Members View Specific Record Number Scroll down the record
*****SWAAG_ID*****
526
Date Entered
20/05/2012
Updated on
20/05/2012
Recorded by
Tim Laurie
Category
Settlement
Record Type
Archaeology
Site Access
Public Access Land
Record Date
19/05/2012
Location
Little Rowleth Pasture
Civil Parish
Melbecks
Brit. National Grid
SD 95431 98624
Altitude
368m
Geology
Sandstone outcrop and talus slope below Middle Limestone.
Record Name
Little Rowleth Pasture. Rectangular Structure No 2
Record Description
This rectangular structure is the second of a total of five similar house or shieling type dwellings with gable end entrances located on or below the 370m contour in steep, rock-strewn pasture in Little Rowleth Pasture between the unfenced road at Bents and Lodge Green. This example, which has been severely slighted by stone quarrying, measures 12m*6m overall and is located immediately above the desrted 19C farmstead at Bents.
Low Rowleth House No 2 is also interpreted as a pionneering dwelling of Pre-Conquest, Norse character.
See also SWAAG Record No 525 for further notes on the context of this open settlement.
Dimensions
12m*6m overall approximate.
Additional Notes
This Record is preliminary to a detailed survey of the whole of Little Rowleth Pasture by SWAAG Members as soon as can be arranged, in the coming months. The siting of these structures is of great interest. The shielings or houses, if this is what they are, are located on a steep high slope (at around the 370m contour) in what was recently woodland and which is, today, very poor rough rock strewn pasture. Immigrant norse farmers looking to settle at the head of Swaledale in a landscape where all the better land was already occupied may have needed to settle at first and until assimilated within the local population on the only land available, ie high, poor, marginal land which was then almost certainly woodland as the presence on this hillside of ancient relict thorn coppice, elder, bluebell, arum, primrose and dogs mercury all indicate. This open settlement is well situated to afford access to the good grazing available higher upslope on the on the Middle Limestone which outcrops above the sandstone
Image 1 ID
2919 Click image to enlarge
Image 1 Description
Little Rowleth Pasture. Rectangular Structure No 2 at Bents. Deserted Farm below.
