A group of six shielings and tracks on Holwick Scars, 280m west of Hungry Hall
List Entry Summary
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.
Name: A group of six shielings and tracks on Holwick Scars, 280m west of Hungry Hall
List entry Number: 1019458
Location
The monument may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.
County:
District: County Durham
District Type: Unitary Authority
Parish: Holwick
National Park: Not applicable to this List entry.
Grade: Not applicable to this List entry.
Date first scheduled: 24-Nov-2000
Date of most recent amendment: Not applicable to this List entry.
Legacy System Information
The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.
Legacy System: RSM
UID: 34357
Asset Groupings
This list entry does not comprise part of an Asset Grouping. Asset Groupings are not part of the official record but are added later for information.
List entry Description
Summary of Monument
Legacy Record - This information may be included in the List Entry Details.
Reasons for Designation
Shielings are small seasonally occupied huts which were built to provide
shelter for herdsmen who tended animals grazing summer pasture on upland or
marshland. These huts reflect a system called transhumance, whereby stock was
moved in spring from lowland pasture around the permanently occupied farms to
communal upland grazing during the warmer summer months. Settlement patterns
reflecting transhumance are known from the Bronze Age (c.2000-700 BC)
onwards. However, the construction of herdsmen's huts in a form distinctive
from the normal dwelling houses of farms, only appears from the early medieval
period onwards (from AD 450), when the practice of transhumance is also known
from documentary sources and, notably, place-name studies. Their construction
appears to cease at the end of the 16th century. Shielings vary in size but
are commonly small and may occur singly or in groups. They have a simple sub-
rectangular or ovoid plan normally defined by drystone walling, although
occasional turf-built structures are known, and the huts are sometimes
surrounded by a ditch. Most examples have a single undivided interior but two
roomed examples are known. Some examples have adjacent ancillary structures,
such as pens, and may be associated with a midden. Some are also contained
within a small ovoid enclosure. Shielings are reasonably common in the uplands
but frequently represent the only evidence for medieval settlement and farming
practice here. Those examples which survive well and which help illustrate
medieval land use in an area are considered to be nationally important.
This group of shielings survives well and together with the tracks leading to
them they will add to the sum of knowledge relating to medieval land use in
the North Pennines. They form part of a well-preserved medieval landscape
in the Holwick area, which includes other shieling groups on the scar,
medieval settlement and field systems.
History
Legacy Record - This information may be included in the List Entry Details.
Details
The monument includes a group of six shielings on Holwick Scars, between
Bedale Gill and Eel Beck, and tracks leading up from the enclosed land to the
shielings. The shielings consists of the remains of six rectangular buildings
of unmortared whinstone. The buildings range in size from 7m to 11m long by 4m
to 5m wide. The walls are about 1m wide and vary from 0.3m to 2m in height.
The tracks leading to the shielings consist of a single narrow track ascending
the scar diagonally and branching as it approaches the shielings.
This group of six shielings is very similar to the slightly larger group on
Crossthwaite Scar, further east (SM 34352), and the group south of Hungry Hall
(SM 34353). All these groups of buildings are interpreted as shielings.
MAP EXTRACT
The site of the monument is shown on the attached map extract.
Selected Sources
National Grid Reference: NY 90884 26544
Map
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This copy shows the entry on 23-Apr-2018 at 10:55:01.
End of official listing