2. Making a Living
What were the particular constraints and affordances of this chalk landscape upon past lives, both in terms of different zones on the Wolds and its seasonal, generational and longer-term climate changes? How did people of different periods negotiate this through transformations in subsistence practice? How did farming methods change with new technologies, crop and stock species, sources of labour, and socio-political changes in land rites, over time?
Below are set out a number of research questions and strategies that are associated with the theme Making a Living.
Mesolithic c.10000 – 4000BC
2.1 What role do the Yorkshire Wolds water sources and water courses play in the Mesolithic landscape, and might there have been a seasonal dimension to their use?
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MesolithicAny intrusive archaeological work in close proximity to any of the water source and water courses in the Yorkshire Wolds should be sensitive to the possibilities of encountering in-situ Mesolithic archaeology and when encountered this archaeology should be carefully sampled for environmental detail. Systematic bore hole/auger surveys in these environments may also help to address this question.ActiveYorkshire Wolds Research Framework04/09/2022 2.2 What evidence do we have for transitions in lifeways (from hunter-gatherer to farming modes of life) on the Wolds? To what extent do we see evidence for significant human impact on the environment at this stage? Can we see changes in relations with wild versus domesticate species, and wild foodstuffs versus domesticated plants, emerging and transforming life in the Wolds?
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MesolithicGreater focus on environmental sampling and analyses from Neolithic features (both archaeologically and naturally derived) will help provide a greater understanding of environmental change across this period. Well-preserved palaeobotanical, pollen and faunal remains should be targeted for in-depth study. This can be actioned through new archaeological work and reappraisal of archive data and archived samples. In order to mitigate the loss of prehistoric land surfaces to erosion and modern agriculture, non-intrusive methods such as systematic fieldwalking and geoprospection could be employed in tandem with intrusive excavation and structured site sampling.ActiveYorkshire Wolds Research Framework04/09/2022 Neolithic c.4000 – 2200BC
2.3 What is the evidence for the introduction of farming on the Wolds?
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NeolithicExamination of the contents of pits (e.g Manby) and palaeoenvironmental analysis of deposits. Careful plotting of axehead distribution against soil types and terrain – does their distribution relate to woodland clearance, carpentry or ritual. are there any other sites such as Flamborough head where there is evidence for flint procurement and working? update the work on Manby on Neolithic pottery on the Wolds. Active04/09/2022 2.4 What is the significance of axehead distribution?
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NeolithicExamination of the contents of pits (e.g Manby) and palaeoenvironmental analysis of deposits. Careful plotting of axehead distribution against soil types and terrain – does their distribution relate to woodland clearance, carpentry or ritual. are there any other sites such as Flamborough head where there is evidence for flint procurement and working? update the work on Manby on Neolithic pottery on the Wolds.Active04/09/2022 2.5 What is the evidence for the manufacture of flint tools and the possible trade in flint with areas such as Cumbria
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NeolithicExamination of the contents of pits (e.g Manby) and palaeoenvironmental analysis of deposits. Careful plotting of axehead distribution against soil types and terrain – does their distribution relate to woodland clearance, carpentry or ritual. are there any other sites such as Flamborough head where there is evidence for flint procurement and working? update the work on Manby on Neolithic pottery on the Wolds.Active04/09/2022 2.6 Grimston and Towthorpe wares are the earliest Neolithic types of pottery on the Wolds. Is it possible to determine their location of manufacture? How can the uniformity of grooved ware be explained?
