High Close Survey

36. Tuesday 12 April 2011

2011-04-15T12:40:00.008+01:00

For our last session surveying Bull Pasture, we had two teams. Pauline, Helen and Vera set up their drawing table twice to finish off the tape offsets and triangulations surveying, while Jane and Peter completed their alidade survey. After lunch, Peter and Jane then used "Bob", the total station, to plot in a larger area.

Roger drawing © Jane Lunnon

And so the survey of the three fields was finally wrapped up and we said goodbye to Bank Fields for the spring. Now we wait for Roger to collate and interpret the results, and decide if further investigations are needed in the future.

Vera and Pauline surveying © Jane Lunnon

UWHG members can now focus on a summer of the farm buildings survey, excavations at Chapel House Wood, the Wilderness Beck Grotto project in Skipton, and the production of our report on the Whitfield project in Embsay. Jane Lunnon

35. Tuesday, 29 March 2011

2011-03-30T17:11:00.004+01:00

Good turnout at Grassington today.

We seem to have finished the bottom pasture now, so we can leave the sheep, and go into Bull Pasture again.

Jane and I were on the Alidade. Jane is getting really good at the maths now, and says that my staff-holding (the technical bit) is getting even better; how kind!

Paul and Vera were working together on the total station at the top of the field and had their blue, orange and red flags everywhere. We had green, yellow and white flags so it all looked very colourful. Best wishes to Paul who is moving away down South, and will not be coming again.

Meanwhile, Ruth and Helen were busy doing mundane things like finding suspected round houses etc. They seemed to have drawn the whole field in a day; well done.

There is no meeting next week, and we are hoping to finish the week after.

Peter Gallagher

34. Tuesday March 22, 2011

2011-03-27T13:48:00.006+01:00

A beautiful spring day – blue skies, warm sun and just a gentle breeze – a complete contrast to last Tuesday! Jane and Peter continued surveying their bit of the field with the alidade.

Peter enjoying his lunch break © Jane Lunnon

Pauline, Helen and Vera migrated to the top corner of the field, where, using good old tapes and triangulation, they continued plotting the banks which Ruth and Paul had been unable to do last week. Ruth spent most of the day wandering up and down the field, adding all the hachures to the plan previously produced by means of ‘Bob’ and Roger. Roger meanwhile spent his time helping each group in turn with the tricky bits. When the hachuring was complete, Ruth and Roger then recorded the natural features in the very top corner of the field in conjunction with ‘Bob’, (who obviously approved of the better weather).

Happy workers at the completion of one field's surveying

© Jane Lunnon

By this time everyone else had finished their allotted tasks, so Roger was able to say that this particular field is now completed and next week we move back to the other side of the wall.

Ruth Spencer

33. Tuesday 15 March 2011

2011-03-22T21:52:00.008Z

For various reasons there were only 4 of us to accompany Roger today – a miserable damp, misty day with a cold breeze.

Mist © Jane Lunnon

Pauline and Jane set to with the alidade – 2 vague figures in the mist on the far side of the field, while Ruth and Paul, assisted by ‘Bob’ attacked the banks in the top corner.

Having sorted us all out, Roger proceeded to plot a digital terrain map with the dGPS.

The tricky business of setting up the alidade © Jane Lunnon

After an early lunch, having struggled all morning with the visibility, and with both the lens and the prism repeatedly misting up, ‘Bob’ decided he had had enough and refused to focus on the prism.
Jane and Pauline were also struggling with the visibility, so we decided to call it a day and retired to that nice tea-shop in Cracoe, leaving Roger alone on the hill-side to finish his map.

Ruth Spencer

32. Tuesday 8 March 2011

2011-03-09T12:28:00.008Z

The day was cold but fine, and we had another good turnout to work with Roger on the continuing survey of Grassington's facinating earthworks.

We began by looking at the results of last week's work, with Total Station results now plotted and the geophysical survey available. Ruth and Paul then set out careful "hachuring" of last week's work with the Total Station, before extending their topographical survey. Jane and Peter continued their work with alidade and drawing table. Helen, Pauline and Vera did more geophys.

Vera and Pauline wrapped on warm on a very chilly "spring" day ;

© Jane Lunnon

Their work last week had identified part of what might be a circular stony bank so grids were laid out to re-survey the area, hoping to capture the whole.

