Prehistoric Rock Art

Further Wandering York

I took a walk through the museum gardens to seek out a cup and ring stone that is thought to have come from somewhere around Ravenscar. The gardens also have a nice collection of Shap granite erratic boulders.

Heading up towards the Minster I stopped to admire the 1967 Theatre Royal vaulted pavillion by Patrick Gwynne.

After visiting the Minster and I decided to head out of town to take a walk around the University Campus. I stopped by a few places along my way. This is the lovely Romanesqsue porch of St. Denys.

Wandering over to Stonebow. The 1960’s concrete arcade of shops and an office block did not get much love from the people of York. In 2018 the buildings were redeveloped, the office blocked was turned into 17 luxury apartments with 4 penthouses. Stonebow has been transformed from a ‘notorious concrete eyesore’ into a place where you will need very deep pockets if you want to live there.

Out beyond the city walls I took a walk around the churchyard of St Lawrence. All that remains of the early building is the tower which stands apart from the Victorian church.

I’ve never visited the York University campus and was keen to have a look at the Central Hall. The Hall is by Robert Matthew, Johnson-Marshall & Partners and was built in 1967. I wasn’t disappointed.

Concrete Panels (1965) Fred MIllett

Béton brut

The Singing Stone (2015) Gordon Young

He wishes for the Cloths of Heaven by W.B. Yeats

Had I the heavens’ embroidered cloths,
Enwrought with golden and silver light,
The blue and the dim and the dark cloths
Of night and light and the half-light,
I would spread the cloths under your feet:
But I, being poor, have only my dreams;
I have spread my dreams under your feet;
Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.

Untitled (1967) Austin Wright

I had a train to catch so only had a limited time to explore the wonderful architecture and sculpture of the campus. I will definitely be back.

Abstract Art – Petroglyphs

I’ve spent many years travelling across northern Britain seeking out examples of Prehistoric Rock Art, it’s a mild obsession. I’ve recently been looking through some of my old photographs and reflecting on the many places that I’ve visited and some of the people that I’ve met.

Despite having visited many dozens of sites across our island, no two sites are the same. The more carvings I see, the further away I seem to move from reaching any genuine understanding of their meaning or purpose.

since we cannot know the creator’s point of view, we have to use the visitor’s – confronted by a pleasing assortment of images, we humans have a wondrous ability to find meaning in them and to gain pleasure from them Art, after all, is only as important as its audience

Waldemar Januszczak

Fylingdales Moor 2004

In 2004 Graeme Chappell and I were fortunate enough to visit the ongoing excavation on Fylingdales Moor.

It was in what was thought to be an early Bronze Age ring cairn that a late Neolithic intricately carved stone was found. This has become the best known discovery on the moor made in the aftermath of the fire. A further stone bore grooves and cup-marks similar to those found on the nearby earthfast rocks. The stones have been placed in a ring as the end point of what may have been a long period of ritual significance.

Fylingdales – Wildfire & Archaeology. Blaise Vyner. 2007

Disintegration

I currently having a bit of a clear-out. I found a few CDs that I used to backed-up my photos back in the early 2000’s. Quite a few of the images are corrupted, some beyond recognition. The images are of prehistoric sites in Northumberland, Cumbria, Yorkshire and Derbyshire.

I was thinking about how these corrupted images and their subjects perhaps evoke notions of the time, the illusion of permanence and the ephemeral nature of recording such places.

Looking through the images brought to mind The Disintegration Loops by William Basinski. The images are about 2 decades old, the same amount of time it took for Basinski’s audio tapes to degraded before he used them in his composition.

Happy Birthday Stan Beckensall

This beautiful book has been published to celebrate the 90th birthday of Stan Beckensall. It is available as a Paperback or an open access eBook.

Stan Beckensall is renowned for his work, done on an entirely amateur basis, discovering, recording and interpreting Atlantic rock art in his home county of Northumberland and beyond. Presented on his 90th birthday, this diverse and stimulating collection of papers celebrates his crucial contribution to rock art studies, and looks to the future.

Presented to Stan Beckensall on his 90th birthday, this diverse and stimulating collection of papers celebrates his crucial contribution to rock art studies, and also looks to the future. It should be of value to students of prehistoric Britain and Ireland, and anyone with an interest in rock art, for many decades to come.


Stan has done a phenomenal amount of work over recent decades, on an entirely amateur basis, discovering, recording and interpreting Atlantic rock art (‘cup-and-ring marks’) in his home county of Northumberland and elsewhere. Much of this work was done in the 1970s and 1980s when the subject, now increasingly regarded as mainstream within Neolithic studies, was largely shunned by professional archaeologists.

Anyone with an interest in rock art is greatly indebted to Stan, not only for his work and his wisdom, so graciously shared, but also, as the contributors to this volume make clear, for the inspiration he has provided, and continues to provide, for work undertaken by others.

Link

The World of Stonehenge

I took a trip down to London to see the British Museum’s The World of Stonehenge exhibition. It was wonderful to see items that I’d read about over the years all gathered into one place and beautifully displayed. If prehistory is your thing, I’d definitely recommend a visit. here’s a few images to whet your appetite.

Prehistoric Postcards

A few years ago I bought an album of old french postcards themed around prehistoric monuments and natural rock features.

This sparked a short obsession with prehistoric postcards. I bought most of them from ebay and boot sales, setting myself the challenge of paying no more than a pound or two for each card. The obsession burned itself out after a year or two so and I decided to put the collection online for anyone to use. I uploaded about a third of the cards and then kind of lost interest. I’ll return to it one day and finish the job.

If this sort of thing interests you, the collection can be found here

Near Moor

Wandering Red Way onto Near Moor

Near Moor is a moor on the western margins of the Cleveland Hills. The moor is at its highest in the north-east where it meets the wooded escarpment edge of the Cleveland hills, it then slopes gently southwards towards Crabdale. Near moor is bounded by Far Moor To the East, Pamperdale Moor to the South and the valley of Scarth Nick and Scarth Wood Moor to the west.

The moor is managed for grouse shooting. The vegetation of the moor is predominantly heather with patches of moorland grasses and sedges.

The rocks here are mainly Jurassic Sandstones, formed 170 million years ago in shallow estuaries and deltas. To the north, below the escarpment edge, there are many old jet workings. Blocks of ‘White Flint’ can be found on the moor-top.

Both Near Moor and the adjacent Scarth Wood Moor were used by our ancient ancestors, there are the remains of ancient walls, enclosures, trackways and cairns dotted across both moors.

There are a number of cup-marked rocks on the moor, all are very weathered and barely recognisable.

There are the remains of quarries on the margins of the moor, local stone masons also used the prehistoric walls as a source of stone.