36. Tuesday 12 April 2011

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

33. Tuesday 15 March 2011

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

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

30. Wednesday 24 November 2010

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

28. Wednesday 10 November 2010

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

22. Wednesday 6 October 2010

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

20. Bank Lane Wednesday 22nd September 2010

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

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

Wednesday 16th September 2009

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

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.

Wednesday 1st April

Roger's fan club © Jane Lunnon

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!

Roger & the 2 Davids, Alan attempting to hide from Pat © Jane Lunnon

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!

David and the dreaded alidade! © Jane Lunnon

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!

Ruth in deep concentration mode © Alan Williams

Pauline with Helen & Sue © Alan Williams

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

Ruth

The UWHG line dancing team © Jane Lunnon

Wednesday 18th March 2009

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

18 February 2008

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

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

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!).






<<


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