It often seems to be the case that getting the equipment set up is the most difficult (and longest-lasting) part of the day. Getting the grid properly measured for geophys. on hilly terrain, getting the alidade perfectly level on the drawing table and in exactly the right position....it's not as easy as it looks, and they never show it on Time Team! Roger's expertise was heavily in demand.

Paul on the total station, with Ruth in a sea of flags ;

© Jane Lunnon

But eventually we were working again and by the end of the afternoon we'd covered just about all we'd hoped to do at the morning's planning session. Another good week.

Vera Brearey

31. Tuesday, 1st March 2011

2011-03-02T00:31:00.003Z

It was the first day of spring and a perfect day to emerge from our winter hibernation to take up our tapes and flags again. We gathered in the field next to the road, near Grassington’s Devonshire Institute, and discussed a 1972 aerial photograph which Roger had brought along. We wandered over the field investigating some anomalies, and decided that one possible “structure” in the photograph was in reality a natural feature.

© Jane Lunnon

Having satisfied ourselves on that score, we dispersed to our various tasks – a geophysics survey, a topographical survey using the alidade, and another using “Bob”, our total station. Soon, the site was full of fluttering flags of all colours as the three teams set out their markers. The blue skies gave us a lovely background and we appreciated the warm sunshine all day! Jane Lunnon

30. Wednesday 24 November 2010

2010-11-26T16:06:00.003Z

Because it was so cold this morning, and snow was forecast as a possibility, the plane tables and alidade were abandoned in favour of geophysics which would keep us all moving around and relatively warm.

Today’s challenge was to survey a series of 20metre squares – but these squares were intersected by an old drystone wall – and not a straight one. While earthworks are clearly visible in one field, three of us were on the other side of the wall, in a field which is virtually featureless, apart from the remains of an old wall adjacent to the existing one – this field has recently been ploughed to be re-sown with grass, so that only geophysics can now reveal if anything interesting once lay here.

We worked on both sides of the wall, holding conferences while peering over the top, and holding tapes up high over the wall to measure off the 20m squares

– not easy for the little ‘uns amongst us! The transfer of equipment back and forth over the wall was also an interesting exercise.

Admittedly we went wrong a couple of times, miscalculating the number of “dummy” readings we had to build in to take account of the meanderings of the wall across the middle of our survey area, and then in the afternoon finding the plug has come out of the cable drum, so that the readings were being taken from a circuit that was completed by the plug lying in wet grass. We had to re-take a large chunk of the geophysics survey. Still, it’s all good fun! In the end we did remarkably well, covering a good deal of ground, and it didn’t snow after all. But we were beginning to get very cold, and our fingers were getting numb.

We felt we thoroughly deserved our late afternoon tea, hot chocolate and cream scones at the Cracoe café.

Jane Lunnon

29. Tuesday 16th November 2010

2010-11-17T22:39:00.001Z

As the weather forecast for Wednesday was so awful, Roger brought forward our day for surveying this week to Tuesday, which has caused great confusion to us all – we now really don’t know what day of the week it is!

However we were a very select group of 4 who met in the cold and mist at Bank Field, but we warmed up as we set to work.
Paul and Margaret were soon busy with ‘Bob’ recording more banks in the lower field, while Roger and Ruth set out a 20m grid for a geophysical survey of the lower western corner of the field.
This done, the ‘geophys’ team then proceeded to the upper field, to record the long bank there. Three 20m grids were laid out by lunch time. Meanwhile the sun had broken through and the scenery was again spectacular with blue sky and banks of mist slowly clearing from the valleys.
The afternoon progressed and in spite of constant interruptions – visits from the farmer, the sheep being rounded up by 2 dogs, (which we just had to watch!) radio calls from Paul in the lower field (‘Bob’ was being temperamental!), etc, the geophysics was eventually completed.

We all agreed that it had been a good day and how right Roger had been to change from Wednesday!

Ruth Spencer

28. Wednesday 10 November 2010

2010-11-11T11:07:00.003Z

Peter Gallagher writes:

Whilst most of the team were measuring in the other field, Jane and I were selected, cajoled, threatened, to use the Alidade in the farthest field. There was only one small snag, neither of us knew how to work the thing! Anyway we set it up on the plane table and tried to look busy for a while until Roger could come and sort us out.

He soon showed us where we were going wrong. Basically everything! So we had lunch and were able to use it in the afternoon.

I say we, I held the staff and Jane did all the hard work in between whimpering softly.

But the weather was great, we had a good walk over the field to start with, and it appears we may be looking at some housing platforms of Iron or even Bronze age.

