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HESKETH DIKE

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A Bronze Age/ Iron Age dyke known as Hesketh Dike. It is part of a wider system of such linear boundaries known as the Cleave Dyke. Hesketh Dike extends for over 1000 metres eastward from the scarp edge of the Hambleton Hills to the head of Sledhill Gill and for much of this length it survives as a well preserved earthwork. Although elements are masked by tree cover the majority of the mapped feature appears extant on the latest 2009 vertical photographs. Scheduled.

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[SE 50808774 to SE 51728778] Hesketh Dike [NR].
(1)

Hesketh Dike runs at right angles to Cleave Dike [LIN 6] and
consists of a rampart and ditch to the south. Its age appears
to be uncertain but it seems to be older than Cleave Dike.
(2)

Hesketh Dike, consisting of double ditches (shown as single bank
and ditch on 1st Ed 25" 1890) with banks 40-50 ft wide and
10 ft high in places, is ploughed away west of Sneck Yat, but
is good as a field boundary east to Moor Ings. Silver Hill
tumulus [SE 58 NW 2] is incorporated in the bank of this dike,
which ends as a single ditch at the 'slack' [valley] of Moor
Ings.
(3)

"Hesketh Dike" running W to E from SE 50808773 to SE 51818776
appears to have orginally consisted of two parallel banks
with a central ditch. Only a short section (about 90.0m long)
of the S bank is now extant from SE 51048778 to SE 51138778.
Eastwards and westwards from this section it has been ploughed
out leaving only a slight scarp on the S lip of the ditch, now
occupied E of Hambleton Street by a modern wall. To the W of
Hambleton Street all has been destroyed by ploughing except for a
10m roadside section of the ditch and N bank at SE 50948777.
The N scarp of the Northern bank has been encroached on by
ploughing (which has exposed quite a high content of stone)
and it is barely discernible. There are a few short breaks in
the Dike but these appear to be mutilations and not original
features. Its relationship to the Cleave Dike (LIN 6) is
not clear but it would appear to be later than the Silver Hill
barrow (SE 58 NW 2). Published survey (25") revised.
(4)

`G' Hesketh Dyke from SE 509 878 to SE 518 878. A well preserved massive earthwork with the bank to the south of the ditch and a counter-scarp bank in the sector to the east of Silver Hill Barrow The dyke is not now visible in the angle between the Hawnby road and the Hambleton Street, though it is marked here on the 1892 map. The Hesketh Dyke is mentioned in the documents of 1142, 1246 and 1598. Height of bank west of Silver Hill, 1.7m ; Depth of ditch 1.0m; Width of bank, 14.0m; Width of ditch, 6.0m.
Height of bank east of Silver Hill, 0.2m south, 0.2m north; Width of bank, 2.0m south, 1.5m north; Depth of ditch, 1.1m; Width of ditch, 7.5m.
`H' Hesketh Dyke from SE 509 878 to SE 508 878. The dyke is preserved at its eastern end which projects into the Hambleton Street, and on the scarp edge at the western end. It is ploughed out but faintly visible between these points. The bank lies to the north of the ditch. The different relative positions of the bank and ditch of sections `G' and `H' were mentioned by a witness in the 1598 dispute. Height of bank above ground level, 0.35m; Width of bank,3.9m; Depth of ditch below ground level, 1.1m; Width of ditch, 3.7m.
Forms part of the Cleave Dyke system which is shown by field and aerial evidence to originate probably in the late Bronze Age or Iron Age. The dyke system was developed earlier than the Hambleton Street and the High Street which seem to have come into use in the Roman and/or Saxon periods.
(5)

SE 509 877 - SE 517 877. Hesketh Dyke and Silver Hill round barrow (see SE 58 NW 2). Scheduled.
(6)

Elements of the dyke were also mapped as part of the North York Moors National Park NMP project, visible as earthworks and cropmarks on air photographs. Although elements to the west are masked by tree cover the majority of the mapped feature appears extant on the latest 2009 vertical photographs.
(8)

SOURCE TEXT

(8) Vertical aerial photograph reference number

NMR RAF/542/93 F21 0030 06-DEC-1954

( 1) General reference

Ordnance Survey 6" 1958

( 2) General reference

Elgee F and HW 1933 Archaeology of Yorkshire p 232

( 3) General reference

Hayes RH 1963 History of Helmsley Rievaulx and District p 419

( 4) Field Investigators Comments

I S Sainsbury 06/01/1976 Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division Field Investigator

(6) General reference

English Heritage SAM List North Yorkshire March 1994 p46

(7) General reference

English Heritage Schedule Entry 03/01/1997

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