Thorns Through Time
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Thorns through Time The story of an abandoned settlement Stories in Stone: Project H3 Thorns through Time The story of an abandoned settlement David Johnson with contributions by Alison Armstrong, Margaret Barker, Barbara Blenskinship, Patricia Carroll, Philip Carroll, Stephen Eastmead, Sally Edwards, Sheila Gordon, Chloë Lumsdon and Mike Slater © Yorkshire Dales Millennium Trust 2018 Yorkshire Dales Millennium Trust The Old Post Office Clapham, North Yorkshire LA2 8DP Front cover illustration: Dominic Andrews The Thorns through Time project is part of Stories in Stone, a scheme of conservation and community projects concentrated on the Ingleborough area. The scheme was developed by the Ingleborough Dales Landscape Partnership, led by Yorkshire Dales Millennium Trust and supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund. www.storiesinstone.org.uk www.ydmt.org Contents Page Figures iii Tables viii Acknowledgements ix Abbreviations x Photographic scales x Summary xi 1. Introduction 1 2. Physical background 4 3. Aims and Objectives 15 4. Methodology 18 5. Historical Context – the Historic Environment Record 23 6. Historical Context – Thorns in its wider setting 28 7. Historical Trackways through the Thorns Landscape Sheila Gordon 37 8. Historical Ditches and Banks in the Thorns landscape 50 9. Field Walls in the Thorns Landscape Pat Carroll and Phil Carroll 70 10. The Vernacular Buildings of Thorns Alison Armstrong 98 11. Geophysical surveying Stephen Eastmead 172 12. Excavation 181 13. The Thorns Fieldscape 212 14. Peopling Thorns 231 15. Drawing it all together: surveying, archaeology and documentary research 246 16. Outputs and Outcome 268 17. Appendices 279 1. Botanical Survey of Former Hay Meadows Chloë Lumsdon 279 2. Supplementary Botanical Survey Margaret Barker and Sally Edwards 287 3. Estimation of Ages of Walls Mike Slater 289 18. References and Bibliography 294 i Figures Page 1.1 Location of Thorns 1 1.2 Google Earth aerial image of the core settlement at Thorns 3 2.1 Looking north to Ribblehead House 4 2.2 A limestone pedestal near Thorns Gill 5 2.3 Drift geology at Thorns 6 2.4 Drumlins identified from LiDAR data 7 2.5 Cave systems at Thorns 8 2.6 Cove Hole 8 2.7 Palaeochannel edge west of Thorns settlement 9 2.8 Thorns Gill photographed between 1900 and 1910 10 2.9 Thorns Gill photographed from the same position in 2017 11 2.10 Meadow land on the floodplain 12 2.11 Looking north-west across Low Flat to the floodplain 12 2.12 Looking east to Broad Reyn Hill with Cam Fell in the background 13 2.13 Looking north across Thorns Close 13 2.14 Blanket bog in Thorns Close 14 3.1 Volunteer diggers hard at work 15 4.1 A volunteer displaying advanced recording skills 18 4.2 Volunteers using the wall profile measuring frame 22 5.1 OS First Edition six-inch map of Thorns 23 5.2 Sites listed on the YDNPA HER as at 1 February 2016 25 6.1 Ordnance Survey First Edition 6-inch map centred on Thorns 28 6.2 Pollen diagram for Wife Park 29 6.3 Farms in Upper Ribblesdale, past and present 35 7.1 Historical trackways through Thorns 37 7.2 Trackway no. 1 at its east end 38 7.3 Trackway no. 2 opens out into Pry 39 7.4 Trackway no. 2 at the ford across the Ribble 40 7.5 Trackway no. 3 leading away from the bank barn 40 7.6 The stepping stones by Hipping House 42 7.7 The stepping stones looking towards the west bank 42 7.8 Trackway no. 4 crossing a small stream 43 7.9 Trackway no. 5 showing as a line of rushes 44 7.10 Trackway no. 5 at the ford across Gayle Beck 44 7.11 Trackway no. 6 within the settlement 45 7.12 Trackway no. 8 showing as a sunken rush-filled Holloway 46 7.13 Trackway no. 8 at the Thorns-Cam End boundary wall 46 7.14 Trackway no. 9 by the now ruined lime kiln 47 7.15 Thorns Gill Bridge in 1939 49 8.1 Feature 12, ditch, bank and adjacent wall 50 8.2 Pre-survey sketch map of ditch and bank features 51 8.3 Feature no. 1a with the bank clearly shown 53 8.4 Feature no. 1d with dense rush growth 54 8.5 Feature no. 5 approaching Gayle Beck 55 8.6 Feature no. 10 with a ruinous wall on the bank top 55 iii 8.7 Feature no. 13 with the bank in the foreground 57 8.8 Feature no. 15 topped by a later dry-stone wall 57 8.9 Feature no. 15 with the ditch clearly seen 58 8.10 Feature no. 28 showing the prominent bank 60 8.11 Feature no. 29 showing twin banks 60 8.12 Feature no. 29 with volunteers marking the enclosure banks 61 8.13 Feature no. 29 showing the bank either side of the bog 61 8.14 Feature no. 30 with the bank seen close to the later wall 62 8.15 Ditches and banks as sketched at the end of the field survey 63 8.16 Internal and external boundary features plotted on an OS map extract 66 8.17 Internal and external boundary features plotted on a Bing aerial screen shot 67 9.1 Wall no. 