Cock Howe — After the Fall

One thing that does not endear me to the moors is the endless gamekeepers’ access tracks. Miles of the stuff. Dull to run, duller to walk, but perfect for cycling, except our creaking access laws say no, thank you very much.

One such track runs along the skyline of Bilsdale West Moor, from the Bilsdale Transmitter Station to Green Howe. Yesterday I used it, ticking off landmarks from memory like a man counting sheep. Then something nagged. Where was Cock Howe?

Cock Howe is a Bronze Age round barrow, officially two metres high and fifteen across, sitting just inside the south-eastern edge of Noon Hill’s 400m ring contour, though it never quite reaches the hill’s proud summit of 404m. A ditch would once have ringed the mound. Time has filled it in, as time does¹Historicengland.org.uk. (2012). Cock Howe round barrow, Bilsdale Midcable – 1015761 | Historic England. NYM HER No: 195. [online] Available at: https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1015761[Accessed 3 Nov. 2021]..

I knew the spot well by its post-medieval boundary stone, marking the old line between Snilesworth in the parish of Hawnby and the townships of Bilsdale Kirkdale and Bilsdale Midcable in the parish of Helmsley. Boundaries like these often sit on far older ones, tribal lines stretching back to the Bronze Age.

But the stone no longer pricked the skyline. A small mystery, solved by a short detour onto the barrow. There it lay, flat on its back, toppled by some force nobody saw. It will now likely stay down. The Bilsdale skyline has changed for good.

The name itself is worth a moment. ‘Howe’ is straightforward enough, Old Norse for a mound or barrow. ‘Cock’ tempts you to think of the farmyard rooster, and it might well be exactly that. One theory traces it to the Old English ‘cocc’, which could indeed mean a rooster, or a hillock, or simply an Anglo-Saxon chieftain’s name. Coxhoe in Durham shares the same root²University of Nottingham – Institute of Name Studies School of English (2021). Key to English Place-names. [online] Nottingham.ac.uk. Available at: http://kepn.nottingham.ac.uk/map/place/Durham/Coxhoe[Accessed 3 Nov. 2021].. Another theory reaches for the Old Norse ‘kokkr’, also meaning rooster³Etymonline.com. (2021). Etymonline. [online] Available at: https://www.etymonline.com/word/cock#etymonline_v_15750[Accessed 3 Nov. 2021].. Take your pick.

• 1
  Historicengland.org.uk. (2012). Cock Howe round barrow, Bilsdale Midcable – 1015761 | Historic England. NYM HER No: 195. [online] Available at: https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1015761[Accessed 3 Nov. 2021].
• 2
  University of Nottingham – Institute of Name Studies School of English (2021). Key to English Place-names. [online] Nottingham.ac.uk. Available at: http://kepn.nottingham.ac.uk/map/place/Durham/Coxhoe[Accessed 3 Nov. 2021].
• 3
  Etymonline.com. (2021). Etymonline. [online] Available at: https://www.etymonline.com/word/cock#etymonline_v_15750[Accessed 3 Nov. 2021].