According to Dr Bill Bevan's report for Moors for the Future, Carl Wark is thought to have been mainly for ceremonial use. The wall built to block the view across Hope Valley to Mam Tor.
Stuart Piggot thought the wall to be similar to those at Dark Ages forts in Scotland.
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From huddersfield1.co.uk
CROSLAND MOOR.
The earthwork which the Ordnance Survey marks here is now almost obliterated. There remain only a slight depression and a mound of a half oval shape. In Watson's day the remains were much more imposing. He describes "a couple of remains at a very small distance from each other on Crosland Moor, in the parish of Huddersfield; one of these is seventy-seven yards by sixty-four; but the greatest part of it, when I saw it, in 1759, was inclosed with a wall, and intended to be ploughed up. The other ninety-eight yards by eighty-seven. The vallum of this last was six yards and about one foot wide. The smaller has the appearance of a square angle, and the larger was rounded off a little at the corners. In the larger of them was found when it was ploughed up, three ancient mill-stones, each one foot in diameter, and eleven hollow places, two or three yards long apiece, and three quarters deep, or thereabouts." He goes on to say that the people called them Stot-folds, but could not explain the meaning of the term, and Watson suggests that it is the same word exactly as the Saxon for stables. The depressions would then, he suggests, represent huts. He insists that this is not a military work, and is obviously right on this point; but it is guess-work, and bad guess-work too, when he connects this work with Castle Hill, Almondbury, seeing in it a farm belonging to the garrison. This suggestion is quite baseless. Castle Hill, if it was one of the usual type of hill forts, that it, only used as a place of refuge in times of stress, never had a "garrison" in the strict sense of the term until Norman days, and it is no argument that Castle Hill is to-day visible from Crosland Moor.
http://www.huddersfield1.co.uk/huddersfield/tolson/early_man/earthworks_ctor.htm
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The fylfot motif is very similar to the Iron Age 'Camunian Rose' design of Valcamonica, in Northern Italy. This is a design based around a cross of nine cups, with an interweaving groove. Not always in a 'swastika' pattern.
The Roman Fort at Ilkley (which may or may not have been named Olicana), was at one point the station of the Second Cohort of Lingones, who were originally recruited from among the Lingones tribe inhabiting the Adriatic coast of Northern Italy, the old province of Cisalpine Gaul. They were stationed at Ilkley during the 2nd century AD.
It seems very likely, that the swastika was carved by one of the Lingones Celts during the Romano-British period.
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Known by the Romans as Rigodunum (possibly a corruption of Rig (Ri) Dun - King's Fort), Ingleborough was fortified by Venutius during his civil war with Cartimandua, and rebellion against the Romans, from 55 - 71 BC.
Venutius was later defeated by the Romans at Stanwick Camp.
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Deep old flint mine workings that were also worked during Victorian times as Chalk Mines. A Neolithic burial was found during excavations and it is still possible to find half-worked axes and arrowheads... tho' I've not found anything myself... yet!
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Shown on both the 1843 and 1854 OS maps of Huddersfield is feature named as a 'Camp' at Crosland Hill, on the fields between Butternab Woods and what is now Johnson's Quarry.
The fields there have been built on now, but I remember them before they were developed (used to play footy on them as a teenager), but I don't remember any identifiable earthworks at the time.
According to the map it was an oval enclosure (maybe 100 yards long by 50 wide). I'd be bold as to hazard a guess that it was an Iron Age camp (although it could equally be as late as Saxon), as it would have had a good view of Castle Hill Hillfort. As Castle Hill was abandoned around 400BC, I'd suggest a date before this. But as houses now stand on the spot and no excavation was done, I guess we'll never know.
Delves Wood Road runs up the side of where it once stood and Woodleigh Grove would probably be smack, bang in the middle of it.
Shame I didn't realise it was there before they built on the spot!
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Whilst looking over old Ordinance Survey maps, I have found what I believe to be a forgotten Holy Well.
When I was a kid, we used to call it the 'Wishing Well'. On the hillside of Crosland Moor above Manchester Road is a small spring that we used to take our water from during the drought in 1976. It doesn't look like a significant site now but from the evidence that I can find, it may once have been quite a special place.
It is reached either by leaving the path leading to the old quarries from the top junction of Ivy Street and William Street, and taking the steep path down to the steps that lead to the well. Or by taking the path opposite the graveyard entrance on Deep Lane and walking up the hill behind the Warren House and on to the well.
Water emerges from the hillside via a crudely cemented pipe into a small pool. It is then directed out by an open stone gutter, across the path and into a trough constructed from sandstone slabs. Out of the trough, it tumbles down the hill side, past a small rock outcrop to be collected in a tank behind houses on Manchester Road. Next to the trough is a curious stone box, open only on the side overlooking the valley in which Milnsbridge sits and looking over to Paddock and Golcar.
