Summary : Bronze Age enclosed cremation cemetery - or less likely, an embanked stone circle - situated in Ox Close on the broad limestone plateau between Haw Bank and Ivy Scar above Carperby. The monument comprises a penannular embankment and central cairn, with evidence that a ring of orthostats formerly stood at intervals around the inner circumference of the bank. The grass-covered bank is approximately 2m wide and 0.25m high, and is composed of earth and a large quantity of small stones up to 30cm in diameter. Approximately centrally placed is a disturbed mound, about 20cm above the surrounding surface. It is slightly hollowed with variously sized stones filling much of the depression. The monument is not a true circle, being approximately 23.4m north-south and 32m east-west overall. |
More information : [SD 990902]. An enclosure situated on Haw Bank, described by Raistrick and scheduled as a 'stone circle' (but which is probably of the type now known as an enclosed cremation cemetery). The enclosing bank which is approxiamately 78ft N-S by 92ft E-W, is c 6ft wide and 2ft high. It is composed of earth and a great quantity of small stones, up to 1ft diameter; the stones were probably erected on the crest of the bank though most have now fallen inwards. At the approx centre of the enclosed area is a low mound about 1ft high, the centre of which has been hollowed out exposing large and small stones. (1) Visible on air photographs (2a). (2) The remains are situated at SD 9900 9013 at the east end of a small sheltered valley (slightly below the crest of the hill slopes to the east) and consist of a sub-circular enclosure 28.0m east-west by 24.0m north-south between the centres of an earth and rubble bank 0.4m high which spreads to about 3.0m in width. This bank has been constructed mainly of stones and large boulders (obviously taken from the scree slopes about 150m to the north), none of which appears to have been upstanding or set into the bank as suggested by Raistrick. Almost central within the enclosed area are the mutilated remains of a stony mound 0.2m high and 6.0m in diameter. No other features are apparent. The remains are not those of a stone circle, but more probably an enclosed cremation cemetery as suggested.
Surveyed at 1:10 000. (3)
SD 990 901. Ox Close stone circle, Nab End. Scheduled No. NY/160. (4)
The site was mapped at 1:10560 scale from APs by the RCHME Yorkshire Dales Mapping Project, and classified as an enclosed cremation cemetery (MORPH nos. NY228.7.1 and 7.2). (5)
Ox Close small stone circle, Nab End. The monument includes a small stone circle which lies on the broad limestone plateau of Haw Bank overlooked by Oxclose Nab. The circle has an outer, grass-covered bank, approximately 2m wide and 0.25m high. The monument is not a true circle, being approximately 23.4m north-south and 32m east-west overall. The bank is composed of earth and a large quantity of small stones up to 30cm in diameter. Standing stones, the majority of which are flat irregular gritstones, have been erected on the crest of the bank although most have fallen inwards. About 14 of these stones remain spaced around the circle and there appears to be space for two or three others. Between these are several groups of smaller stones, set at intermediate positions. Approximately centrally placed is a disturbed mound, about 20cm above the surrounding surface. It is slightly hollowed with variously sized stones filling much of this depression. Scheduled, RSM no. 24466. (6)
The monument is much as described by authorities 1, 3 and 6. However, the gritstone slabs (the largest of which is c 1.8m long) which authorities 1 and 6 state represent a collapsed circle of orthostats erected on the crest of the bank, and which authority 3 sees purely as material within the bank make-up, lie on the bank or just inside its inner edge, and seem more likely to have originally been set at intervals around the inner face of the bank. The monument may therefore be classed as either an enclosed cremation cemetery or embanked stone circle, although the presence of a central cairn plus the fact that there is no obvious entrance through the outer bank, tips the balance of probabilities in favour of the former.
The monument lies above Carperby, in Ox Close - a large area of open pasture on a broad, fairly level limestone shelf defined by Haw Bank to the south and Ivy Scar to the north. It is also situated roughly mid-way between two north-south, low, stony banks, both part of an undated (but probably iron age, coaxial) field system (SD 99 SE 213). There is no direct stratigraphic relationship between the monument and the field system, but the most likely relationship is that it is earlier and was disused at the time the field system was laid out. (7)
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