Late Quaternary Landscape History of the Swale - Ure Washlands

David Bridgland, Antony Long, 2008. (updated 2011) https://doi.org/10.5284/1000106. How to cite using this DOI

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David Bridgland, Antony Long (2011) Late Quaternary Landscape History of the Swale - Ure Washlands [data-set]. York: Archaeology Data Service [distributor] https://doi.org/10.5284/1000106

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Primary contact

Prof David Bridgland
Department of Geography
Durham University
South Road
Durham
DH1 3LE
England
Tel: 0191 33 41875

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Resource identifiers

Digital Object Identifiers

Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs) are persistent identifiers which can be used to consistently and accurately reference digital objects and/or content. The DOIs provide a way for the ADS resources to be cited in a similar fashion to traditional scholarly materials. More information on DOIs at the ADS can be found on our help page.

Citing this DOI

The updated Crossref DOI Display guidelines recommend that DOIs should be displayed in the following format:

https://doi.org/10.5284/1000106
Sample Citation for this DOI

David Bridgland, Antony Long (2011) Late Quaternary Landscape History of the Swale - Ure Washlands [data-set]. York: Archaeology Data Service [distributor] https://doi.org/10.5284/1000106

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Overview

Background to the Project

Photograph of burial mound at Blois Hall Farm

The landscape and archaeological resource of the Swale-Ure washlands is of high quality, but its full potential has only been realised in recent times with, for example, the nationally important excavations at Nosterfield. Humans have certainly been important in this region throughout much of its postglacial history. Initially, during the late-glacial and early Holocene (Mesolithic) period, human impact on the landscape would have been minimal, although forest fires and fire climax vegetation may have been prevalent as a result of Mesolithic activity. However, with the advent of farming from the mid Holocene onwards, this impact would have greatly increased and caused significant changes in fluvial sediment regime through woodland clearance and hillwash.

Evidence for these natural and human-landscape interactions are preserved in a wide variety of Late Quaternary sediments. These include the sands and gravel bodies themselves, from which former river courses can be mapped and fluvial processes inferred. Equally important are the overlying organic and minerogenic sediments that record postglacial fluvial activity and washlands development. The latter include ox-bow lakes, overbank (flood) sequences, valley floor peats, tufas, infilled kettle-holes, as well as features particular to this area - the infills of deep gypsum collapse hollows (the Permian geology of the study area includes thick beds of gypsum, which, being water soluble, suffer from underground solution and collapse). In the area of interest, much of this resource is connected to a landscape that is under active threat from increasingly rapid quarrying. This activity is removing surface archaeology and associated sediments, the geological record of the Late Quaternary, and the landscape geomorphology formed by the fluvial sediment bodies themselves (the last two of which provides a broad palaeo-environmental context for the archaeology within the study area).

The over-all project aim is to characterise the fluvial and landscape evolution of the area since the last (Devensian) glaciation and assess the impact of human activity during this period. As such, the project will deliver an improved understanding of the context for local archaeological and landscape research in the study area, and widen public understanding and appreciation of this landscape.

Findings

The main findings of the project are as follows:

1. A geomorphological survey of the Swale - Ure washlands

A major part of this project involved the development of an extensive geomorphological map of the landscape covered by the Swale and Ure Washlands Project study area. Following an initial review of the entire region, we decided to concentrate our effort on mapping the landforms found in the Ure Valley, and on the interfluve between the Ure and the Swale River valleys. This area, which extended over 800 km2 in area, included the most significant glacial and fluvio-glacial sediments in the region, as well as the major archaeological sites that exist in a corridor between Boroughbridge and Masham.

The survey, conducted using a combination of air photographs, maps, and over 1000 km of field walking, enabled mapping of all major glacial and fluvio-glacial landforms and deposits. These included ice margin positions of the main Vale of York ice, as well features associated with the retreat of the Ure valley ice into the Pennines. It also identified the major meltwater channels, Late Devensian sands and gravels, as well as the river terraces on which much of the prehistoric occupation in the region occurs.

The survey used many of the large exposures of sediment available in the numerous quarries, especially in the Ure valley but also in the Swale. These provided an opportunity to map the three-dimensional characteristics of the major sediment units in the valleys, as well as access to face material for sampling for grain size analysis as well as dating (using both Optically Stimulated Luminescence (OSL) and radiocarbon).

2. Survey of the archaeological resource of the Swale-Ure washlands

A review of all published and unpublished literature relating to the archaeology of the study area has been completed. This has critically reviewed the evidence of prehistoric occupation in the region from the Mesolithic through to the late Medieval period, and resulted in the development of a series of period by period distribution maps of finds and sites. The survey highlighted the importance of the area between Boroughbridge and Masham as especially significant due to the high number of well developed and still visible sites, including the Thornborough henge and cursus complex, as well as the Devils' Arrows. The former site, located preferentially on the relatively dry interfluve between the Swale and the Ure, was targeted for detailed palaeoenvironmental analysis.

