More information : Aerial photographs taken by Dr St Joseph show three cursuses around the village of Rudston. To avoid confusion the cususes were called 'A' (TA 06 NE 19), 'B' and 'C' (TA 06 NE 47).
The squared, tapering end of Cursus B is visible as a cropmark just over a mile WSW of the church. The cursus can be traced for 700 yards to the NE heading roughly towards the Rudston Monolith (TA 06 NE 13). The width of the cursus is approximately 90 yards. No surface remains survive in this intensively ploughed area. (1)
The Rudston spur is the focus of three cursus monuments, a fourth cursus 'D' (TA 06 ne 48) occupying the floor of the Great Wold Valley. The terminus of Cursus B must lie on the spur but is lost in the pattern of the medieval village. The date of the monuments has still to be confirmed, Cursus A must predate the secondary Beaker-accompanied burials on its southern terminus. (2)
(TA 092674-TA 079 667 sited from plan and OS 1:10,000) A map has been drawn of the Rudston Cursus monuments from aerial photographs. This shows more of the cursuses than the plan published by Dymond (1) but is still not complete. The ends of both cursus B and D are apparently hidden by Rudston village. It could be suggested that these are two parts of the same cursus which bends through an angle of about 60 degrees, though this seems unlikely. (3) |