Peter Gallagher

27. Wednesday 3 November 2010

2010-11-07T22:27:00.006Z

Vera Breary writes:

Given that Tuesday had seen torrential rain and high winds, most of us thought the likelihood of Wednesday being a good day for surveying seemed slim. But we were lucky (again) and Wednesday dawned dry, clear and with some sunshine. With rain forecast for 3pm (ish) we cracked on as soon as we arrived.

The results from the geophysics from previous weeks are excellent, with a variety of features showing very clearly. To complete the surveying of some of these features Roger decided we would work on a stretch by the field wall, using both geophysical survey and good old tapes and measures. This could have resulted in considerable confusion (not to mention tripping over tapes running in all directions) but we managed to keep out of each other's way.

Ruth, Margaret and Vera worked on the drawn topographical survey, whilst Peter, Jane and Pauline carried on with the geophys. Paul and Jennifer worked with the Total Station in another part of the field and Roger helped out, advised and directed as necessary.
A late-ish lunch (the rain clouds were approaching and nobody wanted to stop) was followed by a dash to complete the day's project. Bang on 3pm the rain came and we retired, in time honoured fashion, to the tea shop. Well some of us did. Peter, Paul and Margaret worked on through the rain to do some preliminary plotting of another field, ready to start surveying there next week.

Vera Brearey

26. Wednesday 27th October 2010

2010-11-01T19:16:00.004Z

Boots and wellies on? Check!

The geophysics team worked hard today to complete the survey of 8 x 20m squares. The task was made difficult by the presence of the large earthwork banks which put our right-angles out of kilter.

The never-ending "up one lane, and then down the next"

We seemed to spend a very long time simply trying to straighten our tapes, and make sure we had good, tight squares laid out for the grid.

In the meantime, the tapes and measure team were busy with their topographical survey of the features in the corner of the field, which we are apparently now calling “Sally’s Gill” instead of Bull Pasture. It seems the field has changed its name since the Tithe Award map.

Paul and Jennifer spent the afternoon getting to grips with Bob, the total station, to take readings from various large earthwork banks across the field.

A good day’s work.

Jane Lunnon.

24. Wednesday 20 October.

2010-10-21T17:24:00.008+01:00

A freezing cold morning after the heavy frost last night, and with a very cold northerly wind – definitely a day for the thermals! But the sun shone and the views were spectacular.
As today was scheduled as only a half –day, Roger took the opportunity for some instruction on surveying, followed by a general walk-over.

photo by Alan Williams

We started by looking at the 1: 200 scale drawing done last week by Ruth’s team, and comparing it with what could actually be seen on the ground. After Roger had instructed us about surveying and the appropriate use of hachures, we looked at the results of the geophys. survey, also done last week. Some very exciting structures could be seen, unfortunately not shown completely in the area surveyed. This means a further survey of the adjacent area next week, of not 7 but 9 x 20m squares!

photo by Alan Williams

As Roger would also like last week’s triangulation & off-set survey re-done at a scale of 1:500, together with the rest of the fields, it looks like a busy time ahead - let’s hope the weather holds!

photo by Alan Williams

We then walked over ‘Richard’s field’ to look at the ‘lumps and bumps’ there, and after a quick coffee to warm us all up, inspected the field adjacent to the ones we have already looked at, approaching this from Moor Lane. Again there appears to be quite a number of interesting features to be investigated here.

By this time it was 12.30pm, so we adjourned for lunch, with some reluctance as the sun was really pleasant by now.

Ruth Spencer

23. Wednesday 13 October 2010

2010-10-15T13:44:00.004+01:00

A glorious Indian summer allowed us to do a good day’s work in Bull Pasture today. Ruth, Margaret and Vera set to on the topographical survey using triangulation and offset measurements with tapes, while Jane, Pauline, Alan and Peter conducted a resistivity survey over a 8 x 20metre square grid. In the meantime, David helped Roger with some surveying using our total station, “Bob the Builder”.

The day went very smoothly, and a lot of ground was covered. The geophysics was hard work, but shared between four people it went remarkably quickly.

