More information : An old roadline, centred at SE 1716 8542, survives within Jervaulx Park as a broad embankment running away south for c 250m from the south-west corner of the ruins of Jervaulx Abbey, before turning a sharp right-angle to the east to continue as a terraced way at the foot of rising ground and passing into the grounds of Abbey Hill House where its onward course was not surveyed. The degree of engineering involved in creating the road suggests it is monastic in origin, although post-medieval maps show it as continuing in use; a monastic origin is also suggested by the fact that it is partly overlain by a building (SE 18 NE 177) seemingly going with formal gardens (SE 18 NE 176) which were created within the precinct in the later 16th century. Part of it has been overploughed, presumably to reduce the visibility of the earthwork when Jervaulx Park was laid out in 1807. The park is currently used as pasture for sheep and cattle. (The embanked part of the feature was previously picked up by Yorkshire Dales AP mapping as MORPH NY.888.7.2, and correctly identified as a medieval road, but only part of the terraced way was seen - MORPH NY.880.10.1, misinterpreted as a post-medieval field boundary).
Surveyed at 1:1000 scale as part of the RCHME Jervaulx Abbey Survey (feature TR6). See report (1a) and plans in the NMR for more details. (1) |