Leeds

Gab Wood (1), Cookridge, Leeds, West Yorkshire

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Cup-and-Ring Stone: OS Grid Reference – SE 24610 40721

On the north side of Cookridge, find Smithy Lane and go to the western-end, where it meets up with a dirt-track. Walk straight along here by the side of the cricket-pitch and then take the first turn left where you walk along the other edge of the cricket pitch. About 150 yards along, the track hits the woods; keep along here for about another 200 yards where you’ll find a small footpath on your left goes into the woods. Once you’re in in the trees, walk to your right, following the wall, for about 50 yards where you’ll see a large flat stone by the holly trees. That’s it!

Archaeology & History

Rediscovered by the Leeds historian Don Cole in the 1940s, this complex multi-period carving etched onto a flattened rock surface is an unusual outlier from the Rombalds Moor complex several miles to the west. At its heart, around the semi-natural deep “cups” near the middle of the southern side of the stone, is the oldest part of the carving comprising a very faint incomplete triple-ring design which, as we move around it, almost has the look of a Newgrange-lozenge form to it. But I’m unsure…

Very faint incomplete triple-ring at top-middle

More obvious (apart from the deep “cups”), and the first thing you notice as you approach the stone, are the later and much more well-defined elements on the east side of the stone: a curious wave-form writhes from the edge of the rock across its smooth surface, beneath which we find a cup-and-ring and a number of single cup-marks, some enclosed inside a rounded box, with others sat between the curved carved line and the stone’s edge. The “rounded box” with its three cups at first seems to be on its own, but as the light changes you’ll notice a much fainter (possibly older) rectangular box attached to it; no cups are visible inside this.

A hundred yards due south in the same woodland you’ll find the Gab Woods (2) carving.

One interesting feature is the name of the woodland in which the stone resides. In Thomas Wright’s massive dialect work, Gab is a northern dialect word meaning “to talk”, or “idle chatter” (and variants thereof); this is echoed in Blakeborough’s (1911) Yorkshire survey; and Wilkinson’s (1924) local study tells simply it to be “idle talk…able to talk glibly and with much plausibility—a Town Hall Square orator for instance.” This makes the place as something akin to being “the woodland that talks”, “the chattering woods” or “the talking woodland”, etc. You can make up your own mind as to what this might mean… *

References:

1. Blakeborough, Richard, Wit, Character, Folklore and Customs of the North Riding of Yorkshire, W. Rapp: Saltburn 1911.
2. Wilkinson, John H., Leeds Dialect Glossary and Lore, privately published: Leeds 1924.
3. Wright, Joseph, English Dialect Dictionary – volume 2, Henry Frowde: London 1900.

Acknowledgements: Huge thanks must go to Peter Murphy for recovering this impressive carving from beneath the carpet of soil and vegetation, and so enabling it to be seen by others once more. Also big thanks to the usual culprit of James Elkington, as well as Sarah Walker and Sarah Jackson.

* a Scottish dialect variant of gab relates to the mouth, tongue, taste.

Hawksworth Spring (02), Hawksworth, West Yorkshire

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Cup-and-Ring Stone: OS Grid Reference – SE 15774 41191

Getting Here

You can take the same directions to get here is you follow the route for the Hawksworth Spring (01) carving, or take this alternative route. Take the standard road from Guiseley along Hawksworth Road. When you reach the first row of old houses in the village, a couple of hundred yards on you reach the village school and, shortly after the footpath is sign-posted. Walk left (downhill) through the field for half-a-mile until you reach the woods. 100 yards into the into the trees, walk to your right and follow the line of walling straight for 400 yards, then veering right up the slope and it then slowly bends round, keeping to the wallside all along. It then starts heading back downhill. As it does so, 10 yards from the wall into the woods you’ll see the broken triangular rock of the Hawksworth Spring (01) carving. Walk another 10 yards where the large holly bushes are and you’ll see the large sloping stone in front of you.