Jane Lunnon, UWHG

22. Wednesday 6 October 2010

2010-10-10T11:56:00.004+01:00

After a very dubious start the weather gradually improved to give us a sunny afternoon, but with a fairly strong breeze, which was very pleasant for working.
Numbers were down today, with several people on holiday, so there were only 4 of us and Roger.
Jane and Pauline continued their walkover in the large field, joining up with the work done by Alan and Paul last time. Margaret and Ruth put the finishing points to their gazetteer and then began the actual surveying. Roger in the meantime had laid out two grid squares for a gradiometer survey, so Ruth and Margaret could use these tapes for their base line, which was very convenient! Consequently they made good progress and managed to complete the plotting in of the eastern end of the long south wall by the end of the day.
We adjourned for tea, leaving Roger to plot in points with the dGPS.

Ruth Spencer

21. Wednesday 29th September 2010

2010-10-06T10:53:00.006+01:00

The team were forced indoors today by inclement weather. Assembling in the Devonshire Institute Roger gave a introductory talk on the intricacies of converting field survey drawings to publishable material. We then took some of the survey drawings from this year's Chapel House Wood excavations and proceed to “ink them up”. Work also started on digitising the gazetteer details from the last 2 weeks of field work. Finished around 13:00 and repaired to the Fountaine at Linton for lunch, tough business this archaeology lark!

That's the way to do it! © Jane Lunnon

Hopefully the weather will be kinder next week

Alan Williams

20. Bank Lane Wednesday 22nd September 2010

2010-09-26T15:42:00.004+01:00

Despite ominous weather forecasts, we enjoyed a beautiful day today for our second session in the fields off Bank Lane. The task was to draw up the preliminary Gazetteer of features in which we compiled a rough plan of the site, and gave each visible feature an ID number and GPS reference.

We split into 3 teams, and as ever, found that the aim to complete our mission by the end of the day was, in the event, far too ambitious. Still, we made excellent progress, and as we became more familiar with the site, were getting faster at the recording process. Our new volunteers, Jennifer, Margaret and Paul, appeared to enjoy themselves and cottoned on quickly to the surveying.

Far too much hilarity at lunch-time © Jane Lunnon

It is becoming very clear that this has a very different feel to High Close, yet some features seem familiar in character. There are some very substantial earthworks, some of which appear to continue under the walls into neighbouring fields, which is very intriguing.

Alan and Paul ponder over the intricacies of the earthworks © Jane Lunnon

There is still some more work to do on the Gazetteer next week and we hope for continuation of good weather.

Jane Lunnon.

19. Wednesday, 15 September 2010

2010-09-15T22:40:00.004+01:00

The wind blew, the rain poured and a grey autumn mizzle surrounded us as we arrived at the car park in Grassington this morning. 5 brave souls turned up for the first autumn session of 2010 field surveying for the YDLRT project. Continuing on from our survey of High Close in the spring, Roger took us to Bank Lane Field and introduced us to the next phase of the project.

Undeterred by a little bit of weather!

Here we had two fields (and possibly a third) to survey, which, like High Close, are dominated by complex earthworks, virtually impossible to date at this stage.

While Paul helped Roger set up the GPS to establish the fixed reference points, the 4 others split into two pairs, one per field; and battling against the gusts of wind and the rain, attempted to make a start on creating a gazetteer of features.

Vera checks the plans.

During the lunch break we sought shelter by a wall, under a tree, which occasionally shook the excess water from its leaves all over us. We decided to call it a day and headed for the tea shop

Jane Lunnon

Tuesday 16th February 2010

2010-03-23T17:39:00.010Z

Having taken a break from the High Close Project while we are engaged with other projects, we were glad to be back on the site for a guided tour of the walls provided by Alison Armstrong.

Alison’s detailed survey of the drystone walls around the High Close field was extended to include surrounding parliamentary enclosure walls and ancient township boundaries, to produce a fascinating study of boundaries, landscape management and the context of drystone walls within the Dales around Grassington. Her study is a valuable addition to the High Close project, focusing as it does upon this most evocative, yet in terms of academic study, relatively neglected of Dales features.

Starting with High Close itself, Alison guided us around the perimeter of this early enclosure, pointing out features which suggest possible prehistoric origins, medieval and early modern structures, and 19th Century repair work.

Above: A medieval wall sitting on the bank of an earlier, perhaps prehistoric boundary; the angular sandstone flags amongst the limestone boulders indicate extensive 18th-19th C repairs.

Above: An 18th Century enclosure wall - with much greater use of angular stone than in the medieval walls.

A nice example of a neat 19th century wall

Leaving High Close we explored the walls of the parliamentary enclosure of 1792 which were built to create some of the neighbouring fields. Along the way we had a look at Bare House, a large farmhouse which features in documentary evidence to at least the early 17th century, and is now sadly abandoned.

