Yorkshire Wolds - History and Archaeology

History and Archaeology

The Wolds area is rich in archaeological remains. There is a profusion of Neolithic, Bronze Age and Romano-British sites extending across the entire Yorkshire Wolds area. The availability of fertile chalk soils, good grazing and the light tree cover along with stone suitable for making tools made this area attractive to early Neolithic settlers. Along with Wessex and Orkney, the Yorkshire Wolds is a key area for studying the development of the Neolithic period in the British Isles as it became a major focus for settlement in this era. Isolated farms rather than settlements of any size appear to have been the normal dwelling types however few have been located with any certainty and most evidence is of funerary sites and ritual monuments. Recently excavated long barrows at Fordon on Willerby Wold and at Kilham have been carbon dated to around 3700 B.C. A well-known round barrow of this period is the monumental Duggleby Howe, at the western end of the Great Wolds Valley, partially excavated in 1890 by J.R. Mortimer. A henge monument of the Neolithic has been identified at Maidens Grave Rudston and the Rudston Monolith has also been assigned to this period. An extensive Neolithic ritual complex, the main elements of which are four large cursus monuments and a henge, is situated near the eastern end of the Great Wold Valley.

More than 1,400 Bronze Age round barrows, comprising one or more burials and accompanied by items of grave goods, are known to exist on the Yorkshire Wolds. They occur either in isolation or, more commonly, grouped together to form cemeteries. Many of these sites, although they have been reduced in size by repeated ploughing, still form upstanding and, in some cases, prominent features in the present-day landscape.

The Romans arrived in this area around A.D.71. From a base at Brough on the north bank of the Humber they established a road network with one branch towards York and another to Malton, both crossing the Wolds area. The settlements of the native Parisii were little disturbed by the Roman occupiers at first, but in later years they became Romanised, adopting the Roman material culture. There are villa sites on the Wolds at Rudston, Harpham, Brantingham, Welton and Wharram-le-Street.

Walkington Wold, near the village of Walkington in the southern area of the Wolds, is the site of an Anglo-Saxon execution cemetery, the only known example from northern England.