| Summary : Site of a henge and cairn at Catterick. Both were identified during rescue excavations by West Yorkshire Archaeological Service in advance of quarrying, and the cropmarks plotted by RCHME. The sites may well be identified with the "slight traces of tumuli, which were standing in the fields called Thrummy Hills, within the remembrance of people now living", referred to in 1849. The cairn proved to be circa 38 metres in diameter and appeared to have been incorporated in the bank of a much larger feature. This latter feature was initially identified as an amphitheatre, but subsequently recognised as a probable henge, with a maximum external diameter of 145 metres. The line of Dere Street runs over the west side of the henge, and only small pieces of the henge now survive, including an area beneath Catterick racecourse. Some fragments of pottery from the cairn may be of Early Bronze Age date. |
More information : "On the south of Cataractonium, on the side of the Roman Way, and about 650 yards from the gate, (area SE 230985) are slight traces of tumuli, which were standing in the fields called Thrummy Hills, within the remembrance of people now living." (1)
At SE 23049854 and coincident with the location described by authority one, a number of features primarily visible as cropmarks were plotted at 1:2,500 scale as part of the RCHME: Catterick Project. Both the henge and the cairn were first identified as man-made features during rescue excavations conducted by West Yorkshire Archaeological Service in advance of quarrying (WYAS report forthcoming, 1997). The cairn, which formed the most consistently visible part of the cropmarks, is circa 38m in diameter and appeared during excavation to have been incorporated in the bank of a much larger feature interpreted at first as an amphitheatre and subsequently identified by this survey as a henge. Almost the full circuit of the henge bank was identifiable from vertical air photographs while the east side and the cairn appear by default in several oblique photographs of the adjacent settlement (WYAS report as above). It is not possible to positively identify an entrance or entrances from the cropmark evidence. The henge has a probable internal diameter of 90-100m and an external diameter of between 135-145m. These dimensions are within the range set by the other henges in the Vales of York and Mowbray. The henge has no ditch and appears to be built of river cobbles and gravels; as such it has its closest parallel in Mayburgh Henge near Penrith. The cropmarks and the very slight earthwork surviving on Catterick race course suggest a deliberate slighting of the monument most probably during the construction of Dere street, the line of which runs over the west side of the henge. The south west arc (approx. one third) was lost to quarrying in the early 1980s, the western third excavated/quarried in the late 1990s, leaving only an arc in the NNW and a very small arc in the SW only as wide (25m) as the race track which runs over it. Some fragments of pottery from the cairn may be Early Bronze Age in date but assigning both features to a period span from Late Neolithic to early Bronze Age is appropriate until firmer dating evidence becomes available. (2)
The henge and cairn are broadly as described above. The surviving sections are tentatively identified as a small area of earthwork at SE2297 9856 and cropmarked sections at SE2307 9850 and SE2300 9858, a hiatus in the cropmark at the latter location may indicate the location of an entrance. Faint parchmarks within the henge enclosure may indicate the remains of the Dere Street Roman road (see UID 1485698) . As described above, all other sections appear to have been lost to successive quarrying events. (3-4) |