Prehistoric stone cutting tools and arrow heads found lying on the ground on several moorlands in and around Swaledale and Arkengarthdale have helped archaeologists understand the earliest phases of human occupation in the region.
In a record in the SWAAG database, entered in 2017, about a Neolithic flint scraper found on Barningham Low Moor, in Teesdale, Tim Laurie noted: “In the course of almost 40 years of fieldwork on the Swale-Tees/Greta interfluve, I have concluded that lithic scatters and stray finds from the mid-upper slopes of Teesdale were almost exclusively scraper dominated and of later prehistoric, Neolithic- Early Bronze Age character. In contrast, lithic scatters on the actual watershed, typically located close to the highest springs feeding the tributary streams of Marske Beck and of Clapgate Beck at Feldom, were microlith dominated with very few scrapers and consequently of earlier prehistoric, Mesolithic character.”
More about this lithic find can be seen in the SWAAG database PDF Category Archaeological Finds, scroll to record no. 989. For more information about lithic finds on the Barningham Low and High Moors, including on How Tallon Ridge, and about the broader archaeological context of these moors, see the PDF Categories Rock Art (records, 540, 541 and 770), Lithic Finds (record no. 180), Burnt Mounds 2 (record 84), and Unknown (record 1011).
Tim Laurie’s article published in 2003, ‘Researching the prehistory of Wensleydale, Swaledale, and Teesdale,’ informs us that in Britain, Wensleydale is considered the northern limit of human activity of the late glacial period (c.12,000 to c.10,000 BC), i.e., up to the start of the Mesolithic period (Middle Stone Age). In the uplands of Swaledale and Arkengarthdale, lithic finds, including stone arrow heads, have proved the presence of later hunter-gatherers of the Mesolithic period, c.10,000 BC to 4,000 BC. In this period, it is considered that the bow-and-arrow was invented, being a progression in hunting from the earlier use of spears.
The main source of information about Stone Age tools and arrow heads in and around Swaledale and Arkengarthdale is the SWAAG database Category Lithic Finds. It contains 24 records about variously shaped stone blades, scrapers, arrow heads, and one axe head, all from the Mesolithic period or later. Many of the records describe finds of single items or of a small number of items found close together, but there are also accounts of impressively large collections of items found at three notable sites:
Calvert Houses – On a rigg above Calvert Houses, upper Swaledale, Tim Laurie found a large quantity of worked tools accompanied by much waste flint and chert. Included were an Early Mesolithic chert axe-head, three Late-Mesolithic triangular tools, and numerous finds of the Neolithic period (New Stone Age), c.4,000 BC to c.2,500 BC. All the finds were deposited at the Richmondshire Museum in Richmond.
For details of these finds, see the SWAAG database Lithic Finds PDF, record nos. 115, 116, and 699. These finds were also described in Tim Laurie’s article Early land division and settlement in Swaledale and on the eastern approaches to the Stainmore Pass over the north Pennines, in Upland Settlement in Britain: the Second Millenium BC and After, eds. Don Spratt and Colin Burgess, BAR British Series 143 (1985).
Preston-Under-Scar – Another site of multiple finds from the Late-Mesolithic and Neolithic periods was at Preston Quarry, Preston-under-Scar, Wensleydale. The finds were collected by various people over several years before quarrying led to the destruction of the site. All finds are in the Dales Countryside Museum, Hawes.
For details, see the SWAAG database Lithic Finds PDF, record no. 145. These finds were also described in Tim Laurie’s article Researching the prehistory of Wensleydale, Swaledale, and Teesdale, in The Archaeology of Yorkshire, eds. T G Manby, Stephen Moorhouse, and Patrick Ottaway, Yorkshire Archaeological Society Occasional Paper No. 3 (2003).
Cringley Hill – During the 1980s, Tim Laurie found worked stones of the Late Neolithic period or Early Bronze Age on a rutted track on Cringley Hill, behind Reeth Low Moor, Swaledale. Finds from Cringley Hill, along with representative finds from elsewhere in Swaledale and Teesdale, including Barningham Moor, have been deposited at the Dales Countryside Museum, Hawes.
For more about the Cringley Hill finds, see the SWAAG database Lithic Finds PDF, record no. 958. Or, to see the same record among others that describe the wider context of prehistoric remains on and around Reeth Low and High Moors, see the SWAAG database numerical PDF for records 919 – 970, and scroll to nos. 957 (Burial Mounds and Cairns), 958 (Lithic Finds), 959 (Settlements), 960 (Enclosures) and 964 (Settlements), and the PDF for records 1-50 and scroll to no. 41 (Enclosures) and no. 48 (Archaeological Random Finds).
See also Tim Laurie’s article dedicated to the area: Archaeological landscapes of Reeth Moor, in Memoirs, British Mining No. 92, ed., Richard Smith (The Northern Mine Research Society, 2011). All of the above and a brief summary are also accessible by going to the dedicated page headed Reeth High and Low Moors.
In addition to the lithic finds recorded in the SWAAG database Category Lithic Finds, and others differently categorised and already mentioned above, there are two more relevant records on the SWAAG database. For several flints found on Brownsey Moor, see the PDF Archaeological Finds and scroll to record no. 907. This record and more about Brownsey Moor is also accessible by going to the page Gunnerside and Winterings to Feetham Pasture.
For a chisel-type arrowhead found at Wegber Edge, Carperby, Wensleydale, see the PDF Archaeological Random Finds and scroll to record no. 47.
For a chert scraper found on Stainton Moor, Swaledale, and a superb neolithic arrowhead found at Greenber Edge on the north side of Stake Fell, Wensleydale, see the Photographic category PDF and scroll to records nos. 785 and 797.