Archaeology & History

This carving is similar in nature to its companion 10 yards away, inasmuch as each of them possess two small arcs of cup-marks almost in the same format, very close together, one above the other near the top of the stone. It’s possible that the mythic nature/function of this particular element of arcs is the same on each stone—although fuck knows what it might be!

Below this double arc (only one of which is clearly visible in the photos) we see a scatter of other cup-marks—perhaps six, perhaps seven—one of which appears to have a very faint incomplete ring round it. When Liz Sykes and I visited the place, the light of day and the shadows across the rock didn’t help to convince us one way or the other, so we await news from other visitors who get better light conditions to tell us whether our hopeful eyes were deceiving us or not. There are a number of other marks on its surface, but these are much more recent and very obviously cut, or rather scratched, by metal artifacts with no bearing on the prehistoric design.

References:

Boughey, K.J.S. and Vickerman, E.A., Prehistoric Rock of the West Riding (Supplement), Shipley 2018.

Acknowledgements: Huge thanks to Liz Sykes for her renowned cleaning skills!

Hawksworth Spring (01), Hawksworth, West Yorkshire

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Cup-and-Ring Stone: OS Grid Reference – SE 15767 41195

Getting Here

Through Baildon town centre, take the road onto Baildon Moor, but instead of turning left up to Baildon Hill, keep straight on the Hawksworth road and 100 yards along you’ll see a car-park is on the right-hand side, just before you start going downhill. From here, walk down the road a couple of hundred yards until you see the footpath (keep your eyes peeled!) turning right towards The Whitehouse, and from there take the footpath dead straight down to the woods below. Cross the stream, turn right, then immediately left uphill by the wall-side. Shortly before reaching the top you’ll see a large triangular sloping slab of rock with a tree at its top. That’s it! Alternatively you can come via Hawksworth village by following the directions to the Hawksworth Spring (02) carving, which is just 10 yards east of this one. Easy!

Archaeology & History

This minimalist design is best seen from above the adjacent rock which, in times gone by, was attached to this very same stone. The main aspect of the carving are the two short rows of three cups, running almost alongside each other, in a likeness which my compatriot Liz Sykes said “was like some animal footprints.” It’s not a bad description to be honest (this same motif is found on a companion petroglyph just a few yards to the east: the Hawksworth Spring [2] stone). If you follow the direction of the “animal tracks” to the western end of the stone, you’ll see another isolated cup with a faint incomplete ring around it. You can just make it out on the photo to the right. Another single cup-mark seems apparent two-thirds the way down the stone.

References:

Hedges, John (ed.), The Carved Rocks on Rombalds Moor, WYMCC: Wakefield 1986.

Acknowledgements: Huge thanks to Liz Sykes for her renowned cleaning skills!

Hawksworth Shaw, Hawksworth Moor, West Yorkshire

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Cairnfield: OS Grid Reference – SE 143 439

Also Known as:

Hawksworth Moor cairnfield (2)

Getting Here

Curious small ‘long cairn’ (photo © James Elkington)

It’s a bittova pain-in-the-arse locating this site unless you’re into walking off-path, through excessive dense heather or burnt coarse ground. You can either follow the directions to the Black Beck tomb, or set off from Horncliffe Circle and walk up parallel to the fencing for nearly 300 yards (275m). From here, walk due east for nearly half a mile through the deep heather until you reach an overgrown track that keeps you eastwards towards a line of grouse butts abaat 275 yards (250m) on. Naathen, walk on the north-side of this path-track and for a few yards and you’ll begin to see either small piles of stones, or heather-covered mounds. Zig-zag about. You’re in the middle of the cemetery!

