Early Medieval Rural Settlement in North Craven: a Reassessment
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Contrebis 2017 v35 EARLY MEDIEVAL RURAL SETTLEMENT IN NORTH CRAVEN: A REASSESSMENT David Johnson Abstract Knowledge of pre-Conquest rural settlement in the North West was limited until Ingleborough Archaeology Group began a major project investigating sites around Ingleborough which were composed of clusters of rectangular buildings with low stone walls. None had previously been recognised as early medieval. All the sites were found to have common elements and all proved from radiocarbon dating to have been occupied during that period, with dates between the late seventh century and the end of the tenth century. Artefacts recovered enable comments to be made about life and work in North Craven before the Norman Conquest. Introduction A still-current research framework for early medieval archaeology in England includes a map of ‘mid-Saxon sites’ (Perring 2002, 97); over 30 sites are marked but there is not a single one in the Pennines west of the main watershed. This skewed emphasis is not unique and a range of academic post-Millennium works have drawn attention to the apparent dearth – even absence – of early medieval rural settlement sites away from the eastern lowlands. Prime examples include Moorhouse (2006, 34–5), Newman (2006, 91), Petts and Turner (2011, 4) and Hamerow (2012, 4–9); and the critical point has been made that there is an ‘imperative ... to generate data for the blackholes of knowledge ...’ in the North West for the early medieval period (Thomas 2012, 59). There is no question that this lacuna has dominated the literature for far too long. This article begins by setting the area in a wider context and reviewing the extent of existing knowledge of early medieval rural settlement here before the results of recent archaeological investigations demanded a thorough reassessment. The paper then examines evidence from (now) isolated sites in two localities for which firm radiocarbon dating results have been obtained in recent years, before moving on to set these sites in regional and cultural contexts. Locational context The focus of this research lies within North Craven which forms the western part of the modern administrative district of Craven, though Craven has existed as a distinct unit in one form or another since long before the Norman Conquest. North Craven takes in the south-western corner of the Yorkshire Dales National Park, between the Cumbria boundary to the west and the boundary between the former West and North Ridings of Yorkshire (now the boundary between Craven and Richmondshire Districts) in the east, and between the Lancashire boundary to the south and the watershed separating the Ribble and Lune catchments to the north. The excavation element of the research is focused more narrowly on the Ingleborough ‘triangle’, Upper Ribblesdale, Ribblehead, and the valley now known in common parlance as Chapel-le-Dale (Figure 1), though technically, and historically, that is a misnomer (Johnson 2015a, 25). North Craven lies within the modern county of North Yorkshire and the former West Riding. Nevertheless, North Craven lies west of the Pennine watershed and two of its main rivers – the Ribble and Lune – discharge into the Irish Sea, so topographically it is in North-West England. 26 Contrebis 2017 v35 BP Brows Pasture, CB Clapham Bottoms, CRD Crummack Dale, TCP Top Cow Pasture, UP Upper Pasture Figure 1 Location of the study area and settlement sites Physical context Geology has played an enormous role in shaping how communities past and present have been able to manage, exploit and benefit from the land. Land fertility and productivity reflect soil characteristics and potential, as do rock permeability and hydrological processes. Where people have settled in the past and what they were able to glean from the land have been hugely influenced by climate and weather, which directly reflect altitude and topography. The basis of all these variables is rock type and structure: on and around Ingleborough there are significant geological differences (Johnson 2008, 33–59). When viewed from the north-east or north-west, the dramatic stepped profile of Ingleborough is obvious, as are the marked contrasts in summer ground colour from summit to valley bottom, with dull browns and yellows high up and lush greens below. Equally striking – to the accustomed eye – are the contrasts in archaeological visibility across the area. The bulk of Ingleborough, and of Whernside and Pen-y-ghent, above the 400m contour is composed of alternating bands of Carboniferous Yoredale Group sandstone and limestone with occasional shale bands, topped with a thin cap of Millstone Grit. The grits, sandstone and shales are impermeable, meaning that rainwater cannot easily penetrate the surface so the ground is almost permanently wet underfoot. 