More information : ['A' SE 2805 8005, 'B' SE 2854 7946 and 'C' SE 2895 7885] Earthen Circle [O.E.] (1)
Three almost identical henge monuments Class IIa, (bank between ditches) on Thornborough Moor. Circle 'B' which has the highest bank, reaching 15 ft. in places, was excavated in 1952, when it was shown that the circles were made in the early part of the Bronze Age, and that 'B' postdates the cursus [SE 27 NE 1] which underlies it. Only 5 miles SE are two precisely similar circles on Hutton Moor [SE 37 SE 3 & 4] (2-4)
The circles have all been resurveyed at 1/2500. 'A' is situated in a thick wood, and is the best preserved, the other two fall on arable land. All have been mutilated by cultivation, and, in the cases of 'A' and 'B', by excavation of the banks. See GPs AO/62/96/, 5,6, 7 & 8 for panoramic view of circle 'B' from the south. (5)
Survey of 13.6.62 (A) unchanged. (6)
Earth circles, cursus, pit alignments and burial sites near Nosterfield and Thornborough. Scheduled No NY/36. (7)
This record is intended to deal with the henge group as a whole. Details relating to individual sites can be found within separate child records: SE 27 NE 31 (Thornborough North = 'A'); SE 27 NE 32 (Thornborough Centre = 'B'); SE 27 NE 33 (Thornborough South = 'C'). (8)
The features have been mapped as part of the Thornborough Henges NMP project. See individual records for details.
The Thornborough Henges are three massive circular enclosures which date back to the Late Neolithic period, the age of Stonehenge. Collectively they form one of the most important groups of prehistoric monuments in the country and lie within a rich archaeological landscape. Alongside the stretch of the River Ure from Thornborough to Boroughbridge are three further henges as well as cursus monuments, standing stones, barrows, enclosures, pit alignments and flint scatters. Some of these remains have been designated as Scheduled Monuments but many are currently undesignated, though they may be equally significant. This document briefly explains the significance of the Thornborough Henges and their surrounding landscape, as revealed by aerial photographs, geophysical survey, earthwork survey, excavation and fieldwalking.
The history of the area begins at the end of the last Ice Age, around 12,000 years ago, the earliest evidence comprising worked flints left by mobile groups of Mesolithic foragers. More intensive activity occurred after the introduction of farming some 6000 years ago, when mobile Neolithic groups cleared areas of woodland for settlement, agriculture and the building of monuments. Over the next two millennia the area became one of the primary foci of Neolithic and Bronze Age activity within the British Isles, culminating in the row of three henge monuments which is unique to Thornborough. Occupation also continued, as revealed by lithics found during fieldwalking and the excavation of Neolithic pits at the nearby village of Nosterfield.
The function and role of henges – circular or oval areas surrounded by substantial ditches with external banks – has been much debated since they were first noticed by antiquarians, though the name was only coined in the 1930s. It seems clear that they were centres for religious or ceremonial activity, and the communal act of building them would have played an important role in creating social cohesion. They also appear to have played a role in the trade and exchange of high-status artefacts, which at Thornborough included stone axes from the Lake District and flintwork from the Yorkshire Wolds. However, we know little about the kinds of ceremonies that took place in and around henges, or the size and structure of the communities who used them. The location of many of the Yorkshire henges along natural routeways across the Pennines and their clustered distribution suggest they may have formed a pilgrimage route, rather than being central places within defined territories. Their enduring significance is demonstrated by the way they often became foci for long-lived ritual landscapes, as at Thornborough. The importance of the other monuments known in the area, many discovered by aerial photography, is that they show the henges formed part of a ceremonial complex comparable to the better known landscapes around Stonehenge, Avebury, Orkney and the Boyne Valley.
The Thornborough monument complex lies within a broad, gently undulating landscape between the middle reaches of the Rivers Swale and Ure in north Yorkshire. It is located on a slight promontory of river terrace deposits which extends eastwards from a ridge of Lower Magnesian Limestone. To the north and east of the promontory an area of lower-lying land was the site of a post-glacial lake or mere (which probably survived as wetlands until the 19th century), while to the south lies the River Ure.