Archaeology & History

This cairnfield, or burial ground, or necropolis (choose whichever term you prefer) is a bittova beauty! Although some of the tombs here had been ‘officially’ noticed a few years back, the magnitude of it was understated to say the least. On a visit to the place a few months ago in the middle of one fuckova downpour, James Elkington and I found not only the large Black Beck tomb, but scattered clusters of many more cairns. But it wasn’t until a few weeks after that we got a longer time to check it over and, even then, I think the job was only half-done. So this site profile is merely an overview of some of what we found there. Along with the Black Beck tomb, we found more than thirty examples of prehistoric cairns—probably Bronze Age in nature—around the Hawksworth Shaw area near the middle of Hawksworth Moor, scattered around (seemingly) in no particular order.

Three types of cairns were identified in this large cairnfield. The majority of them are of the standard circular form, averaging 3-4 yards across and rising to about two feet high. They are of the same architectural form as those found in the Hawksworth Moor cairnfield 4-500 yards northwest of here (there is the possibility that the two of them are part of the same necropolis, but unless we can locate an unbroken continuity between the two groups, it’s best to present them as separate clusters). When we looked at them a couple of weeks ago, most cairns of the ’round’ type were overgrown, albeit in low growth, as a couple of the photos here show. The main cluster of the round cairns are just a few yards off the aforementioned track, but there are others scattered here and there at other points on this part of the moorland. A number of these cairns seem to have have been damaged and robbed of stones to build a line of grouse butts close by.

Another ‘long cairn’ during an utter downpour!

The second type of cairn in the necropolis—close to the main cluster of round cairns—are curious small, long cairns. Each one of them measures between 8-10 yards in length, are up to three yards across, and rise to a height of about one yard. They are built of the usual mass of small stones typical of the huge number of other cairns on Rombalds Moor, but have been constructed in an elongated form, in contrast to the more usual circular ones. Four of them are very close to each other with a fifth further away from this main group. A sixth one appears to be under the heather 50-60 yards away to the northeast. Unlike some of the nearby round cairns, this group looks as if it’s barely been touched by the hand of man, with only fallen scatters of stones around the outer edges of them. Tis an interesting group…

Small cairn, 50 yards N of Black Beck cairn

Small cairn 100 yard SE of Black Beck tomb (photo © James Elkington)

The third architectural cairn-types are scattered unevenly across the necropolis and are characterized as smaller, mini-versions of the round cairns, i.e, small piles of stones between 1-2 yards across and and just one or two feet high. Each of this type of cairn are more deeply embedded in the peat with more vegetational growth covering them due to their small size. This makes them much more difficult to see in comparison to their larger compatriots. One example (at SE 1423 4404) can be seen in the photo, above left, some 50-60 yards north of the Black Beck tomb; with another, above right, some 100 yards away to the southeast. There is the possibility they may be so-called ‘clearance cairns’, although I have some doubts about this and believe they are more likely to be individual graves…. but I could be wrong…

There’s little doubt that other tombs are hiding away in this area, waiting for fellow antiquarians to uncover them. Equally probable is the existence of hut circles or similar living-quarters lost beneath the heather. Two such sites have been found on recent ventures here: one a short distance west of the Black Beck tomb and another hiding away nearly 300 yards southwest, right beside the Black Beck. The main thing lacking up here are cup-and-ring stones. Apart from several uninspiring cup-marked rocks it seems few exist hereby; but there are, no doubt, some hiding away that have been hidden for millenia…

One final thing: the grid-reference given for this necropolis is based loosely on where some of the cairns can be found, but there are others whose positions lies slightly beyond that grid-ref, as you’ll find if you potter about.

Acknowledgements: With huge thanks, as always, for James Elkington for use of his photos. Also to the evolving megalith and landscape explorer Mackenzie Erichs; and to Linzi Mitchell, for additional input…

Black Beck Tomb, Hawksworth Moor, West Yorkshire

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Cairn: OS Grid Reference – SE 14233 43987

Also Known as:

Small Skirtful of Stones

Getting Here

Old tomb looking east (photo © James Elkington)

Probably the easiest way to find this is to use other sites as guides. From the Great Skirtful of Stones tomb, get over the fencing and follow it eastwards for exactly 500m (238 yards) where you’ll meet a small footpath on your right that goes southeast up the small slope of Craven Hall Hill and onto the moorland. Go along here for literally 0.2km (223 yards) and, just where the path bends slightly to the left, drop diagonally down the slope to where the moorland levels out close to the Craven Hall Hill (2) tumulus. From here walk WSW onto the flat moorland for literally ⅓-km (0.21 miles; 365 yards) where you’ll find either a large rounded mass of stones, or a large heather-covered mound—depending on whether there’s been a burning. Best o’ luck!

