is similar to two other cairnfields in woods in the Honley area.
Details
The monument includes a cairnfield in Slate Pits Wood. The cairnfield consists of at least six cairns and a number of rubble banks. The grass-covered cairns are between 3m and 6m in diameter and are up to 0.5m high. The rubble banks are grass covered and are 2m-3m wide and typically 0.3m high. The banks are concentrated in the north west corner of the wood. One of the banks in this area is fragmentary and consists of a series of linear stone mounds.
MAP EXTRACT The site of the monument is shown on the attached map extract.
Legacy
The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.
- Legacy System number:
- 31506
- Legacy System:
- RSM
Sources
Books and journals
Lunn, N, Slate Pits Wood Meltham, (1997)
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.
Map
This map is for quick reference purposes only and may not be to scale. This copy shows the entry on 25-Jun-2026 at 14:34:14.
Download a full scale map (PDF)End of official list entry
All text content is available under the Open Government Licence v3.0 , except where otherwise stated. Any supplied maps are © Crown Copyright [and database rights] 2026 OS AC0000815036 and may not be reproduced without permission.