Coaxial field boundary at Ridley Hush, Grinton Moor. This substantial prehistoric field boundary bank, of white weathered chert rocks, was revealed after an intense moorland fire burnt off all peat and vegetation from a large area. Photographed in about 1994.
Coaxial field systems were the main subject of The Swaledale Ancient Land Boundaries (SWALB) project, a 10-year study conducted in the period 1984 to 1993 by Tim Laurie (later to become SWAAG president) jointly with Professor Andrew Fleming, then of Sheffield University.
The final conclusions from the project were not crystallised until an article co-authored by Tim Laurie, Norman Mahaffy, and Robert White was published on the SWAAG web site in 2010. In broad summary, it showed that the extensive remains of ancient coaxial field boundaries, surviving and visible on wide expanses of open moorland, had developed from core Bronze-Age settlements.
The full report includes detailed studies of five Swaledale moors – Grinton, Harkerside, Reeth Low Moor, Marrick, and Skelton. To read the full report click here: Timothy C Laurie, Norman W Mahaffy, and Robert White, Coaxial Field Systems in Swaledale: a reassessment (SWAAG, 2010).
An abridged version was published in Prehistory in the Yorkshire Dales, ed. R D Martlew (PLACE/Yorkshire Dales Landscape Research Trust, 2011).
You can also read the 10 interim reports written at the conclusion of each year of research:
SWALB interim report 1 – 1984
SWALB interim report 2 – 1985
SWALB interim report 3 – 1986
SWALB interim report 4 – 1987
SWALB interim report 5 – 1988
SWALB interim report 6 – 1989
SWALB interim report 7 – 1990
SWALB interim report 8 – 1991
SWALB interim report 9 – 1992. See also two SWAAG database records in the PDF Settlements 1, scroll to records no. 119 and 600.
SWALB interim report 10 – 1993. See also two SWAAG database records in the PDF Settlements 1, scroll to records nos. 594 and 595.
In the SWAAG Database, there are six records specifically dedicated to describing coaxial field systems found on Eskeleth Low Moor and on the moors of Grinton, Marrick, Downholme, Ellerton, East Bolton, and Murton Fell in the Vale of Eden. See Coaxial Field Systems category PDF.
