DB Specific Record

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***SWAAG_ID***	852
Date Entered	11/03/2015
Updated on	14/03/2015
Recorded by	Tim Laurie
Category	Standing Stones / Circles
Record Type	Archaeology
Site Access	Public Access Land
Record Date	05/03/2015
Location	Circular SWAAG walk to Oxclose below Ivy Scar and across moorland aboveThackthaite Beck Springs and collapsed Cave
Civil Parish	Carperby Cum Thoresby
Brit. National Grid
Altitude	395m
Geology	Glacial drift over The Main Limestone.
Record Name	Carperby Moor. A SWAAG walk to visit Prehistoric and Mining Landscapes on Oxclose and on moorland centred at Thackthwaite Beck Springs and cave
Record Description	This is a short photographic record of a walk undertaken by a small group of weather hardened SWAAG Members on a fine but very windy day in early March to visit rich archaeological and mining landscapes on Oxclose and on Carperby Moor. The walk was reduced to take account of the gusting to gale force north-west wind but we managed, as planned to reach and lunch in the limited shelter of a ruined wall close above Thackthwaite Beck Spring and collapsed Cave, then to visit the standing stone circle on moorland above the cave. The walk included visits to the Carperby Stone Quarry, to the early field system and embanked stone rings on Oxclose, the extensive and complex mining landscape of the Ivy Scar Mine and the Carperby Basin, early prehistoric occupation sites, the stone circle above Thackthwaite Beck and several stone built settlements of different periods. For details of the geology and mining remains of the Carperby Basin, see: K.C.Dunham and A.A. Wilson, 1985. B.G.S. 'Geology of the North Pennine Orefield' Vol. 2 Stainmore to Craven. For details of archaeological landscape features visited, see the account and map of the survey of prehistoric landscape of Carperby Moor in the Publications Section of this website (Laurie,T.C.2003). For the distribution of prehistoric sites on Carperby Moor and eastward across West and East Bolton Parks, see the attached map, Image No below. Details of many of the archaeological sites on Carperby Moor and of the lithic finds that were made during this walk will be the subject offurther separate detailed SWAAG Records.
Additional Notes	The circular heather covered cairn located at the head of the defile below Wegber Scar and some 400m east of the stone circle. This location at a pass through the hills and close to a stone ring is characteristic of similar burial mounds, eg the cup marked cairn and stone ring above Osmond's Gill on Barningham Moor.
Image 1 ID	6098 Click image to enlarge
Image 1 Description	The road to the Moor with a fine ash tree.
Image 2 ID	6099 Click image to enlarge
Image 2 Description	Limestone slab at base of field wall showing surface with Late Carboniferous bivalve fossils (Gigantoproductus giganteus)
Image 3 ID	6100 Click image to enlarge
Image 3 Description	The Carperby Stone Mine, one section of the interior cavern where the great stone slabs which were the product of this mine had been removed showing self supporting overhead strata with minimal supporting pillars. A tribute to hard work and the days long gone when men were real men.
Image 4 ID	6101 Click image to enlarge
Image 4 Description	Oxclose Pasture from Ivy Scar with Penhill in the distance. Early undated field boundary and tangential circular embanked just visible.
Image 5 ID	6102 Click image to enlarge
Image 5 Description	6102 Swaag define the smaller and eastern of two stone embanked rings. This ringwork is attached to a tangential field bank may have enclosed a timber round house.
Image 6 ID	6103 Click image to enlarge
Image 6 Description	The Oxclose embanked stone circle and central cairn.
Image 7 ID	6104 Click image to enlarge
Image 7 Description	Large burnt mound. Oxclose Pastures. Photo: previous SWAAG Visit.
Image 8 ID	6105 Click image to enlarge
Image 8 Description	The Ivy Scar lead mine. Note the strata in the Scar dips toward the Carperby depression.
Image 9 ID	6106 Click image to enlarge
Image 9 Description	The Ivy Scar lead mine waste reworked for fluorite and baryte.
Image 10 ID	6107 Click image to enlarge
Image 10 Description	Industrial remnant from the Baryte extraction operation. Hoist drive case.
Image 11 ID	6108 Click image to enlarge
Image 11 Description	Prehistoric sites on Carperby Moor. Location of sites recorded previously. T.C. Laurie, 2003. In: The Archaeology of Yorkshire. An assessment at the beginning of the 21st century. Yorkshire Arch. Soc. Occasional Paper No 3 pp223-253 and Figure 61.
Image 12 ID	6110 Click image to enlarge
Image 12 Description	Lead mine spoil heap in the Carperby Basin.
Image 13 ID	6111 Click image to enlarge
Image 13 Description	Water leat leading to the Oxclose Mine from Thackthwaite beck.
Image 14 ID	6112 Click image to enlarge
Image 14 Description	SWAAG on the march with a tail wind.
Image 15 ID	6113 Click image to enlarge
Image 15 Description	Thackthwaite Beck Spring and collapsed cave.
Image 16 ID	6122 Click image to enlarge
Image 16 Description	SWAAG pause, but lunch awaits at the Blue Scar CafÃ© (No blue bells here today, come back and look for them in May.)
Image 17 ID	6114 Click image to enlarge
Image 17 Description	SWAAG arrive at the Stone Circle. Five standing stones just visible above the heather.
Image 18 ID	6115 Click image to enlarge
Image 18 Description	Hugh has seen a peregrine, very high above the Stone Ring. The archaeology is forgotten.
Image 19 ID	6116 Click image to enlarge
Image 19 Description	View westward to upper Wensleydale from the stone ring
Image 20 ID	6117 Click image to enlarge
Image 20 Description	Locker Tarn in winter
Image 21 ID	6118 Click image to enlarge
Image 21 Description	Locker Tarn in sunshine
Image 22 ID	6119 Click image to enlarge
Image 22 Description	Limestone scar, Carperby Moor
Image 23 ID	6120 Click image to enlarge
Image 23 Description	Enclosures and hut circles below Ivy Scar
Image 24 ID	6121 Click image to enlarge
Image 24 Description	Later prehistoric arrowpoints. Stray finds from Carperby Moor. The Wensleydale Museum, Hawes.
Image 25 ID	6124 Click image to enlarge
Image 25 Description	Carperby Moor. Recent lithic finds from two locations. The affinities of these lithic finds will be the subject of separate SWAAG Records.
Image 26 ID	6125 Click image to enlarge
Image 26 Description	Early settlement enclosures below Wegber.
Image 27 ID	6126 Click image to enlarge
Image 27 Description	Wegber Scar, small building related to the stone quarries.
Image 28 ID	6127 Click image to enlarge
Image 28 Description	Burnt mound, obscured by heather near stream below Wegber. One of two here.
Image 29 ID	6128 Click image to enlarge
Image 29 Description	Small circular cairn under heather, located at the head of the defile below Wegber Scar and some 400m east of the stone circle. This location at a pass through the hills and close to a stone ring is characteristic of similar burial mounds, eg above Osmonnd's Gill on Barningham Moor.
Image 30 ID	6134 Click image to enlarge
Image 30 Description	Stone circle above Thackthwaite Beck, initial survey by Tim Laurie and Robin Minnitt, embanked stone circle on Oxclose (After Raistrick 1939) and stray lithic finds from Carperby Moor.(Laurie, T.C. 2003, Figure 73).