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NeolithicExamination of the contents of pits (e.g Manby) and palaeoenvironmental analysis of deposits. Careful plotting of axehead distribution against soil types and terrain – does their distribution relate to woodland clearance, carpentry or ritual. are there any other sites such as Flamborough head where there is evidence for flint procurement and working? update the work on Manby on Neolithic pottery on the Wolds.Active04/09/2022 Bronze Age c.2200 – 800BC
2.7 What evidence do we have for Bronze Age settlement patterns over the course of the period (e.g. roundhouses, paddocks and ditched compounds, funnel systems)? What range of activities and site-types are represented in the enclosures and hillforts of the Later Bronze Age (Thwing, Kiplingcotes, Staple Howe, Grimthorpe and coastal promontory forts e.g. Breil Nook, Flamborough Head, and Scarborough)? Are these for domestic or stock-purposes, ritual activity or social gathering, or a combination of both? Is there evidence of permanent or seasonal occupation?
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Bronze ageSynthesis of existing published and grey literature data on Middle-Late Bronze Age sites should be complemented with prioritising the publishing of iconic LBA sites such as Paddock Hill, Thwing, Kiplingcotes and reappraisal of Staple Howe. Systematic fieldwalking, targeted excavation and close dating of features at small enclosures and related ditch systems should seek to understand the economic and social function of these systems, their date range and how they relate to Middle-Later Bronze Age lifeways. Environmental archaeology, as well as features such as rare settlement and storage features (pits, four-six post structures) require close dating to distinguish these from later Iron Age occupation or re-use. Geomorphological studies undertaken across the Wolds may provide a predictive tool for identifying buried or displaced early prehistoric land surfaces.ActiveYorkshire Wolds Research Framework04/09/2022 Iron Age c.800BC – AD43
2.8 How do settlements and cemeteries articulate with the ongoing building and transformation of the linear earthworks of the Wolds? What is the relationship between all of these features and water courses in the Iron Age? Were settlements permanently inhabited or is there a suggestion of seasonal transhumance to wetlands – if so, what was the impact of the marine inundation of Holderness during this period? Is there any evidence for the manufacture of iron on the Wolds? How does this compare with iron manufacture in the foulness valley and Hull valley?
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Iron ageNon-invasive landscape survey can be an effective method for establishing broad patterns before focused targeting of inter-relationships at junctions of settlement, funerary and linear features especially those near natural water sources. Sampling of well-preserved palaeoenvironmental remains, strategic analysis of faunal deposits and targeted sampling of linear earthworks will also help elucidate the character of their use. These insights should be related to wider climate, landscape and hydrological data ‘off Wolds’ to understand how patterns of land-use might have been constrained during the first millennium BC. ActiveYorkshire Wolds Research Framework04/09/2022 Romano-British AD43 – c.410
2.9 When, where and how did Roman occupation transform settlement patterns, particularly the use of ladder/droveway enclosures and smaller farmsteads? Are those sites which changed most rapidly (e.g. as roadside sites of production and consumption) strategically linked to important road systems or early military sites (e.g. Hayton, Shiptonthorpe and their relationships with forts at Malton, York)? What are the key settlement sites on the Wolds (e.g. villas), how are they best characterised (native/colonial) and how do they articulate with urban centres such as Brough-on-Humber, Scarborough and York?
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RomanPatterns of inhabitation and farming practices across the transition should be explored by examining temporal depth at villa sites (e.g. Brantingham, Rudston), strategic examination of intermediary building types (e.g. Thwing’s proto-villa), and wider changes to smaller enclosures and farmsteads (e.g. apparent consolidation around contracted square enclosures in the Mid-Late Roman phases of ladder settlements as at Wharram Grange Crossroads and proposed by Stoertz). By combining the ‘signature’ of fieldwalking data and small-scale commercial evaluations with LIDAR/air photo data, projects could evaluate how well this captures that chronological change over time (thus enabling us to better target future developer funded or research led excavation) as well as enhancing our understanding of the relative civilian versus military nature of site occupation. On/off Wolds interactions between sites, explored through movements of materials, fuel, resources and stock, will better assist understanding of the agrarian economy of the Wolds during this period and inform models of rural/urban interactions, villa economies and civilian/military dynamics over the course of the Roman period. ActiveYorkshire Wolds Research Framework04/09/2022 2.10 How did this period alter patterns of agricultural production on the Wolds? Was there a shift towards more mixed agriculture? Are new crops and improved stock species evident on Roman period sites? Is change experienced in some areas of life (such as stock improvement) with continuity in others (e.g. field organisation, trackways)? Is there evidence in faunal remains that the Wolds was a production zone for urban ‘consumer’ sites? If so, how were such markets structured and what was the impact of the introduction of a monetary economy?
