More information : (a) (9)*Village settlements, dykes and mounds in Smardale Demesne. The larger settlements of about 1 1/4 acres, occupies the top of a ridge (910 ft above OD). It is in two halves, one on each side of the ridge-top leaving a space about 18 yards wide between them, across which are walls connecting the two halves and forming a reactangular enclosure. The main outlines of the village are rather rectangular and resemble the neighbouring settlement at Intake in Crosby Barrett. Towards the SE side of the village are traces of what may be a large circular hut, 36 ft diameter. There are also within the settlement traces of one or two other possible circular or oval shaped huts.
(b)* The smaller northern settlement (about 1/2 acre) lies about 500 yards to the NE and is of very unusual form, though its state of decay may be in part reponsible for its appearance. Actually it is more suggestive of either a single dwelling or of a cattle enclosure. It consists of a partly oval enclosure with one small subsidiary division while in the larger portion are traces of a structure of roughly circular form about 30 ft in diameter. The entrance would appear to have been on the NE. The site is on a slight slope downwards to the NW. Crossing this work and joining up two portions of the dyke (see below) are the foundations of a wall which presumably is of later date than the encloure it crosses, but on the other hand, there is nothing to indicate that it is of the same age as the dyke.
(c)* Traces of what was perhaps a third settlement exist about 200 yards SW of Smardale Hall.
(d) The Dyke encloses an area of uncertain size since it cannot be traced for the whole of its length but it certainly enclosed not less than 450 acres mainly S of the L.M. and S. Railway and bordering the Scardale beck gorge on its eastern bank. There are a number of cross dykes dividing it up into several enclosures. The dyke consists of a bank about 12 to 15 ft across at its base and for much of its length about 4 1/2 ft high. A number of large stones of orthostatic type still remains in the W portion, but they all seem to be on one side only of the dyke as though it had been revetted on one side only and that the side on which was the spoil-ditch.
(e) Three mounds, in the form of pillow-mounds, lie to the E and SE of the larger settlement. They vary from 30 to 45 ft long by 12 to 18 ft wide.
(f) Outside the dyke, about 300 yards SE of the southern settlement, are traces of a square enclosure, 21 ft by 18 ft and perhaps of no great age.
Condition - poor.
(g)* (10) Village settlement (820 ft above OD) near the E border of the parish, is of irregular oval form and nearly 1 acre in area. It has the usual irregular divisions and traces of one or more huts. A few orthostats remain. There are two slight mounds to the NE and W of the settlement.
Condition - Bad.
(h)* (11) earthworks, possibly settlement, consists of a slight circular sinking, possibly a hut, and traces of other disturbance of the ground in the immediate neighbourhood.
(i)*(12) Village settlement, on Tom Bank (850 ft above OD) is crossed by a modern field-wall, on the S. side of which the site has been quarried and largely obliterated. On the N of the wall are remains of the usual irregular enclosures, with traces of a wall or dyke extending N and S from it.
Condition - Bad.
(j)*(13) Village settlement, in Waitby Intake (815 ft above OD) adjoining the railway, consists of two separate villages probably connected by the walls of a field-system. The S part of the SE village has been largely destroyed by the railway. It was about 1 1/4 acres in extent and consisted of the usual irregular enclosures. There is a possible entrance on the E side. Towards the N are traces of at least three circular huts. A few orthostats remain indicating walls 5 1/2-6 ft thick. The NW village is unusually rectangular in form and is probably of later date. The walls are of about the same thickness as in the first village and the huts seem to have all been built against the enclosure-walls. The entrance on the W side has traces of curving in of the wall on the S side. This entrance opens into an enclosure, perhaps a later addition. The area is just over 1 acre.
Condition. Of SE village, poor; of NW village, fairly good.
(k)(14). Foundations, on the W. side of the lane represent former rectangular structures, possibly of no great age. About 250 yards to the N is a triangular enclosure.
*Prob IA/RB. See NY 70 NW 2.
(m)(17) Lynchets, in five groups surrounding Waitby hamlet. Group (a), SSW of the hamlet, on a SE slope, are four in number. They have a maximum length of 180 yards with a drop of from 4-7 ft. Group (b) SW of the hamlet on a NW slope, is number and about 200 yards in length. There are indications of subdivisions in the wider lynchets. Group (d) NW of the hamlet on an ENE slope, are about 280 yards long. Group (e) E of the hamlet on a SW slope is fragmentary.
(n)(18) Lynchets, 200 yards N of (10) on a S slope, are fragmentary.
(o)(19) Lynchets, within the dyked enclosure of (9) on a NE slope, are about 85 yards long.
(p)(20) Lynchets, are fragmentary. (1)
Settlement (j) at Waitby Intake partly excavatd July-Aug 1967 by R A Webster, University of Reading. Pottery found included sherds of 4th C. calcite gritted ware. (2)
NY 755074 An exploratory excavation was undertaken of the rectilinear settlement (j) of Waitby 13 in 1967, and from Huntcliff ware found it would seem that at least part of the site was occupied in the latter part of the 4th century. This is a very late date for an RB site in this part of England. Furthermore, from the evidence of the earthworks and the plan of the site, Webster suggests that the entrance enclosure on the W side is later than the main part of the settlement; occupation may therefore have continued into the Dark Ages. He is also of the opinion that the field system between the rectilinear and the curvilinear settlement, to the S, belongs to the former. (See plan) (3)
Settlements (a, b, g and j), each well described and illustrated by the Commission, are all Romano-British. There is now little evidence of any earthworks at 'c', certainly insufficient to postulate any sort of settlement; similarly at 'h' where even a site cannot be identified with certainty. 'i' as noted has been largely quarried away, and ploughing has reduced what remains to a complex of vague ground swellings and superficial depressions.
The dykes 'd' form part of a system of large rectangular fields. These are of indeterminate date, probably pre-enclosure, but undoubtedly later than Romano British.
Pillow mounds 'e' are adequately described.
The foundations 'f' and 'k' appear to be contemporary with the dykes, 'k' possibly later; the triangular enclosure mentioned with the latter is now under plough and there is no trace.
Lynchets (m, n, o, and p) are all as listed.
Surveyed at 1:2500 on field document where appropriate. (4)
The Waitby dyke system is the clearest example of dykes with related settlements and ploughing remains. The dykes form a single system but were probably not all in use at any one time. The dyke which is associated with the settlement at Tom Bank (i) appears to be the earliest. The dyke associated with (and contemporary with) Waitby Castle Settlement (NY 70 NE 4) is the latest of the dykes and represents the latest period of activity. The Waitby Castle settlement (Romano-British - see NY 70 NE 4) overlies narrow plough lynchets suggesting early agricultural enclosures pre-dating the latest period of settlement and dyke system. (5)
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