The three henges, which are spaced about 500m apart on a north-west to south-east alignment, are carefully sited within a natural bowl formed by the higher land around the promontory. The impression of enclosure is further enhanced by the henge banks, each of which focuses attention on the sky above the monuments, emphasising their astronomical significance (discussed below).
Although the natural topography of the area has not changed greatly since the Neolithic period, the impact on the landscape of 20th-century agriculture and large-scale mineral extraction has been severe. A number of monuments have been levelled by ploughing, while many field boundaries have been removed. Meanwhile gravel extraction has destroyed a large section of the cursus, parts of the Northern and Central Henges, and at least two round barrows. Although the Southern and Central Henges at Thornborough have now been taken out of arable cultivation, degradation of more ephemeral archaeological features, including settlement sites and some of the remaining barrows, is ongoing.
The three henges at Thornborough each have an external diameter of around 240m, a size surpassed only by the huge Wessex henge enclosures, such as Avebury and Durrington Walls. However, the size of the earthworks means their interior areas are relatively small, some 80–90m across. Like some other large henges they have additional smaller ditches outside their banks; at Thornborough these appear to be segmented.
The Northern Henge was planted with trees around 1800, apparently to ensure its preservation, and is indeed probably the best-preserved such monument in the country. Its bank stands around 3m high and is 17.5m wide, while the ditch is 20m wide and survives to a depth of 2.5m. There are two entrances, each 15m wide.
The Central Henge survives in relatively good condition, although its banks and ditches have been degraded by ploughing and other activity. The bank stands over 4.5m high and 18m wide, though in places it has been reduced to less than 1m high, whilst the internal ditch has a maximum depth on the ground of 1m. Each of the two entrances is 16m wide. Excavations in 1952 and 1998 showed that postholes and other features survive in the interior.
The Southern Henge is the least well preserved of the three but still a prominent feature. Its bank was almost 2m high and up to 20m wide but is now reduced to 0.3m high in places. The internal ditch was over 2.5m deep and almost 16m wide though its maximum depth on the ground is 0.6m. Excavations in 1995 and 1997 revealed pits, postholes and other features inside and outside the monument.
The construction date of the henges is unknown, but probably lies in the mid-3rd millennium BC. However, they were not the earliest monuments in this landscape. An elongated rectilinear enclosure known as a cursus, which partially underlies the Central Henge, is likely to date to the later 4th millennium BC, by analogy with examples elsewhere in the country which also commonly share a riverine setting. The Thornborough cursus was originally at least 1.2km long (the location of the eastern end is unknown) and over 40m wide, while its north-east to south-west alignment suggests a very different orientation to the earlier Neolithic landscape. In fact the three henges are carefully sited across the axis of the cursus.
There is cropmark evidence of a further cursus adjacent to the Northern Henge. Other monuments that may be of similar age include a possible long mortuary enclosure and a double-ditched round barrow which yielded a burial that has been radiocarbon-dated to around 3600 BC. These lie respectively south-west and south-east of the Southern Henge.
While proximity to water may have been one reason for the choice of this location for monument construction, another factor that makes the landscape around Thornborough distinctive is its abundant deposits of gypsum, which are responsible for the numerous sink-holes in the area. There is also evidence that gypsum was used to coat the banks of the henges, giving them a striking white appearance.
The alignment of the Neolithic monuments also hints at possible astronomical concerns. The western terminal of the cursus framed the setting of Orion’s Belt while the henges may be aligned with the rising of Sirius, also in the constellation of Orion. It has been suggested that their marginal misalignment could be a physical depiction of the three offset stars of Orion’s Belt. In addition the southern entrances of the Northern and Central Henges are aligned upon the mid-winter solstice sunrise, an orientation also found at Durrington Walls and other sites. Perhaps these astronomical connections were the basis of seasonal religious activities that made Thornborough a centre for pilgrimage.
