Our History

	During 1999 Malcolm Barnes wrote an article for the parish newsletter. In it he suggested that local people might want to investigate the archaeology of their own area, rather than watching the experts on the television.
	The history of the group started in August 1999 when eight members held an inaugural meeting in response to the newsletter.
	To investigate the archaeology of the area we began a programme of fieldwork after consulting the WYAS Sites & Monuments Record (SMR), Maps, Aerial Photographs and Historical Records.
	A fieldwalking exercise discovered what has since proved to be an important multi-period prehistoric flint-knapping site which is rare in lowland West Yorkshire. This has become the main focus of our investigations and continues to provide work for years to come.
	Recruiting an archaeo-botanist to the group enabled us to look at what the woodland, hedgerows and ground flora could add to our archaeological knowledge of the landscape.
	Summer 2001 saw our first excavation to investigate a possible medieval internal woodbank within a remnant of ancient woodland.
	Another aspect of the fieldwork was to map the remnants of ridge and furrow in the district. In 2001 we took part in a joint project led by Dave Weldrake from WYAS to survey and excavate the ridge and furrow on the local primary school playing field.
	The following year while looking at more ridge and furrow at Newton Kyme we became interested in the nearby site of a possible medieval ford on the River Wharfe. Due to low water conditions we had a 'three day' window of opportunity to dig.
	The same summer we returned to the ancient woodland to excavate a puzzling earthwork feature. The results that year suggested a possible link to the medieval sheep farming industry made important by the Cistercian foundations in Yorkshire.
	The dig was extended into 2003 and has continued each year, we have discovered further features matching the 'sheepwash' model.
	In 2003 a successful bid was made for a Local Heritage Initiative grant of almost £23,000 to further investigate the flint site within its landscape. Initial Aerial Photograph and Geophysical surveys suggest that the site is much more extensive than originally thought. Further subsequent fieldwalking over 50 hectares confirmed this. The initial results were used to identify a new feature which was investigated in August 2004/5. The evidence from the excavation suggests that this is an important prehistoric ceremonial pit alignment. During 2006 we extended the investigation to a possible second pit alignment.

During 1999 Malcolm Barnes wrote an article for the parish newsletter. In it he suggested that local people might want to investigate the archaeology of their own area, rather than watching the experts on the television.

The history of the group started in August 1999 when eight members held an inaugural meeting in response to the newsletter.

During 1999 Malcolm Barnes wrote an article for the parish newsletter.
In it he suggested that local people might want to investigate the archaeology of their own area, rather than watching the experts on the television.