“Three Legs”

Prompted by the mention of Prod Howe a couple of days ago, I chose a revisit today.

In the article referred to, a key rationalisation was the fact that Roseberry could be seen from it, and sure enough the hill was just peeping over the brow of the moor¹ Brian A. Smith, Ken W. Grant, Alan A. Walker. Cairns as waymarkers within a proposed prehistoric Scugdale ‘Loop’. Teesside Archaeological Society. Bulletin 18. 2013. Page 28..

I wouldn’t go as far as calling Prod Howe a cairn. It’s just a jumble of largish stones surrounding an 18th-century boundary stone²North York Moors Historic Environment Record (HER) No: 5736. Some of the stones in the jumble have been crudely dressed though, and the whole assembly is on a slight mound, barely prominent to justify a contour line, which I don’t think is sepulchral cairn; certainly I can not find a reference in the Historic Environment Record.

The most distinctive feature of Prod Howe are the three boughs outstretched to the sky in apparent supplication. Bill Cowley includes a sketch in his 1993 book “Snilesworth” of a three-pronged branch but upside down like a tripod³Cowley, Bill. “Snilesworth”. Page 5. Turker Books. 1993.. Cowley suggests this branch must be bog oak perhaps a relic of the pre-historic forest. Apparently the branch was placed in the early 20th-century and hence was locally dubbed “Three Legs“⁴Ibid. Page 45..

Prod Howe could be said to be the head of a dale called Proddale, but this must have been named under false pretences. Only in its final kilometre before its confluence with the River Rye does it bare any resemblance to a dale. Here Proddale Sike becomes Proddale Beck at an old very boggy enclosure called Proddales, which was listed as a farm-holding in the 17th-century⁵Ibid. Page 45.. It is a very marshy area for which it is hard to imagine how it could ever have been productive.

In a 13th-century document relating to the determination of the boundaries of Byland abbey, it is thought the name Pundkalehou — in another version written Prubalehou — is a reference to Prod Howe⁶Ibid. Page 88..

• 1
  Brian A. Smith, Ken W. Grant, Alan A. Walker. Cairns as waymarkers within a proposed prehistoric Scugdale ‘Loop’. Teesside Archaeological Society. Bulletin 18. 2013. Page 28.
• 2
  North York Moors Historic Environment Record (HER) No: 5736
• 3
  Cowley, Bill. “Snilesworth”. Page 5. Turker Books. 1993.
• 4
  Ibid. Page 45.
• 5
  Ibid. Page 45.
• 6
  Ibid. Page 88.