Archaeology & History

…and looking NE (photo © James Elkington)

Very troublesome to locate when the heather’s fully grown, this large prehistoric tomb was uncovered very recently as a result of extensive moorland fires. It’s the largest such structure in a cluster of more than thirty cairns near the middle of Hawksworth Moor, many of which were rediscovered at the end of May, 2021. Due south of the Great Skirtful of Stones, this smaller skirtful of stones measures some 45 feet across and is more than three feet high in parts. Probably built in the Bronze Age, the tomb looks as if it’s been deliberately robbed at some time in the past, probably before the Victorians by the look of things—although only an excavation would tell us for sure. Primarily, the cairn has been robbed from its centre outwards mainly on its western side, where you’ll also see a small and rather dodgy cup-marked stone. Scattered into the surrounding peat are visible remains of where some of the loose stones have been cast.

A possible alternative to this being simply a large cairn, is that it’s a much-disturbed ring cairn. Some sections on the north and western edges give the impression that the mass of stones may be collapsed rubble walling. There are also a couple of internal features beneath the overgrowth of peat and compressed vegetation: one being a small circular piece of stonework that has either fallen in on itself, been dug into, or is the home of an animal; and a yard or two from this is what looks like another internal U-shaped stone structure – again, deeply encased by centuries of encroaching peat. But I must emphasize that these features are far from certain and can only be proven one way or the other by an excavation.

Small Skirtful, looking S (photo © James Elkington)

Ring-cairn or just a cairn? (photo © James Elkington)

The site is well worth seeing, not only for its own merit, but also because of its place in a much wider prehistoric cemetery in the middle of Hawksworth Moor. There are at least six small single cairns (which may be clearance cairns) scattering this area—the closest of which from here is some 20 yards to the north. A more curious group of at least five small long cairns exist about 100 yards to the south; and below these is the largest cluster of standard tombs in the form of small round cairns. A curious D-shaped hut circle structure can be found less than 100 yards to the northwest, and what seems to be remains of a larger deeply embedded enclosure exists beyond the long cairns. Check ’em out!

Black Beck, Hawksworth Moor, West Yorkshire

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Hut Circle: OS Grid Reference – SE 1415 4401

Getting Here

Take the same directions as if you’re going to visit the Black Beck cairn. From here, walk through the heather northwest for about 60 yards. If the heather’s been cleared, you’ll see it low down, otherwise you’re pretty much screwed when it comes to finding this one!

Archaeology & History

Seemingly in isolation, this low-walled, D-shaped hut circle is presently the only the structure of its kind known to exist on this part of Hawksworth Moor; although to be honest we should expect there to be such structures in the area when we consider the size and proximity of the associated cairnfields immediately north and southeast of here.

NW section of walling; Black Beck tomb to rear

As with most hut circles, it’s nowt special to look at in all honesty. The south side of the structure is rubble walling typical of these structures, curving round as usual; but its more northern section straightens out, creating a D-shaped structure. This line of straight walling seems attached to another, outer parallel wall 3 feet away, creating its very outer edge. The rubble walls themselves average three feet across; whilst the hut circle measures 6-7 yards across. We assume that it was constructed during the same period as the adjacent prehistoric necropolis.