3. Palaeoenvironmental analysis

The original intention was to collect detailed information on the past environments from the study area from sections exposed in the quarries within the Swale and Ure washlands. However, the nature of the sediment exposures, which were dominated by sands and gravels and with only limited amounts of organic sediment, required us to adopt a more expansive sampling strategy using hand and machine-operated coring. Test cores and pilot pollen analyses enabled us to develop a sampling strategy based on over ten field sites that, together, provided information from a range of time scales from the end of the last glacial maximum to the present day. This included three cores collected from adjacent to the Thornborough archaeological site, which provide a continuous record from c. 12,000 to 1500 years ago, and which span the major periods of human activity at the site. The preservation of micro- and macrofossils is variable within the study area. For this reason, we placed most weight on the pollen records from the sites chosen for detailed investigation. In addition, we developed detailed records of plant macrofossil remains as a means to reconstruct past environments and to provide material suitable for radiocarbon dating.

4. Outreach and engagement with industry

A key project output has been the development of an accessible, richly illustrated project summary that details the aims and objectives of the work, the methods used, and our preliminary results. This is available on-line at and is also been widely distributed in paper copy to local research bodies and individuals throughout the region. We have engaged in various public outreach activities as well, including lectures to school children in Ripon as well as to a public meeting to review the archaeology of the Thornborough complex.

Project team

The work has been completed by Drs Antony Long and David Bridgland (Durham University), Dr Blaise Vyner (independent archaeological consultant), Dr Geoff Duller (UCW Aberystwyth), and Simon Warwick (Swale and Ure Washlands Project). In addition, the following specialists worked on the project:

Dr Wishart Mitchell (Durham University)
Wishart has been responsible for the wider scale geomorphological assessment of the study area, as well as elements of the more detailed sedimentological descriptions.

Dr Mairead Rutherford and Dr Jim Innes (Durham University)
Mairead and Jim have been responsible for the field work associated with the detailed palaeoenvironmental work, and for the pollen and charcoal analysis in the project.

Dr Charlotte O'Brian (Durham University)
Charlotte has completed the majority of the plant macrofossils in the study, including the identification of material suitable for radiocarbon dating.

Dr Geoff Duller (Aberystwyth University)
Geoff has been responsible for the OSL dating within the project.

In addition, other micro- and macrofossil studies were undertaken by:

Plant Macrofossils: Dr Michael Field
Beetles: Professor Russel Coope

The project also benefited from the support of North Yorkshire County Council, notably Malcolm Barnett and Dr Neil Campling.

The Digital Archive

The digital archive currently comprises of the educational booklet for local outreach.

  • Long,A.J., Bridgland,D.R., Innes,J.B., Mitchell,W.A, Rutherford,M. 2004: The Swale - Ure Washlands: Landscape History and Human Impacts. University of Durham. ISBN 13560557.

In addition, following appendices (from the published monograph) are provided as stand-alone pdf files, with internally-numbered figures and tables and their own reference lists (in addition, Excel spreadsheet files are provided for particle size data, as part of Appendix IV):
Appendix I Radiocarbon dating
Appendix II OSL dating
Appendix III AAR dating
Appendix IV Particle-size analysis
Appendix V Clast-lithological analysis
Appendix VI Additional palaeoenvironmental evidence
Appendix VII Botanical nomenclature

Non-digital Archive and Publications

In addition to the reports and data contained within the digital archive the project also produced the following outputs:

Published Monograph
Bridgland,D., Innes,J., Long,A. and Mitchell,W. 2009: Late Quaternary Landscape Evolution of the Swale-Ure Washlands, North Yorkshire. Oxbow. ISBN-13: 978-1-84217-374-9
Lectures / Academic papers
June 2003 - Lectures at NEQUA (triennial meeting of Quaternary specialists, NE England) - "Invertebrate-based environmental reconstruction for the Ripon Racecourse site" (David Keen) and "Reconstructing the Middle to Late Holocene environment in the Ure valley" (Mairead Rutherford)
October 2004 - Lecture given at PLACE conference, York.
Educational visits
June 2004 - Lecture on Washlands to school teachers from Ripon.
Guided Tours
September 2004 - Field trip to Washlands, Herts Geological Society
Press Release
Darlington & Stockton Times, May 16 2003 - Swale and Ure Washlands to yield their historical secrets.
Ripon Gazette, Fraiday May 16, 2003 - Scientists seek answers in nature's archive of the washlands.

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