January | 2019 | The Journal Of Antiquities

January 26, 2019
by sunbright57

Oakworth Old Lane Cup-And-Ring Stone, Cowling, North Yorkshire.

Oakworth Old Lane, Cowling, and the faint cup-and-ring carving.

OS Grid Reference: SD 97300 42625. Standing beside Oakworth Old Lane, near Cowling, North Yorkshire, is an old gritstone gatepost that has a faint and worn cup-and-ring carving on its top face. This Bronze Age carving (petroglyph) was only recently discovered by a local man from the nearby village of Cowling. Quite obviously this old stone has come from the moors above Cowling where it might have been a standing stone, or it might have been broken off a larger rock? However that’s merely speculation, but its a strong possibility. The gatepost has, at some point, been chopped off at the top edge where the outer carved ring is, but this has not really caused much damage, the carving has not really been affected. To reach the stone from the A6068 Keighley Road, Cowling, head up Oakworth Old Lane (Old Lane) by the cemetery. Go up the lane past the houses until you reach the fields; not far along on the left-hand side is the gatepost and field entrance, while on the opposite side of the lane a driveway can be seen.

Oakworth Old Lane gatepost, with faint cup-and-ring carving.

Oakworth Old Lane. Close-up of the cup-and-ring carving.

This little carving of a single cup and single ring on the gritstone gatepost is now quite faint and worn, but nice all the same. The two holes lower down are recent additions. It is easily missed; but thanks to Mr Chris Swales of Cowling and The Northern Anti-quarian back in 2016 – it has been brought to everyone’s attention, and also to the farmer’s attention too! I went up there later that summer and got chatting to the farmer from Hallan Hill Farm; he was in the field with his tractor and spreading silage, I think, or transporting it somewhere else? He told me he didn’t realize what the carving was nor did he know how old it was, but he seemed genuinely interested. I informed him that it was “a prehistoric carving”. However, we don’t know where the stone came from – maybe it was brought from the moors above Cowling, where it could have been a standing stone? or did it come from a larger lump of stone and, if so, could it have had more cups-and-rings carved onto it. And how long has the gatepost stood in its present, lonely, position? Only in 2016 did the ancient carving get the attention that it deserves!

Sources and related websites:

https://megalithix.wordpress.com/2016/07/29/old-lane-cowling/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cowling,_Craven

With thanks to Chris Swales & TNA (The Northern Antiquarian).

January 19, 2019
by sunbright57

Fish Stone (Pancake Ridge 14), Ilkley Moor, West Yorkshire

Fish Stone, Ilkley Moor, in West Yorkshire.

OS Grid Reference: SE 13468 46176. Fish Stone is a cup-marked rock on Ilkley Moor, in west York-shire, located close to Pancake Stone, and on the footpath that runs along the ridge high above Hangingstone Lane and the Cow & Calf Hotel. For want of a better, proper name, which it might have, but at the moment I can’t find it – I have given it the name: ‘Fish Stone’. However, I “now” know it to be called ‘Pancake Ridge 14’ because it is to be found on that ridge of high ground and opposite the curiously shaped ‘Pancake Stone’, which also has some cup-markings on its top surface. The stone is, at a certain angle, shaped like a fish though I’m sure there are other rocks on the moor that bear that same similarity. The stone has been recorded by Boughey & Vickerman as (338) and by Era as (Era-2564). For directions to the Fish Stone (Pancake Ridge 14) please see the site page for ‘Haystack Rock’: https://thejournalofantiquities.com/2017/10/27/haystack-rock-ilkley-moor-west-yorkshire/

Fish Stone, Ilkley Moor, from a different angle.

Fish Stone, Ilkley Moor, from yet another angle.

The ‘Fish Stone’ is one of three flat stones here, only the middle one having well-defined pre-historic cup-marks (petroglyphs) on its surface; if there are any on the other two stones they are now faint and worn. There looks to be around 17 cup-markings in the middle and towards the edges of the stone although a some of these may be natural as is the depression at the far side which is due to erosion. Most of the cups are quite small and now fairly worn but they are still visible. There don’t appear to be any rings? But nobody seems to know what these cup-markings are meant to signify – could they be just the idle doodlings of our Bronze Age ancestors, or could they actually be maps showing stars in the night sky, or maybe maps showing burial sites, springs, settlements and other nearby carved rocks; we don’t know with any certainty, so they must therefore remain something of a mystery and ‘an enigma’. If we could travel back in time we could ask the carver of the cups-and-ring markings what he was doing, why he was doing it, and what they were meant to signify. But that’s one for the future!

