A large earth-fast boulder on open moorland below Glaisdale Head
The stone marks an ancient boundary, it has been carved with the dates of estate perambulations.
The carvings read EGTON, RG 1713, 1719, 1735RC, E1745, F1752, 1779, 1799, 1821, 1844.
I’ve been interested in the notion of boundaries recently so decided to combine this with a wander over Easington High Moor following the route of an eighteenth century perambulation that I found posted online a few years ago.
Manorial perambulations are an ancient practice, the boundaries of the district are walked to confirm ownership and ensure that no territorial infringements have taken place. What is interesting about this route is that it continues to be used as a formal boundary to define at least 13 different regional, county, unitary authority, parliamentary, and parish territories.
The route starts on the little-walked western section of the moor beside the Danby Road at a stone called Harlow Bush, the perambulation states that it is also called Harlot-Busk, Harlot-Thorn, otherwise Harlow-Thorn, otherwise High- Thorn.
The early OS map shows Harlow Bush and High Thorn as two separate stones. I was unable to find the latter stone but there has been much road widening since the map was drawn so the stone has either been removed or is lost in a mass of gorse and brambles at the junction between the Danby and Moors road. it doesn’t take the moor long to swallow-up the fallen.
A number of the stones have dates carved into them, mainly from the early 1800s and post-date the enclosure of the moor in 1817. The names of the perambulation sites imply that prominent stones and trees were used as boundary markers, this was formalised during the 19th century by the erection of many of the boundary stones that we see across the northern moors today. Some of them, especially the earth-fast stones, probably pre-date this period.
Others stand beside older stones and bear their names.
I cross a marshy section and come across a long section of cast iron pipe. The 40″ diameter pipe is a remnant from an attempt to build a railway across the moor. The railway, known locally as Paddy Waddell’s Railway, was supposed to be built to carry iron ore from the mines at Skelton and Brotton to the ironworks of Grosmont. The project was halted due to lack of funds and a recession in the iron trade
The Great Dinnod stone has fallen, beside it is a concrete post marked GT on one face and DT on the other. Further along the low ridge is the Little Dinnod, still standing.
Beneath the Great Dinnod ridge is a beautiful low grassy valley, it’s a marked contrast to the heather moorland that surrounds it. The valley terminates at the Mellowdale Slack. As I walk along the slack, dozens of tiny birds fly out around me and land in the trees. It’s a magical place. I stop and sit in the shade of a beautiful Rowan listening to the chirruping birds and watch dragonflies busying themselves along the valley.
Refreshed, I climb up onto Middle Rigg to have a look at a form of Prehistoric boundary marker, a Segmented Pit Alignment or SEPA. Double pit alignments have been found in other parts of our islands but this particular class of monument is unique to the North York Moors. This definition is taken from the excellent official blog for the North York Moors National Park
A SEPA earthwork however is made up of two or three pairs of pits inside two parallel enclosing banks largely made from the spoil from the pits, these are generally in what appear to be conjoined segments. The segmentation suggests development over time rather than a linear structure created in one go as a land boundary.
In each case the SEPAs appear to be aligned with nearby Bronze Age barrows (burial mounds), which suggest the SEPA are Bronze Age too and could have had a related ritual purpose. The alignment of all the SEPAs is north-west to south-east. This alignment seems to have taken precedence to any alignment with the barrows. The parallel banks were oddly low, which means the earthworks were not prominent in the landscape when they were constructed, unlike the barrows.
Most of the pits are filled with grasses and sedges, the low enclosing banks are visible where the heather has been burned-off.
One of the pits has an excavation trench running across the pit and bank. This may have been left from Canon Atkinson’s 1848 excavation where he interpreted the pits as the remains of an ancient British pit village.
There is another line of pits close to the SEPA, this has a much more recent history and has nothing to do with boundaries. The LIDAR image above shows the pit alignments and barrows of Middle Rigg. It also shows a curving line of four pits, these are bomb craters caused by the dropping of bombs during a Zeppelin raid on the North Eastern coast in May 1916. A full account of the raid can be read here
I walk over the rigg to the Long Stone. This beautiful monolith with it’s strange disc is probably one of the tallest stones of the Northern Moors and is one of my favourites. Is it prehistoric? I don’t know but would like to think so. It is also a fitting end point for my wander across this section of this lovely moor.
Sources
Maps and Lidar image reproduced with the permission of the National Library of Scotland
The Official Blog of the North York Moors National Park
Zeppelin Raids Gothas and ‘Giants’, Britain’s first blitz by Ian Castle
..beating the bounds of my tiny world
The Battering Stone
A large mass of blue whinstone by the road side near the east end of Whitby abbey, which the boys were won’t to batter or pelt with stones on Holy Thursday, after the usual perambulation of the parochial boundaries, the fortunate breakers, it was said, being entitled to a guinea from the parish. The custom seems almost forgotten with the cessation of the perambulation, and the stone reposes from year to year in its wonted solidity, though bearing the marks on its surface, of the juvenile assaults of former days.
The Needle
Holy stones are those artificial formations connected with the oracular ceremonies of past ages; and it is recorded that one of these uprights, called the needle stood in the vicinity of the west pier at Whitby, through the eye of which rickety children were drawn in order to strengthen them; a custom practiced in some parts to this day. Lovers also pledged themselves by joining hands through the hole, especially in the case of young mariners bound on their voyage.
Sources
A Glossary of Yorkshire word and phrases: Collected in Whitby and the neighbourhood. 1885
A Glossary of words used in Swaledale, Yorkshire 1873
Image – ?Whitby JMW Turner c,1827 Tate Image released under Creative Commons CC-BY-NC-ND (3.0 Unported)
I recently found this on my hard drive. I’m not sure of the source.
Perambulation of the Boundaries of the Forest, Dale and Lordship of Danby, August 1792
BEGINNING from the Water of Eske, up Commondale-Beck to Thunder-Bush Beck or Lane; from thence to Bank-Top, through two Inclosures where one William Carter formerly lived, and now or late occupied by John Rickaby; from thence to Tod-How, near Leaden-Well; from thence to White-Cross; from thence along by Sandwath by the Middle of the Common King’s Highway, leading from Stokesley to Whitby; to a Place called Harlot-Busk, otherwise Harlow-Bush, otherwise Harlot-Thorn, otherwise Harlow-Thorn, otherwise High- Thorn; from thence to Water-Dittings; from thence to Beckwith-Stone; from thence to Little-Dinnond; from thence to Great-Dinnond; from thence to the Stone on Frankland-Dyke; from thence to Long-Stone; from thence to Good Goose-Thorne; from thence to Nan-Stone; from thence to the Head of Hardill-Beck, and so into the same Head, going down the said River, toward the South, unto the Lane of Woodall, and further by the same River there, called Woodall-Beck, and by a Ford called Stonegate-Ford, into a Place where the said River falleth into the Water of Eske, going down the said Water unto Glaizedale-Beck, to a Place there called Firris-Bridge, or New-Bridge, (at the low end of Glaizedale;) from thence going up Glaizedale-Beck, towards the South, up to the Upper Head thereof; from thence to the Yoak; from thence to Lamb-Folds; from thence to Holed-Stone; from thence to, Shunner-How; from thence by a Rook of Stones to Loose-How; from thence to White-Cross; from thence to Ralph-Cross; from thence descending the Top or Edge of the Hill, between Danby and Westerdale, by Gallow-How and Crown-End, even as the Rain-Water falleth both Ways, even to the Water of Eske, and so down to the Place where Commondale-Beck meets with the same, where it first began.
The Smell of Water 