Urra Moor Dyke

Along the eastern edge of upper Bilsdale is a linear prehistoric dyke almost four and a half kilometres long. In the photo the can be made out on the left curving down to Bilsdale Beck as a bilberry topped embankment with a ditch on the down slope filled with bracken. From the beck the dyke rises then contours around the escarpment. The embankment is up to 3.5m wide in places and typically half a metre high. It is faced with stone in places. The ditch is a maximum 3m wide, half a metre deep and in places cut into the sandstone bedrock.

Similar dykes on the North York Moors are considered to be Middle Bronze Age which dates it to 1500–1200 BC. Other local names for the Urra Moor dyke are Billy’s Dyke, Cliff Dyke and Cromwell’s Lines. The former I guess a reference to the often repeated legend that William the Conqueror lost his way on the approaches to Bilsdale in his harrying of the North thus giving rise to the dale’s name although a more likely explanation is that Bilsdale derives from the old Norse name Bildr.

For what purpose the dyke was built for no one is sure. Defence? Stock enclosure? Prestige? Its construction must have taken a lot of resources so it would certainly have marked an important boundary. Perhaps a warning to those about to enter a tribe’s territory.

Prehistoric boundary, High Bride Stones

Earthworks are very interesting but I find them frustratingly difficult to photograph and this prehistoric earthbank is no exception. It’s a Scheduled Ancient Monument, or S.A.M. and it forms the boundary between the National Trust’s property of Bridestones and the Forestry Commission’s Dalby Forest. Almost a kilometre long with other Bronze Age features notably round funerary cairns. Over the decades since the forestry was planted it has encroached on the monument potentially damaging it. Historic England, the public body protecting ancient monuments, demanded that the trees are removed within a corridor of five metres either side. So work is progressing in clear felling this ten metre strip and erecting new fencing. Bridestones Moor is a rare example of moorland which has not been extensively managed for the sole purpose of producing the highest density of grouse. The result is a very biodiverse habitat.

It is not entirely clear what this boundary was actually for. A tribe or clan marking the boundaries of their land. Containment of stock. Protection from wild animals. To keep people out, or in. There is no evidence what, if any, form of structure was on top of the bank. A physically uncrossable barrier or one similar to the low palisade fencing frequently erected by residents on a modern open plan housing estate. Easy to step over but etiquette prevents us doing so. It could have identified sacred land. Indeed it could have had a multiple of  functions.

A prehistoric linear boundary

I’ve spent the day about half a kilometre north east of High Bride Stones in the parish of Lockton in the southern half of the North York Moors. Bride Stones is a National Trust property of heather moorland lacerated by deep wooded valleys or griffs. Along the north east boundary is a prehistoric earthwork, a ditch and flanking banks, about a kilometre long and a Scheduled Ancient Monument. Considerable time and effort went into the building of the dyke which is thought to be a way of demonstrating  a Bronze Age tribe’s territory. A status symbol.

Over the years self sown trees and scrub from the adjacent Forestry Commission plantation have encroached over the earthworks which Historic England has said must be cleared to a distance of five metres either side. So that was the volunteering task for today,  felling trees, cutting up into manageable lengths and stacking to provide wildlife habitats. With a kilometre of the earthworks to clear this is a long term task which has now finished for the winter in order to minimise disturbance for the coming bird nesting season.

Earthworks are not necessarily photogenic so my photo for today includes a piece of ad hoc public art.