As the hillside around this area has been worked as quarries in the past (Crosland Moor sandstone is of noted quality and was used in a number of local buildings), it is possible that the steps and trough may be associated with the quarry works, or possibly a trough for local people to draw water from before the laying of water pipes. Troughs also still exist at the bottom of the Pinfold Lane/Manchester Road junction and on Deep Lane.
As a child I often used used to pay around the 'Wishing Well'. We'd drink from it after playing football on Ivy Street Rec, or dam up the trough until it was full, release the water and watch it gush down the hillside.
I thought little of the well in the years during which I grew up and moved away from the area, apart from the occasional visit whilst out walking on visits to see my parents. However, I was recently looking over an 1843 Ordinance Survey map of the area when I noticed that the hillside was known as Holy Well Woods at the time. This fired my curiosity and examination of a more detailed map from 1854 shows that the Holy Well in question, is the stream that we used to call the 'Wishing Well'.
Is it possible that the name 'Holy Well' is a christianisation of a much earlier name? Is it possible that it may have been a significant site during the iron age practise of water worship? The site itself doesn't offer many visible clues and I don't remember hearing any folktales attached to the well.
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I have since found a reference by Harry Speight from the mid-19th C that records cup and groove markings on both the Cow and Calf rocks. Now presumably lost under footwear and grafitti.
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A large erratic boulder at Harewood with mulitple rings carved on a vertical face. Strangely enough with no central cup.
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Situated between Hebden Bridge and Todmorden is an outcrop of huge and precariously weathered stones.
The name obviously derives from that of the Brigantian Goddess of the same name. There was also rumoured to be a Groom Stone once, now gone.
Folklore tells of marriages taking place here in the past.
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Reported by Paul Bennett. "This great recumbant standing stone, more than eight feet long, in all probability sttod upright in the not-too-distant past. Laying on a slope due south of Backstone Circle, very close to the main footpath."
I've looked for this stone a couple of times, but have yet to find it.
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Two large egg shaped erratic boulders on Morton Moor, near the Thimble Stones. Possible cup markings, which maybe down to weathering.
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Visible from Ilkley Moor on the other side of Wharfedale and also associated with folklore of the Giant Rombald. A number of cup marks lie on top of the crag. Some maybe natural, others man-made. One large bowl is know locally as the 'Wart Well', due to it's supposed abilty to cure warts.
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The most prominent landmark for miles around. There are no visible megalithic remains at this huge rock outcrop, but local folklore refers to this being a place worthy of strong consideration.
I've always found it a little strange that as the most prominent landmark for miles around, the Cow n' Calf didn't bear any cup n' ring marks as they can be found both to the left and the right of the outcrop. It is possible that any that may have been on the rock could have been lost under the onslaught of Victorian graffiti or the wear of thousands of pairs of feet every year.
The surface of the outcrop is worth a view just for the modern (mostly Victorian) graffiti, which is similar to dobbing around a churchyard reading gravestones.
It is thought that the Cow n' Calf name originates not from it's appearance, but from a tradition of lighting beacons on the rocks.
"The larger rock was once known as the 'Inglestone Cow'... The Scottish dialect word, ingle, 'fire burning on a hearth', may come from the Gaelic aingeal, meaning 'fire' or 'light'.
"There is strong evidence of an old calendar custom in the British Isles, around Beltaine or springtime in general, where the old fires are extinguished and new ones are lit. Cattle are then driven between two fires to divinely protect them from disease. 'Imbolc' means 'purification'. Inglestone Cow... Fire-stone Cow."
Gyrus - Verbeia: Goddess of Wharfedale
The Cow and Calf rocks were once accompanied by a huge Bull Stone. But this was quarried away in Victorian times.
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Name: Andy Hemingway
D.O.B: 17.04.66
Occupation: Graphic Artist
Website: http://www.ahgphotography.co.uk
I was born and raised in Huddersfield. I moved to Norwich in 1988 to go to Art School and haven't got it together to leave yet!! My interests are visiting and reading about ancient places, tribal art and society and trying my damnedest to keep as far from the Rat Race as possible! Ambient Rambling is where it's at!
Love music - psychedelic 70's rock, punk, roots n' dub and world/trancy sort of stuff in general!
Also do voluntary work for festivals and have been involved in the Norwich Free Festival in it's various guises for a number of years.
My special area of interest is Ilkley Moor. I don't get the opportunity to go back often these days, but I spent much time on the moors in the 1980's... often for days on end. The Twelve Apostles is an old friend of mine! Although I know the moors fairly well, each journey I make back there is still full of discovery. I always seem to find something I haven't seen before.
NB - Since I wrote this I have in fact gotten away from Norwich and now live in Barnsley.
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