Crossing the old township boundary between Grassington and Conistone-with-Kilnsey, we eventually picked up the Dales Way and turned about to head back to Grassington, past the old lead mines and a couple of impressive large lime kilns.

Boz contemplates the significance of drystone walls within the context of the historic Dales landscape...

Please note: High Close is private land and there is no public access. However, the Dales Way and other footpaths pass through the area to the north and west of High Close, where walkers can see for themselves the changing nature of Dales drystone walls and boundaries.

Alison’s study of the walls has been submitted to the Yorkshire Dales Landscape Research Trust who are running the High Close project. For further information about the project see their website:

http://ydlrt.co.uk/high_close/high_close.html

Jane Lunnon, UWHG

Winter update December 2009

2009-12-17T14:59:00.004Z

Well, we haven't been idle since the weather forced us to stop surveying out in the field. Far from it, we have been busy indoors, gathering our papers, drawings, photographs and thoughts. In a series of Wednesday mornings we have been running workshops where we have been inking up the field plans, drawing and photographing the finds (mostly flints found scattered around the field), cataloguing and filing, and preparing a display for exhibition next spring.

These sessions have been essential for collating the results we have so far, and forming some initial ideas about the project and its findings. It's given us a chance to consider how we approach the next stage of the field survey next year, and also allowed us to develop our hachuring skills!

Jane Lunnon, UWHG Archivist

14th October 2009

2009-10-15T20:07:00.003+01:00

For the past three weeks the field survey team have been feeling the autumn weather closing in as we have continued to plot the details of the increasingly intriguing earthworks at High Close. Still using a combination of GPS, measuring tapes and alidade, we are gradually pulling together the complex of features across the field. And we are constantly surprised by the complexity of the site – how many times have we planned a quick survey of a small area of the field and found that we have had to spend ages walking around a single feature, puzzling over the best way to represent it on our plans.

Struggling to extract a peg from the ground!

However, the plans are coming along very well, and we’ve been very lucky with the weather so far. The thistles haven’t beaten us – we’ve had great fun trampling them down out of the way of our tape measures, and pulling the thistle spines out of our trousers!

Jane Lunnon, UWHG Archivist

Wednesday 23rd September 2009

2009-09-28T10:31:00.002+01:00

Another fine and at times sunny day at High Close, although quite windy which caused problems with the tapes from time to time. The cows were however the major problem. Ruth should never have said that they had lost interest.

Roger has more audience than he bargained for

At lunch time they targeted the unguarded GPS system, nudged it out of position and dribbled slime all over the carrying cases. Alan was the next victim when they decided to eat his flags, since they outnumbered him twelve to one they had munched several before Roger went to help. It is a pity no one managed to photograph Roger running after a cow with an orange flag in its mouth.

In spite of the cows the work progressed. Alison continued her lonely perambulation examining the walls and apart from Helen substituting for the missing Janis the survey teams continued from where they left off last week.

The complexity of the different phases and the sheer number of features in this enclosure mean that progress is slower than we had hoped. However a plot of the southern end of the area is now taking shape, although more willing volunteers to help with the work would be very welcome.

Pat

Wednesday 16th September 2009

2009-09-19T18:30:00.004+01:00

No blog since 2 September does not mean that nothing has been happening at High Close – just that everybody has been too busy with other things as well!

However we have been back surveying on both Wednesdays - 9th and 16th! We are all making steady progress in our respective areas. Jane, Pat and Ruth continue trying to make sense of their large rectangle of straight (ish) and definitely sinuous banks, with a few mounds thrown in for good measure. David and Phil continue to make progress with the alidade and Alan and Ann are plotting yet more banks with the GPS.

The field looks very pretty with flags of red, orange, green and yellow in strategic places! Alison meanwhile continues to disappear up the hill, to investigate yet more of the walls. Pauline and Janis are also now to be found higher up the field - silhouetted on the skyline!
The extra Saturday planned by Roger seemed to be the day when everyone was busy with other things, so on an absolutely perfect September day Ruth and Roger managed to finish all the bits and pieces at the southern end of the field.
The bullocks appear to have lost interest in us, having decided that the tapes and flags are not really any good to eat, but they are still very curious about Roger’s new vehicle, which they continue to investigate on a regular basis!
The weather now has a definite Autumnal nip – how many more Wednesdays will we be able to continue, before it breaks, I wonder.