St Peter’s Well (1), Leeds, West Yorkshire

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Holy Well (destroyed): OS Grid Reference – SE 2894 3382

Archaeology & History

Not to be confused with the other St. Peter’s Well that once existed in the city centre, this site was shown on an 1815 map of Leeds (which I’ve not been able to get mi hands on!), known as the Waterloo Map. But when the Ordnance Survey lads visited the place in 1846, it had been covered over. Immediately west of here, the saint’s name was also given to a nearby hill, whose folklore seems has been forgotten.

Although Ralph Thoresby mentioned it in passing, Edward Parsons (1834) gave us a brief description of its qualities, telling us that,

“Near North Hall is the celebrated spring called St. Peter’s Well ; the waters are so intensely cold that they have long been considered very efficacious in rheumatic disorders.”

Bonser (1979) reiterated this in his survey, also telling that, like its nearby namesake, its waters were “intensely cold and beneficial for rheumatism, rickets, etc.” An old bathing-house that was “annexed to the Well” may have been used specifically to treat such ailments, but we cannot say for sure.

Interestingly, Andrea Smith (1982) told that 400 metres away a well was sunk in 1838 and a quantity of petrified hazelnuts were recovered from a broken red jar which had a female head painted on it. Such a deposit is not too unusual, as a number of sacred wells in bygone days were blessed with nuts and signified the deity Callirius, known by the Romans as Silvanus, the God of the Hazel Wood – though we have no direct tradition here linking St. Peter’s Well with this ritual deposit.

St. Peter’s festival date was June 29.

References:

Bonser, K.J., “Spas, Wells and Springs of Leeds,” in The Thoresby Miscellany – volume 54, Leeds 1979.
Hope, Robert Charles, Legendary Lore of the Holy Wells of England, Elliott Stock: London 1893.
Parsons, Edward, The Civil, Ecclesiastical, Literary, Commercial and Miscellaneous History of Leeds, Halifax, Huddersfield, Bradford, Wakefield, Dewsbury, Otley – volume 1, Frederick Hobson: Leeds 1834.
Smith, Andrea, ‘Holy Wells Around Leeds, Bradford & Pontefract,’ in Wakefield Historical Journal 9, 1982.
Thoresby, Ralph, Ducatus Leodiensis, Maurice Atkins: London 1715.

Hough Hill, Bramley, Leeds, West Yorkshire

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Tumulus (destroyed): OS Grid Reference – SE 234 336

Archaeology & History

Today, Hough Hill has almost completely given way to modern housing; but in bygone centuries, this hilltop once housed a prehistoric burial mound—albeit an inconspicuous one. It was mentioned briefly in Faull & Morehouse’s (1981) magnum opus, but we know very little of its overall appearance and stature. Its existence was recorded posthumously thanks to the antiquarian John Holmes, without whose notes it would have been lost to history.

During quarrying operations at Hough Hill in December 1879, an ornamental urn was found,

“filled with calcined bones (that) was placed on a dish shaped hollow, some two or three feet deep, with charcoal and burnt earth.”

Holmes compared some markings that were upon this urn to one that was uncovered in Acrehowe Hill above Baildon by J.N.M. Coll in 1845. Unfortunately the Hough Hill urn was broken into fragments shortly after being uncovered. All remains of the burial mound have been completely destroyed.

References:

Faull, M.L. & Moorhouse, S.A. (eds.), West Yorkshire: An Archaeological Guide to AD 1500 – volume 1, WYMCC: Wakefield 1981.
Holmes. John, “A Sketch of the Pre-Historic Remains of Rombalds Moor,” in Proceedings of the Yorkshire Geological & Polytechnic Society, volume 9, 1886.
Wardell, James, Historical Notes of Ilkley, Rombald’s Moor, Baildon Common, and other Matters of the British and Roman Periods, Joseph Dodgson: Leeds 1869. (2nd edition 1881).

Eyebright Well, Leeds, West Yorkshire

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Healing Well (destroyed): OS Grid Reference – SE 2986 3331

Archaeology & History

First mentioned in the 1715 magnum opus of Ralph Thoresby, this old healing well has long since fallen victim to the careless Industrialists. In his day, the well was there for all to use, saying:

“Eye-bright Well on a declining Ground, near the Monk-Pits, discovers its Virtues in the Name, being, long-ago, esteemed a Sovereign Remedy against Sore-Eyes.”