27 Contrebis 2017 v35 Consequently, soils are waterlogged, cold, not well aerated and acidic to very acidic; hence agricultural fertility levels and soil potential are low to very low. Leaving aside the so-called and highly controversial hillfort on the summit, such areas were shunned in the past and signs of permanent or even semi-permanent settlement are understandably minimal. In the valleys that surround Ingleborough – Ribblesdale, the Wenning valley and the valley of Chapel-le-Dale, usually below the 240–280m contours, pre-Carboniferous Basement strata form the underlying bedrock. These are highly folded, faulted and contorted Silurian and Ordovician sandstone, siltstone and mudstone that are also impermeable but, because of the less hostile climate and gentler topography, soil potential is much greater than on the Yoredales. Much of the valley bottoms has a veneer of fertile silt, deposited by rivers or laid down in shallow, immediately post- glacial lakes, as between Helwith Bridge and Horton-in-Ribblesdale and in Kingsdale. Evidence of past settlement and farming is decidedly more apparent in the valleys. In between lies the horizontally-bedded Great Scar Limestone that forms the vast expanse of level plateau at ±300m on all sides of Ingleborough. Limestone is permeable thus well drained, soils are thin and slightly acidic, given the prevailing cool wet climate, but they are easily worked and of high potential. It is on this plateau that archaeological visibility is greatest with a plethora of sites spanning several millennia. In recent years a close correlation has also been recognised between past settlement sites on the one hand and localities where deposits of loess – wind-blown ice-margin silts – have survived in sheltered hollows or valleys (Vincent and Lee, 1981; Vincent 2006; Johnson 2008, 57–8). It is on these Great Scar Limestone plateaus where evidence of early medieval settlement is to be found. Historical Context Historians and archaeologists seem unable to agree on the parameters for defining the various prehistoric and historical periods. The Society for Medieval Archaeology (SMA) encourages the use of the descriptor ‘Early-medieval’ period from the mid-fifth century to the mid-eleventh century and ‘High Medieval’ after that (SMA 2003). Others would prefer the more closely year-defined period AD 410 to 1066; but for Craven and the North this writer prefers to think in terms of the mid-seventh century to 1068, the latter when Norman influences were most heavily felt. As recently as ten years ago no firmly proven pre-Conquest rural settlement sites had been recorded in the Pennines, west of the main watershed, though there are a few known sites in eastern Cumbria (see for example Dickinson 1985; Lambert 1995; Heawood and Howard-Davis 2002). There is also some substantive evidence to suggest that an Anglo-Saxon or Anglo-Scandinavian presence in the Pennines was not totally lacking. There are recognisable cultural and religio-political signatures in Furness, Cartmel and the Lune Valley (Wood 1987; Points 2007; Edmonds 2013); and various archaeological find-spots relate to the pre-Conquest era. For example, caves to the north and west of Settle have produced objects such as an Anglo-Saxon copper-alloy tap fastener from Combs Scar Cave at Helwith Bridge around 1950; two iron knives, probably Anglo-Saxon, found in limestone pavement near Feizor around 1936; and an Anglo-Saxon strap end recovered during excavation in Smearsett Cave also near Feizor in 1900 (Lord 2004, passim); as well as ninth-century coins from Attermire Cave and coeval brown bear and red deer bones found in Greater Kelco and Kinsey Caves (Lord and Howard 2013, 249). Work in Attermire and Victoria Caves has also revealed pre- Conquest bronze belt fittings and a bone comb and a ninth-century, disc-headed silver pin (Swanton 1969). However, none of these find-spots directly relates to the peopling of the areas or adds anything meaningful to the identification of actual settlement sites, though one site (just outside Craven) is 28 Contrebis 2017 v35 potentially of more value in this respect. Rescue excavation of a site on Old Gayle Lane, Hawes, in 1978–9, found a sub-rectangular earthwork consisting of a bank with an external ditch and the internal footings of an oval structure (Turnbull 1986). Material from ditch fill was dated to 850±70 BP (HAR-3748): whether or not this was coeval with the occupation of the enclosure is unknown, so this date is of questionable significance. One might point to place-names as another source of evidence for pre-Conquest settlement around Ingleborough. Indeed, it has been said that 60 per cent of all place-names between Sedbergh and Settle are of Scandinavian origin (Morris 1981, 71). It is not the intention in this article to explore what can be equated with an academic minefield, so suffice it to say that this writer strongly disputes that statistic. Recent archaeological work Over the past decade the Ingleborough Archaeology Group (IAG) has been engaged in examining sites in its core area that resemble each other and so might prove to be broadly contemporary.