In Search of Pannierman Pots, Here is Long Stone Instead

I have long been interested in ancient transport routes across the moors, so I was pleased to come across some recent research on routeways in the North York Moors¹Stapley, D. 2025 Towards an Archaeology of Routeways: A case study from the North York Moors National Park, Internet: Archaeology 69. https://doi.org/10.11141/ia.69.7. These are vast landscape features, part of a tangled network linking places across great distances. Yet they are also intimate spaces, shaped by footfall, hooves, wheels, and centuries of human use. They carry more than people; they carry meanings—legal, social, historical. One form these routes can be detected is the hollow way.

The research mentioned one such feature: Pannierman Pots, an old sunken track still used as a public bridleway. It is described as a path with steep banks on either side. The report suggests “Pots” here may mean “pits” or “potholes,” referring either to natural features or damage left by the heavily laden panniermen²Stapley, D. 2025 Towards an Archaeology of Routeways: A case study from the North York Moors National Park, Internet: Archaeology 69. https://doi.org/10.11141/ia.69.7. Either way, the name hints at a direct link between people and place. I found it marked on the 19th-century map in an area I think I have only visited once, years ago. It felt worthy of a return.

The approach followed another hollow way, following the parish boundary between Newton Mulgrave and Mickleby³NYMNPA HER No: 19199. Parish boundary between Newton Mulgrave and Mickleby. Routeway project nos: 183/4.. It is not a well-used path—often obliterated with gorse and bracken—but there were signs of horse traffic. As for the Pannierman Pots, they were underwhelming. A short sunken path leading to a stream, choked with vegetation. Any notable landform had been swallowed by bracken and second-growth woodland.

I carried on, hoping for more. A leaning stone, named—maybe with some justification—as Long Stone on old maps. It probably marked a boundary in the post-medieval period⁴NYMNPA HER No: 5521. Long Stone in Newton Mulgrave Woods.. When it once stood straight, it would have been tall by local standards. Hidden in a dense conifer plantation, finding it stirred memories of “bingo” controls from my early orienteering days.

The return leg, a straight line across Newton Mulgrave Moor, proved to be not the best of route choices. Tussocks and heather everywhere. But no going back once committed. Still, it was a good day to be out.

• 1
  Stapley, D. 2025 Towards an Archaeology of Routeways: A case study from the North York Moors National Park, Internet: Archaeology 69. https://doi.org/10.11141/ia.69.7
• 2
  Stapley, D. 2025 Towards an Archaeology of Routeways: A case study from the North York Moors National Park, Internet: Archaeology 69. https://doi.org/10.11141/ia.69.7
• 3
  NYMNPA HER No: 19199. Parish boundary between Newton Mulgrave and Mickleby. Routeway project nos: 183/4.
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  NYMNPA HER No: 5521. Long Stone in Newton Mulgrave Woods.