This note was subsequently copied in in Hope’s (1893) classic survey, with no additional comment. In all probability, the name of the well derived from the presence of the herb Eyebright (Euphrasia officinalis) which, as is well known, is the best herb for ailments of the eye. The water from the well, in combination with the herb that grew around it, no doubt increased its ocular healing abilities.

By the middle of the 19th century, the rise of Leeds city brought an end to its ancient flow and its location was eventually forgotten. In Bonser’s (1979) survey of Leeds’ wells, he told how,

“the position of this well can be accurately determined: it was situated on sloping ground between Wellington Street and Aire Street, as clearly indicated on the 1847 (1850) OS 5ft to 1 mile (map).”

However, in the much earlier survey of Leeds, Edward Parsons (1834) told us that this well was a hundred yards to the south, “near the line of the new road to the iron bridge across the Aire at the Monk Pits.” And although it isn’t named, it should be noted that immediately across the River Aire, where Parsons stated, the 1852 OS-maps showed the “Site of an Ancient Well.” This is very likely to be where it was. Parson’s also echoed the local lore of the time, telling us that the Well was “a sovereign remedy for soreness of the eyes.”

References:

Bonser, K.J., “Spas, Wells and Springs of Leeds,” in The Thoresby Miscellany – volume 16, Leeds 1979.
Hope, Robert Charles, Legendary Lore of the Holy Wells of England, Elliott Stock: London 1893.
Parsons, Edward, The Civil, Ecclesiastical, Literary, Commercial and Miscellaneous History of Leeds, Halifax, Huddersfield, Bradford, Wakefield, Dewsbury, Otley – volume 1, Frederick Hobson: Leeds 1834.
Thoresby, Ralph, Ducatus Leodiensis, Maurice Atkins: London 1715.
Whelan, Edna & Taylor, Ian, Yorkshire Holy Wells and Sacred Springs, Northern Lights: Dunnington 1989.

Fuke Well, Pudsey, West Yorkshire

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Healing Well (destroyed): OS Grid Reference – SE 22 33

Archaeology & History

Ths curiously-named site is described just once in very early field-name records as the ‘Fukewell’. Included in A.H. Smith’s (1961) magnum opus, he passes over the place-name without comment. But in finding his 12th century literary source, we read that it was located on some land given to the monks of Kirkstall Abbey, Leeds. Written in early disjointed Latin, we find that the Fukewell was mentioned on a grant that described five acres of land given by one Adam Samson to the monks of the Abbey. On one of the acres was a site known as the Cold Well, whilst the Fuke Well was found on a piece of land adjacent to a house, but its precise location seems to have been lost. Nothing is mentioned about it by great Pudsey historan Simeon Raynor, despite him naming a number of other wells in the area – so we must presume that the site had already gone when he came to write his work.

But what does the word fuke actually mean? There is nothing to explain it in Wright’s Dialect Dictionary, nor other regional dialect or place-name works. I was wondering if it derived from the old english word ‘fuck’, which was common parlance in earlier centuries. ‘Fucking’ was a word that didn’t have the debased christian ideology attached to it: of something not to be talked about, or be hidden. To have a fuck, or go fucking, was always quite normal; and to most people in the real world we use the same term with absolute ease – because we all do it! But this etymological idea is pure speculation on my part. Can anyone give clear light to fuke’s real meaning?

References:

Fryer, Peter, Mrs Grundy, Dennis Dobson: London 1963.
Lancaster, W.T. & Baildon, W. Paley (eds.), The Coucher Book of the Cistercian Abbey of Kirkstall, Thoresby Society: Leeds 1904.
Smith, A.H., The Place-Names of the West Riding of Yorkshire – volume 3, Cambridge University Press 1961.