Old field boundaries

[Wendyf]

Wonderful!

[Stanley]

Mail me and I'll send you a high res file of the whole map. It's a goody and would be good for your Earby archive.

[Wendyf]

Thanks Stanley, will do.

[Stanley]

Big file, let me know you got it OK. If not there are other ways.....

[Wendyf]

It arrived with no problems. Thank you.

[Wendyf]

I walked through the ancient field yesterday, and as I was crossing the buried mounds of stone at the end of the field I spotted a chunk of quartz (about one and a half inches square) on the ground that had been scraped out either by sheep or rabbits. Now I'm probably being a bit daft, but haven't I've seen Time Team digs where there has been some significance in finding bits of quartz in unlikely places?

[Stanley]

Yes you have Wendy. Not sure about non-rounded quartz but if you find white quartz pebbles in an area where they aren't common it is a possible clue to a medieval shrine or religious site. They did a dig on a Saxon church where there was an exterior shrine and the white pebbles seemed to have been placed as a votive offering. Of course it could be something mundane like part of a glacial erratic!

[Wendyf]

I suppose it will just be something mundane like that Stanley. I only noticed a few days ago that some of the stones in the barn wall sparkle in the sun...the local stone is very coarse grained. Well there you go...I've probably only just understood why it's called gritstone and not sandstone....or have I?

[Stanley]

Yes, Millstone Grit is different than sandstone in that the individual grains are coarser and often more hard. It was used for making millstones (surprise!) and the nearest quarry I know is at Noyna. Good description in the archives about a pair of stones being taken from there to Foulridge by putting an axle through the centre and moving them by rolling them with oxen before and behind. Local millstones were superseded in 19th century by 'French Burrs' made from segments of very hard stone bound together with iron hoops.

[Wendyf]

I had a lesson in geology yesterday....helped by the fact that I started moving a pile of stones. Every stone is different...some are finer textured with layers of different colours running through, some really gritty with chunks of quartz in them. I found one fine textured stone that has a round quartz pebble set in the surface like an eye.....I've kept that to one side. I'm sure I have found a sea shell in one of the barn wall stones.

[Stanley]

Much of our upper soils in this area are a result of terminal moraines formed where glaciers were melting. The rounded hills around the Martons are Drumlins, a classic formation made by depositing stone collected during the glacier's growth and moved south. This is one of the main reasons why there is such variety in your heaps of stones.