Parish Boundary Stones

A wide view across wild moorland. In the foreground and in sharp focus is are area of rough grass. On the right is an area of taller grass and reed surrounding a rough-shaped standing stone, probably its natural shape. There is a large letter B, apparently painted in white on the visible face of the stone. In the middle and far distance is a wide expanse of featureless wild moorland as far as the eye can see, rising slightly to a sunlit horizon.
At the summit of Stony Hill, between the head of Arkengarthdale and the River Greta, stands this boundary stone marking the meeting of three civil parishes – Scargill, Arkengarthdale, and Stainmore. See link below to the Standing Stones and Circles category PDF and scroll to record no. 611.

The six modern civil parishes of what might be termed upper Swaledale, anticlockwise from the western boundary of Marske Parish, are: Marrick; Reeth/Fremington/Healaugh; Melbecks; Muker; Grinton; and Ellerton Abbey, the east side of the latter meeting the western boundary of Stainton Parish.

Although these civil parishes are modern, their boundaries reflect those of centuries-old townships, and in some cases have remained unchanged. Stones marking the lines of the boundaries date mostly from the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries, but some might be older, and others are ancient boulders that have probably been designated boundary stones for the longest period of all. The SWAAG database contains records of nine single parish boundary stones and two surveys of multiple stones forming sections of two parish boundaries.

Ellerton Abbey – Stainton survey
This survey records the 13 boundary stones, numbered 1 to 13, from SE 0692 9528 to SE 0891 9693, marking mainly the boundary between the parishes of Ellerton Abbey and Stainton as they cross the army firing range on Stainton Moor, from Robin Cross on the watershed next to the Grinton-Leyburn road, running north-eastwards for nearly two miles to Ellerton Scar.

The stones were erected originally to mark the boundary, contiguous with the parishes, of the estates of the Erle-Drax family, marked ED on the stones, who held Ellerton Abbey from 1755, and the Scrope family, of Danby Hall, which is in Wensleydale between Middleham and Thornton Steward. The initials SS on the stones must refer to Simon Scrope, either the one who died in 1788, or his son Simon Thomas Scrope (1758-1838). The first two stones in the series also mark a boundary between the estates of the Erle-Drax family and of Marmaduke Wyvill (MW on one stone), who must have been either Sir Marmaduke Wyvill (1740-1774), the 7th and last baronet, of Constable Burton Hall, Wensleydale, or of his cousin and eventual heir Marmaduke Wyvill (1791-1872). That estate boundary was contiguous at this point with that of the parish of Preston-Under-Scar.

The survey was created by Col. Gordon Bruce Donald (1919-2000) of West Hagg, Fremington, and published as one of the occasional monographs of the Catterick and Feldom Ranges Conservation Group. Tim Laurie entered it on the SWAAG database under the Vernacular category, record no. 390 (see link to the PDF below). There is more about stone no. 8 in this line in Mining 2 category PDF record no. 779 and in Standing Stones and Circles category PDF record no. 391 (links below).

Grinton – east/south boundaries with Ellerton Abbey and three other parishes
This survey records 14 of the 21 boundary stones marked on the OS map on the east and south boundaries of Grinton Parish and which were located on the ground by SWAAG member Will Swales. They begin at Stolerston Stile, a traditional eastern boundary of the medieval Forest of Swaledale, running in a line south, contiguous with the boundary of Ellerton Abbey, to the watershed and then west along the watershed boundaries with Preston-Under-Scar, Redmire, and Castle Bolton with East and West Bolton, as far as the summit of Gibbon Hill. The survey is contained in the database Vernacular 1 category PDF in 14 records, nos. 556-64, 573-75, and 596-98 (link below).

Links to boundary-stone records in the SWAAG database
Vernacular 1 category PDF – see records 42, 46, 390, 556-64, 573-75, 596-98.
Mining 1 category PDF – see records 135, 136.
Mining 2 category PDF – see records 779, 816, 851.
Standing Stones and Circles category PDF – see records 391, 611.
Photographic category PDF – see record 785.
Geographical category PDF – see record 877.

Yorkshire -Westmorland boundary
Two neighbouring parish boundary stones, both called Tackan Tan and forming part of the Yorkshire-Westmorland boundary near Tan Hill Inn, and a complicated set of boundaries between four parishes – Bowes, Muker, Kaber, and Stainmore – are discussed in an article on place-names written by SWAAG member Will Swales. It can be read here: Tackan Tan | Swaledale and Arkengarthdale Place-names (wordpress.com).