Sources and related websites:-

https://www.megalithic.co.uk/article.php?sid=48988&m_distance=0.0

https://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk/era/section/panel/overview.jsf?eraId=2564

https://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk/era/section/panel/media.jsf?eraId=2564

https://megalithix.wordpress.com/2009/01/25/pancake-stone-ilkley-moor/

January 12, 2019
by sunbright57 1 Comment

Irton High Cross, Eskdale, Cumbria

Irton High Cross, Eskdale, Cumbria.

OS Grid Reference: NY 09156 00471. In Irton churchyard (south-side of St Paul’s Church) in Eskdale, Cumbria, stands the tall, slender Irton High Cross, a Viking monument thought to date from the mid 10th century AD, though a few scholars suggested that it is even earlier than that? The cross has some very intricate decoration – some of which looks to be more Celtic than Danish. Its runic inscription having all but faded away, but other than that it is a very fine ancient monument; the cross-head, in particular, being very pleasing to the eye. St Paul’s church itself dates from the Victorian period. To reach this site from Santon (Santon Bridge) follow the lane for a couple of miles south, then southwest towards Holmrook, but turning off to the right before reaching that village and, just after passing the entrance to Aikbank farm. Follow this track (north) to St Paul’s Church and the Irton Cross. The tiny village of Irton is roughly ½ a mile to the east of St Paul’s Church and 3 miles southeast of Gosforth.

Irton High Cross, Eskdale, Cumbria.

The Irton High Cross is a well-preserved, intact, cross standing at almost 10 foot high (3.4 metres) and is made of red sandstone. It is a slender cross that tapers away slightly towards the top where there is a very fine, carved cross-head with central raised bosses. The age of the cross is uncertain, but most scholars think it to be from 950 AD. However, a few scholars and historians have suggested that it looks to be of an earlier date maybe the 8th or 9th century? And some of the carved decoration on its four-sides looks to be similar to Celtic work, rather than Anglian/Danish; Cumbria obviously being close to the Celtic countries of Ireland and Scotland. There is also a Saxon influence. We can see some very intricate interlacing and circular designs with dots (pellets) in long panels on the shaft, and also on the cross-head; the central bosses also having this pellet-work. Two figures are apparently visible as are beasts. Other carvings include: key-patternwork, diamond shapes, scrollwork, spirals and roll-moulding. Originally there was a Runic inscription in the smaller panel but this has now worn away. The sandstone base is perhaps the same age as the cross or later?

Arthur Mee (1961) tells us that: “Not so old as some flints and spear-heads found here, the remarkable churchyard cross of Irton is old enough, for it was probably carved out of the red sandstone 1000 years ago; and for its beauty and preservation it ranks second only to the wonderful cross at Gosforth. Tapering gracefully to a fine head, it is ten feet high, and is richly ornamented. Beyond the fine timber lychgate it has a new companion on the little green, a graceful cross to the Irton men who died for peace.

“The stolid little church was refashioned last century and has a fine tower with an imposing turret above the battlements. Its eight bells must echo far and wide among these hills and vales. The tower archway is screened by attractive wrought iron gates, and the attractive chancel arch has black and marble shafts.”

Robert Harbison (1993) gives some rather comical information re: “Irton Cross, S of the church, is a very ruddy orange on the E face, better preserved on W. Carpet patterns like those in manuscripts on E, knots on W, protrusive baubles in the centre of the lively misshapen head. A moving presence in this windswept place; there’s an Art Nouveau imitation lower down to SW, with a stone rail behind.”

Harbison goes on to say that “The church is unattractive outside but lovely within. Its scale is wonderful, like a model, and there are many entertaining fittings — a painted iron screen in tower arch, rustic wooden haunches in chancel roof, lots of Victorian banners on the walls and very amusing narrative windows. These include four good late panels by Burne-Jones, of which the oldest is the Tiburtine Sibyl in a lionskin by an altar.”

Maxwell Fraser (1939) says that: “In Irton churchyard is a cross 10 feet high and richly carved, which probably dates from the ninth century.”

The Historic England List Entry Number is: 1012642.

Sources and related websites:-

Fraser, Maxwell, Companion into Lakeland, Methuen & Co. Ltd., London, 1939.

Harbison, Robert, The Shell Guide to English Parish Churches, André Deutsch Limited, London, 1993.

Mee, Arthur, The King’s England — Arthur Mee’s Lake Counties — Cumberland And Westmorland, Hodder And Stoughton Limited, London, 1961.

The AA, The Illustrated Road Book Of England & Wales, The Automobile Association, London, 1961.

https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1012642

https://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryMagazine/DestinationsUK/AngloSaxonSites/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irton_Cross

https://www.visitcumbria.com/crosses/

https://www.photonorth.uk/-/image-library/cumbria/history/anglo-saxon-and-viking-cumbria-photos