Ruth Spencer, UWHG Chairman

Wednesday 2 September 2009

2009-09-03T11:36:00.007+01:00

And so, with a summer of archaeological excavations and holidays behind us, we're back at High Close for the autumn session of field surveys. With the weather suitably autumnal, 11 of us set to work picking up the threads of where we left off, way back in May. A team of three finished the drawings for the corner they had begun in the spring, while two others marched off with the GPS to take a series of readings over the west side of the field. Alison re-acquainted herself with the drystone walls, following up on her interesting investigations of orthostats and possibly mediaeval boundaries. David considered where to start with the alidade and helped Roger set up the fixed reference points, while Ruth, Jane and Pat investigated a new patch for detailed topographical survey. Having selected our area and decided on the logistics of the survey in this new area, we established the base lines. Eventually, the herd of bullocks who had expressed great curiosity throughout the morning in our work, and had followed us around like faithful dogs, had become bored with us, and decided to wander off. By early afternoon it was getting very gloomy overhead and a downpour threatened. So we packed up and headed back for Grassington, just managing to get into our cars as the heavens opened and heavy rain came down. Still, we had made a good start and felt we were certainly back in the swing of things again.

29 March 2009

2009-05-04T00:14:00.010+01:00

We arrived at High Close again today as a party of 12.

We gathered around to hear Roger explain the use the total station – a theodolite with added distance measurement capabilities. The complexities of the trigonometry associated with its operation however, failed to impress us as we slowly began to feel the cold creeping up on us.

We were glad to get moving again and warm up, working on the plans we had started at the last field session. The sun even came out for awhile although it clouded over again later in the afternoon. Eager to complete our drawings, two teams worked hard to make some sense of the complex earthworks in our allocated parts of the field. Marking out the main features with flags we happily measured and drew and hachured all day. Working in a sea of coloured flags we made good progress although it wasn’t always easy working out which linear earthwork was built earlier or later than the next, and defining the breaks of slope was not always clear either.

Lower down the field, Roger used the total station with Ian as helper, and David J. worked on the alidade with Phil’s help.

Alison went off on another long ramble along the enclosure wall, and on to neighbouring walls, examining them in detail for clues to their history. She returned in the afternoon quite excited about some fine examples of walls she’d found nearby.

Despite the good progress the drawings weren’t quite completed – we simply ran out of time. Some of us will just have to turn up at the Saturday session due to take place in a couple of weeks, and finish it then!

Apart from that we can now look forward to the next phase of the project – with some indoor sessions involving oral history, and the resumption of field surveying in the autumn. In the meantime, several of us will be busy enough over the summer working on excavations elsewhere.

Roger explaining the mysteries of the Total Station by Helen

http://www.uwhg.org.uk/projects/high_close/high_close.html

And the Yorkshire Dales Landscape Research Trust website at http://www.ydlrt.co.uk/high_close/high_close.html

Jane Lunnon

2009-04-28T15:50:00.003+01:00

High Close Workshops

Surveying
Two survey workshops will be held in High Close pasture, Grassington, on Wednesday April 29 and Saturday May 9. While both are open to anyone, the Wednesday will be of particular interest to those who already have some experience

The Saturday will cover basic techniques for anyone new to earthwork surveying, or wishing to improve their skills (please let me know via info@ydlrt.co.uk if you would like to join this workshop). Meet at 10am at High Close (along Intake Lane from Chapel St.).

Oral history
A preliminary meeting on Oral History recording will be held on Wednesday June 3, 10am – 1pm (venue to be confirmed).
Autumn Surveying Season
The autumn survey programme in High Close will begin on Wednesday September 2, and will continue (weather permitting) to Wednesday October 21. There will be two Saturday sessions on September 12 and October 3.

Wednesday morning meetings from October 28 to December 16 will be held indoors, with the option of fieldwork if any survey days have been cancelled due to bad weather. Field surveys will be processed and drawn up for publication, and oral history recording will take place. Reserve dates in January and February will be available to tie up any loose ends.

Evening meetings
These will be held on alternate Tuesdays from October 13 to December 8, starting again on January 12. The final date in March will depend on the number of sessions built into a day-school to mark the conclusion of the project.
These sessions, with occasional guest speakers, will cover Iron Age and Roman archaeology in the North, providing a general context for the work in High Close pasture and linking the survey to the landscape project at Chapel House Wood, Kilnsey.

Further details of the autumn programme will be circulated nearer the time. You are very welcome to join any or all of the above events!