28 at Thorns 70 9.2 Wall no. 14, footings only with no standing wall 71 9.3 Wall no. 12, a totally ruined wall 71 9.4 Wall no. 15, sheep creep 72 9.5 Wall no. 3, cattle creep 72 9.6 Wall no. 1, rabbit smoot 73 9.7 Wall no. 34, weathered limestone gate stoop 73 9.8 Wall no. 22, ‘slate’ gate stoop 74 9.9 Wall no. 10, incorporating an earthfast boulder 74 9.10 Wall no. 11, displaying characteristics of older walls 75 9.11 Wall chronology, western section 77 9.12 Wall chronology, eastern section 78 9.13 Gates and stiles, western section 79 9.14 Gates and stiles, eastern section 80 9.15 Creeps and smoots, western section 81 9.16 Creeps and smoots, eastern section 82 9.17 Wall junctions, western section 83 9.18 Wall junctions, eastern section 84 9.19 Cross-profiles for Wall nos. 1 – 22c 87 9.20 Cross-profiles for Wall nos. 23a – 39 87 9.21 An extract from the First Edition Ordnance Survey map c. 1853 88 9.22 Wall – what wall? The case of a disappearing wall 89 9.23 One wall turning through a right-angled corner or two walls meeting at a field corner 90 9.24 Lush grass beyond the wall and a riotous growth of nettles 91 9.25 Nettles totally masking a collapsed creep 91 9.26 Wall no. 15 runs off into the distance 92 9.27 The effects of weathering and plant growth on two sides of wall no. 29 93 9.28 A volunteer using specialised equipment 94 10.1 Thorns 9, cart arch barn 98 10.2 Buildings in the Thorns landscape 101 10.3 Thorns 1, plan 103 10.4 Thorns 1, south frontage 104 10.5 Thorns 1, detail on south frontage 105 10.6 Thorns 1, rear elevation and dairy 106 10.7 Thorns 1, west gable and dairy 106 10.8 Thorns 1, rear outshut dairy 107 10.9 Thorns 1, front elevation in 2003 108 10.10 Thorns 2, plan 109 10.11 Thorns 2, front wall 110 10.12 Thorns 3, plan 111 iv 10.13 Thorns 4, plan 114 10.14 Thorns 5, plan 117 10.15 Thorns 5, ‘reconstructed’ south gable 118 10.16 Thorns 6, plan 120 10.17 Thorns 6, east (front) elevation 121 10.18 Thorns 6, north gable 121 10.19 Thorns 6, roof truss 122 10.20 Thorns 7, plan 124 10.21 Thorns 7, detail of wall and plinth 125 10.22 Thorns 7, detail of double plinth 125 10.23 Thorns 8, plan 127 10.24 Thorns 8, north elevation 129 10.25 Thorns 8, south elevation 129 10.26 Thorns 8, west gable 130 10.27 Thorns 8, east gable 131 10.28 Thorns 8, interior and roof truss 131 10.29 Thorns 8, water trough 133 10.30 Thorns eight-sided star 133 10.31 Thorns 8, arrow-like carving 134 10.32 Thorns 9, plan 135 10.33 Thorns 9, front (south) elevation 136 10.34 Thorns 9, rear (north) elevation 136 10.35 Thorns 9, east and west gables 136 10.36 Thorns 9, interior and roof truss 137 10.37 Thorns 10, plan 139 10.38 Thorns 10, north elevation 140 10.39 Thorns 10, south elevation 141 10.40 Thorns 10, interior view 141 10.41 Thorns 10, ‘RH 1837’ in west shippon 142 10.42 Thorns 10, ‘The new Stable’ 142 10.43 Thorns 10, north elevation and outshut in 2004 143 10.44 Thorns 10, inscribed marks (ML and FL) on boskin timbers 143 10.45 Thorns 11a, plan and elevations 146 10.46 Thorns 11b, plan, elevations and moulding 147 10.47 Thorns 11b, moulding 148 10.48 Thorns 12, north-east corner 149 10.49 Thorns 12, north-west corner with foundation slab or padstone 149 10.50 Thorns 4, corner block 151 10.51 Thorns 2, house, sandstone slab 152 11.52 Thorns 3, surviving remains 156 10.53 Thorns 1 in 2017 157 10.54 Thorns 2, ruins by Trackway no. 1 158 10.55 Thorns 11a, wash-house, in 2016 159 10.56 Thorns 11b, privy, in 2016 159 10.57 Thorns 6, Low Flat Barn, in 2016 161 10.58 Thorns 4, remains of Holme Barn in 2016 162 10.59 Thorns 9 in 2016 163 10.60 Thorns 7, High Flat Barn, in 2016 163 10.61 Thorns 10, bank barn, in 2016 164 10.62 Thorns 8, Back Hools Barn, in 2016 165 11.1 Bartington gradiometer operated by SWAAG volunteer 172 11.2 Base map with survey grids in red 173 v 11.3 Google Earth image with survey grids in yellow 173 11.4 LiDAR image with survey grids in red 174 11.5 Magnetic gradiometry: greyscale image 175 11.6 Greyscale image showing very high and very low results 176 11.7 Greyscale image with banded contours 176 11.8 Greyscale image showing ferrous bipolar signals 176 11.9 Wall-top wiring adjacent to survey site 2 177 11.10 Localities with potential archaeological significance 177 11.11 GNSS survey data 178 11.12 GNSS data including geophysics survey grids 178 11.13 GNSS data with superimposed OS grid 179 11.14 GNSS data with survey grids and superimposed OS grid 179 11.15 GNSS data superimposed over LiDAR image 180 12.1 ‘A Band of Sisters’: volunteers taking time out while excavating Trench 11 181 12.2 Trench 1, rubble spread 183 12.3 Trench 1, cobbled floor on east side of trench 184 12.4 Trench 1, west wall 185 12.5 Trench 1, cobbled floor on west side of trench 185 12.6 Trench 1, final contexts 185 12.7 Trench 2, west wall 186 12.8 Trench 2, cobbles and