LAY OF THE LAND
The Devil’s Missing Arrows
The three large standing stones known as the Devil’s Arrows stand in fields to the west of Boroughbridge. When the antiquarian John Leland visited the town around the year 1540, there was a fourth stone located next to the central one. His description of the stones (from north to south) runs ….
“A little without this town on the west part of Watling Street standith 4 great maine stones wrought above in conum (tapering) by man’s hand. They be set in 3 several fields at this time. The first is a 20 foot by estimation in height, and 18 foot in cumpace. The stone toward the ground is sum-what square, and so up to the middle, and then wrought with certain rude boltells (fluting) in conum. But the very top is broken of 3 or 4 foot by estimation. The other 2 of like shape stand in another field a good bow shot off and the one of them is bigger than the other : and they stand within a 6 or 8 foot one of the other. The fourth standith in a several field a good stone cast from the other 2, and is bigger and higher than any of the other 3. I esteem it to the weight of a 5 wain loads or more.”
Continue Reading >>The Broxa Spring – Broxa
The hamlet of Broxa is located five miles to the west of Scarborough.
Take a look at any OS map and it will usually mark the location of several wells and springs. Many of these will be unnamed, while a few will have descriptive names such as the ‘Cold Well’, or perhaps refer to the owner e.g. ‘Peggy West’s Well’. Rarer still are those marked as holy wells, or with names referring to some folklore character such as ‘Robin Hood’s Well’. A small number of springs and wells are named after their location or the nearest village, which might not be unexpected, however in some cases the ‘village well’ naming seems to point to the well having some unusual property. The Ebbing and Flowing Well at Giggleswick was referred to in an old document as the ‘Giggleswick Spring’. ‘Redmire well’ was a healing sulphur spring, Cawton spring well is a holy well, Newtondale Spring is an very impressive chalybeate spring. This type of naming seems to point to a ‘special’ spring which the village was known for over a wider local area. When ‘Broxa Spring’ was noted on the OS map it was decided to visit the site and test this theory.
(continue rading …)The Old Wife of Lund Ridge
Lund Ridge is located 4 miles to the north of Helmsley, on the North York Moors.
The first edition OS map (1857) shows a stone called the “Old Wife” located alongside a footpath running across the moorland on Lund Ridge. The stone does not appear on later maps, but overlaying the old and new maps provided a grid reference SE61062 91175. A visit to the site in 2016 found no stone at the map location, however a short standing stone was noted by the road side 30m further west. It was also noted that a track cut through the heather had exposed the land surface where the Old Wife Stone originally stood, and this had revealed a spread of stones – possibly the remains of a cairn. Some confirmation of this came from the Historic Environment Record map which shows a large cairnfield across the southern end of Lund Ridge.
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