2009-04-07T23:50:00.019+01:00

Wednesday 1st April

A beautiful, warm and sunny day for April Fool’s Day. As we approached High Close we were highly entertained by watching a flock of sheep literally running rings round Roger and his vehicle, which needless to say, caused us all great amusement!

When the sheep decided that they were wasting their time, we settled down to the work of the day – good old surveying. The two David’s got together over the alidade; Alison wandered off to do a final check on the 1.9kms of wall, and Alan proceeded to make life difficult for the rest of us, by stationing the GPS just where we wanted to put our flags for the surveying!

The six remaining members divided into 2 teams, one team being allocated the oval shaped area at the southern end of High Close, and the other, the adjoining rectangular area with adjacent fields just to the north-west.

It was good to be back to surveying ground structures again, but as we proceeded, we realised just how complicated these areas are! Having worked consistently all day, with only a short break for lunch, both teams had only managed to do just over half their area. We all agreed that this project is going to take a long time to complete and will certainly last more than a lifetime for a number of us!

Sadly we missed our customary ‘cream tea’ at the end of the day, but all agreed it had been a good day.

Ruth

Wednesday 18th March 2009

2009-03-26T21:09:00.007Z

It was a beautiful day for being out in the Dales. Ten of us arrived at the car park in Grassington and we began by discussing our strategy for the day. A couple of people were new to the wall profiling procedures, so work teams were rearranged before we set off with our equipment up Church Lane and the fields north of the village.

Alison - fast becoming our resident drystone wall history expert - went on ahead, inspecting the exterior side of the enclosure wall on the west side around the High Close field. With David’s aid, as he wandered along the interior side, she picked out a few choice spots, which she marked with flags indicating to us where today’s wall profiles should be taken.

She took particular note of wall heads, where one waller’s work ended and was continued by another waller. Orthostats were also a feature to note – unfortunately there were no sheep creeps on this part of the wall, as there were on the eastern side.

Meanwhile, Alan went happily off to continue the GPS survey across the huge complex of earthworks within the High Close enclosure.

As we were working alongside the Dales Way on this side of High Close, we enjoyed talking to a few interested ramblers, curious as to what we were up to.

The weather helped us all along and by the end of the day we had all completed our wall profiles, including one of the neighbouring parliamentary enclosure walls to the north of High Close. This proved to make a very interesting contrast to the earlier, private, enclosure wall around High Close – while the latter varies significantly in character every few metres, and is full of bulges, and repairs using gritstone flagstones, the parliamentary walls are much more uniform, following the original rules laid down for their construction. Built entirely of limestone, they are built to standard height, with through stones at designated heights.

We were hoping to get in two more sessions this spring to start a topographical survey of the earthworks – but the following Wednesday the weather forecast was against us and so we look forward to making the most of our last spring session next week.

Jane Lunnon

Wednesday 11 March 2009

2009-03-16T17:34:00.002Z

Having missed another week due to inclement weather, last Wednesday saw us back at High Close on a cloudy day, with a cool breeze, but no rain.

After discussing the plan for the day, Roger and Alan disappeared with the GPS, occasionally to be seen throughout the day, striding purposefully over various parts of the field. Two members of the remaining group led the inspection of the enclosure wall, noting the interesting parts to be recorded. The rest of the party re-organised into the two teams and followed in their wake, hopefully recording the correct spot!

Having improved the measuring devices, and revised the recording sheets, we decided that the use of flags to mark appropriate areas and field radios would be more than helpful next week! We continue to improve each week – eventually we will have the perfect system!

However, we succeeded in recording four areas of interest on the east wall, and two on the north – there is still the long west wall to do next time. We all agreed that there are many more interesting bits of wall still to be recorded.

Wall Survey Team

2009-02-26T16:11:00.003Z

25.02.09

Having modified the wall measuring devices in the light of last week's trial run, the wall survey team

drew profiles of selected sections of wall.

This week they were experimenting with a standardised form for recording, in preparation for the start of full survey next week. With 1.9km of wall just around High Close - not to mention comparison with other walls in the area, this could take some time.

The photograph shows team members at the end of the session discussing modifications to the record sheet.

18 February 2008

2009-02-19T10:18:00.012Z

After two weeks of snow we were finally able to get back into High Close on a misty Wednesday morning. Numbers were down today due to half-term, illness, and some people going off to sunnier climes for their holidays - but they certainly missed out on a grand day out in the Yorkshire Dales. The gentle grey mist created a lovely moody atmosphere which lasted until mid-afternoon - and you can't beat that. Some large patches of snow still lay around the edges of the field which added to the atmosphere.