Most of the ten round barrows in the area belong to the subsequent Early Bronze Age, around 2000 BC. This was a time when the henges were still significant landscape features, forming a focal point for burials and related activity. As is typical, round barrows are significantly more numerous around Thornborough than are Neolithic monuments, probably reflecting a shift from communal monuments to those focussed on the graves of high-status individuals. Most barrows have been levelled by agricultural activity and are now only visible from the air as cropmarks, but several were excavated in the 19th century by the antiquarian William Lukis. The Centre Hill Barrow, carefully placed between the Southern and Central Henges at the point where the axes of the two monuments intersect, contained an unusual inhumation in a coffin, accompanied by a large pottery vessel. It shows how the henges continued to determine where later monuments were built.
Also probably of Early Bronze Age date are two double pit alignments, comprising parallel rows of pits. Excavation has suggested these may have contained timber posts, perhaps defining processional avenues. The larger of the two, which has been extensively excavated, is that to the south. It is about 350 metres long and 10 m wide. While double pit alignments appear to be part of the Bronze Age landscape, single alignments, three of which were excavated at Nosterfield, are more likely to be of Iron Age or Roman date.
In the succeeding Middle Bronze Age funerary activity had a less monumental form, as signified by a small cremation cemetery excavated at Nosterfield. Evidence for ritual in subsequent periods generally comprises small-scale deposits that form part of a wider landscape of settlement and agriculture.
It is also possible to identify an earlier domestic landscape around the Thornborough henges, although its context and development are not fully understood. This is based on the distribution of stone tools recovered during fieldwalking. Some lithics are remnants of hunting activity or chance loss, but the majority indicate settlement of some kind. The earliest finds are Mesolithic, and excavations at Nosterfield identified pits that probably also date to this period. Fieldwalking has produced rather more evidence for Early Neolithic activity, predating or contemporary with the earliest monuments in the area. Together, the Mesolithic and early Neolithic are characterised by a low density of lithic material across the whole of the Thornborough landscape.
There is evidence for an increased level of activity in the later Neolithic period, which may be contemporary with the construction of the Henges. Four locations (Chapel Hill, Nosterfield Quarry, Mire Barf Farm and an area by the River Ure east of West Tanfield) have produced significant flint assemblages, suggesting a more structured use of the landscape. There appears to be a distinction between the plateau on which the major monuments are sited, with relatively few lithics, and its more densely occupied fringes. While undoutedly an oversimplification, this hints at a possible spatial distinction between ‘sacred’ and ‘profane’ activities. Excavation at Nosterfield showed that the scatter there was associated with occasional pit groups and hearths so it is likely that pits and postholes also survive below the ploughzone at the other locations. Nevertheless this may not indicate permanent settlement; Jan Harding suggests that throughout the Mesolithic, Neolithic and Early Bronze Age people were visiting Thornborough only for short periods of time, though the scale of the henges suggests the numbers involved may have been high.
Early Bronze Age lithics indicate continuing activity contemporary with the construction of the barrows. It was in the Late Bronze Age and Iron Age that the first enclosures and boundary ditches were laid out, signalling a decisive shift from the ritual landscape of the monuments to a domestic landscape of fields and farmsteads that eventually developed, via Roman estate, medieval open fields and 18th/19th century enclosure, into the modern settlement pattern. The henges must have remained visible during this time and could have influenced this development. It is notable that fields and trackways of Iron Age and Roman type appear to be absent from the low plateau on which the henges sit, which may explain why, unlike most other monuments in the vicinity, they were not ploughed down before the 20th century. They may have been used by local communities for new purposes such as penning livestock, fairs or other gatherings. In the course of time the henges’ original significance was lost, though myths or stories were no doubt associated with them. By the 19th century they were commonly said to be Danish camps, used as tilting circles. Modern archaeological results allow us to tell a more accurate story but there is much left to learn about the Thornborough Henges and a pressing need to protect what is left of their rich prehistoric landscape. (9)
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