Birchdale

I had a faint recollection of crossing Newton Mulgrave Moor before and indeed I had. It’s still a bit of a haze though.

Lying north of the A174, it’s an unfrequented area. Very flat, and exposed to winds from all directions.

But a relatively deep valley provides a welcome incision — Birchdale or Birk Dale as named on the 1856 O.S. map.

The interests were a Neolithic long barrow on Newton Mulgrave Moor and a pre-historic settlement and field system on Borrowby Moor but they were other pre-historic features to explore another day.

Long barrows are the burial places of our early farmers, and there are actually very few to be found in the North York Moors¹North York Moors Historic Environment Record (HER) No: 4621<https://ancientmonuments.uk/114782-long-barrow-on-newton-mulgrave-moor-250m-east-of-birchdale-house-newton-mulgrave#.Y-PiMOzP3UI> [accessed 8 February 2023].

It is one of only a few monuments dating to the Neolithic period to be found in the North York Moors surviving as an earthwork.

Across Birchdale, the field system on Borrowby Moor — or ‘Soldier’s Garth’ as named on the North York Moors Historic Environment Records — comprised well defined humps and bumps suggesting a a closely-packed group of enclosures with a distinct holloway bisecting the site²North York Moors Historic Environment Record (HER) Nos: 4628/4635 <https://ancientmonuments.uk/115166-late-prehistoric-enclosed-settlement-and-field-system-on-borrowby-moor-360m-south-of-moor-house-farm-roxby#.Y-PibOzP3UI> [accessed 8 February 2023].

Dating pre-historic sites is difficult without supporting finds evidence, and as far as I can learn no archaeological excavation has been carried out on Borrowby Moor. 200m west though, on Roxby Low Moor, an Iron Age settlement site was excavated in the 1960s/70s³North York Moors NMP 2. Aerial Survey Mapping Summary Report. National Mapping Programme. Historic Environment Enabling Programme: Project Number 6445. NRHE Parent Collection: EHC01/222 NRHE Event: 1547939. April 2013. Page 24..

Both these sites occupy an easily defined territory. To the west is Roxby Beck, to the east Birchdale, and on the south and south-east Hardale and Tranmire Slacks. I read that two gaps in these boundaries are marked by standing stones⁴‘Prehistoric and Roman Archaeology of North-East Yorkshire’. Edited by D A Spratt. Council for British Archaeology. North York Moors National Park. Page 149. Available online at http://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk/archiveDS/archiveDownload?t=arch-281-1/dissemination/pdf/cba_rr_087.pdf. I must investigate this further.

One thing I am confused about. This name of ‘Soldier’s Garth‘. In a 1909 article in the Yorkshire Archaeological Journal, a field adjacent to Rockcliff Beacon, 10km NNW of Borrowby Moor, is referred to by that same name⁵Hornsby, William and John D. Laverick. ‘Yorkshire Archaeological Journal Vol. 25. Page 48. ‘BRITISH BARROWS ROUND BOULBY.’ 1920. Available online at the Internet Archive<https://archive.org/details/YAJ0251920/page/48/mode/2up?view=theater> [accessed 8 February 2023]. It seems a strange coincidence.

• 1
  North York Moors Historic Environment Record (HER) No: 4621<https://ancientmonuments.uk/114782-long-barrow-on-newton-mulgrave-moor-250m-east-of-birchdale-house-newton-mulgrave#.Y-PiMOzP3UI> [accessed 8 February 2023]
• 2
  North York Moors Historic Environment Record (HER) Nos: 4628/4635 <https://ancientmonuments.uk/115166-late-prehistoric-enclosed-settlement-and-field-system-on-borrowby-moor-360m-south-of-moor-house-farm-roxby#.Y-PibOzP3UI> [accessed 8 February 2023]
• 3
  North York Moors NMP 2. Aerial Survey Mapping Summary Report. National Mapping Programme. Historic Environment Enabling Programme: Project Number 6445. NRHE Parent Collection: EHC01/222 NRHE Event: 1547939. April 2013. Page 24.
• 4
  ‘Prehistoric and Roman Archaeology of North-East Yorkshire’. Edited by D A Spratt. Council for British Archaeology. North York Moors National Park. Page 149. Available online at http://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk/archiveDS/archiveDownload?t=arch-281-1/dissemination/pdf/cba_rr_087.pdf
• 5
  Hornsby, William and John D. Laverick. ‘Yorkshire Archaeological Journal Vol. 25. Page 48. ‘BRITISH BARROWS ROUND BOULBY.’ 1920. Available online at the Internet Archive<https://archive.org/details/YAJ0251920/page/48/mode/2up?view=theater> [accessed 8 February 2023]