Having decided last time that we should create profiles of the enclosure wall, two home-made contraptions were brought along this week, and we spent most of the morning setting them up and trying them out to see if they worked, and to determine how best to record the profiles. We were all very pleased with the results - it's surprising what you can do with a few bits of wood, a couple of ranging poles, some sticky tape, string and spirit levels!

We had two visits by the farmer of High Close, and his neighbouring farmer, both of whom are very interested in our archaeological survey. By lunch-time we were getting rather cold, and our fingers and toes were a bit numb, so after our sandwiches, we set off as a group to walk the perimeter of the field. Taking the kinematic GPS with us to survey the wall as we went, we assessed the wall's features and construction as we walked the mile or so along its whole length. We came across some interesting variations in the use of stone and the methods of construction, and noted the continuation of some of the earthworks in the field as they continued under the enclosure wall into neighbouring fields. We also noted where some detailed surveying of parts of the wall would be needed, in particular one corner which was created from a huge stone buttress, blocking off the end of a walled track which could only have led into High Close. Other features such as the dew ponds (or whatever these muddy circular patches may turn out to be) which are cut through the middle by the wall, and the remains of an older wall which closely followed the line of the present wall were also noted as worthy of attention.

By the time we were back at our starting point the mist had lifted and we had plenty to think about - Next week we shall start profiling the wall properly, and hopefully also start a GPS survey of the earthworks.

Jane Lunnon

Photographs of High Close

2009-02-03T17:50:00.004Z

Here are a couple of panoramic photos of the High Close field under study (click on the photo for a larger version)

2009-02-01T21:46:00.009Z

28 January 2009

On our second visit to High Close our survey team discussed at great length the strategy for our project, before we split into small teams and, armed with a basic plan based on aerial photographs of the field, we set out to create a simple gazeteer of features.

It was glorious weather, and we all enjoyed a very successful day. Each team was allocated a section to walk-over, in order to identify all those features which could potentially be archaeological. Each of these was given a unique number, noted on the plan, and notes made, describing the nature of each feature. A few more small pieces of worked flint were found, and even a few "features" that hadn't shown up on the aerial photos.

At the end of a very satisfying day, we talked over the best method for collating our work and debated the huge potential of the project. "Homework" was given out - got to get those spreadsheets typed up with our notes and make neat copies of our plans with all those numbered features ready for next week.

Jane Lunnon

2009-02-01T19:27:00.021Z

On 21 January 2009, a group of about 16 or so members of Upper Wharfedale Heritage Group met at Grassington to begin work on an exciting new archaeological project led by Dr Roger Martlew. He had led us to expect to see something quite remarkable on the site - and I think I can speak for everyone in the group when I say that High Close really is quite extraordinary. Our past experience on a range of survey projects across Upper Wharfedale has taught us that the Dales are full of curious and interesting "lumps and bumps" almost everywhere you look. But High Close surprised even the most experienced of us.

On the ground the site (situated on private farm land) appears to be neatly defined by an early 18th century (pre-Parliamentary) drystone enclosure wall, although viewing the site online usng Google Earth quickly reveals that the archaeological features continue into neighbouring fields, and even beyond, into neighbouring parishes. Almost immediately upon entering High Close field, we were all astounded by the scale and complexity of the earthworks. Everywhere we turned there were clearly defined linear banks interspersed with a variety of other "features" (such a useful word to describe lumps and bumps in the ground when we don't yet know what they are!).

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Kick a molehill and sometimes you find a worked flint!

Roger guided us around the large field, and there was much discussion about the site and its potential. The curious line of large boulders and stones set around the top edge of a steep slope which curves round to meet the field boundary was the topic of quite heated discussion! Why was it built? When was it built? What is its relationship to the field boundary wall?

The numerous mounds also created some debate - are they clearance cairns? burial mounds?

Certainly the huge mound on the west side of the field is a burial mound, unfortunately badly damaged by nineteenth century antiquarians and stone robbers. But at least that means we do know it contained an early Beaker vessel.
So, at the end of our extremely interesting walk around High Close, the question was how to proceed with the project. The site has long been interpreted as Iron Age or Romano-British field systems, but the complexity of the earthworks and features suggests it might not be so clear cut. And so, over the next 15 months or so we shall be surveying High Close in the hope of going some way towards untangling it all.

Jane Lunnon