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RomanStrategic sampling and analysis of pre and post-Conquest date deposits can better help answer these important questions relating to Roman transformations of farming practice, as experienced on the Wolds. Analysis of on/off Wolds plant and faunal remains (where they survive), as well as textiles (e.g. flax, silk) and fuel sources (e.g. coal, peat), will help understand the temporal and spatial networks of agricultural production and market organisation. The character and distribution of coinage (including coin hoards) should be used to better understand the way in which a monetary economy functioned locally, and the more-than-economic value of coinage in general. ActiveYorkshire Wolds Research Framework04/09/2022 Early Medieval c.410 – 1066
2.11 What transformations in landscape management best characterise the Early Medieval period, and how do they relate to later prehistoric and Roman patterns of agriculture, land-use and infrastructure? To what extent did the landscape of the Wolds revert to woodland during the Early Medieval period, and can this be traced in the archaeobotanical record? Can we map changes in population and settlement form with landscape management strategies and do these represent mixed-farming economies or more pastoral based farming? Are there seasonal dimensions to farming and how do on/off Wolds cultivation and pastoralism practices relate to each other (e.g. Butterwick style oval enclosures – possible seasonal upland grazing or permanent settlement)? What does this archaeology tell us about power and the management of agricultural production, surplus and consumption?
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Early medievalActiveThe transformation of the Wolds landscape from that of the ladder settlement/villa landscape into the Early Medieval period is one that requires close-grained analysis of landscape and documentary data. The environmental modelling of well-preserved assemblages from urban off-Wold environments (e.g. York) should be complemented by more emphasis on environmental deposits where available, on the chalklands: faunal data is particularly useful but greater emphasis on well-dated carbonised plant materials, pollen records etc. could also add much to our understanding here. Yorkshire Wolds Research Framework04/09/2022 High Medieval c.1066 – 1540
2.12 How did farming methods, land holdings, parish boundaries and territorial units, change during the Medieval period, post-Norman Conquest and what are the relict archaeological features of these transformations (e.g. hedgerow preservation of open field systems, ridge and furrow, green lanes, commons/wastes, trackways such as the ‘hog walks’ and historic woodland)? Where are the initial centres of secular Norman power, and how did the rural landscape of the Wolds relate to these? How did royal and elite control of this landscape change over the Medieval period? What was the impact of new legislation upon rights of use within the feudal economy (e.g. sheep pasture and wool production, arable and woodland)? How did the growth of the Church affect ownership, economic organisation and transport of materials and produce on/off the Wolds (e.g. to and from monastic houses, establishment of religious centres such as Nunburnhome nunnery, and use of Granges etc.) Is there evidence for new infrastructure to support this larger-scale organisation of regional supply/demand (roads or packhorse routes, wagonry, market places etc.)? What is the archaeological evidence for wind and water power in this landscape (e.g. post mills, water mills)? Is there evidence for the impact of weather and climate change on these systems (e.g. the little Ice Age)?
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MedievalThe understanding of Medieval agriculture, rural and urban relationships of production and consumption (especially the growth of ports and market towns), and the impact of changing elite control and the feudal system, are rich topics for wider landscape studies beyond that of the village. Such studies should consider the character of the ‘pays’ of the Wolds in relation to those sites (secular and sacred) off-Wolds, to which both the populations and soils of the Wolds are closely tied at this period (e.g. religious sites such as Beverley Minster, Warter Priory). The role of the coast and maritime traffic, as well as relations with the River Humber and Holderness, require particular attention. Enhanced use of documentary records (e.g. court accounts, probate and will records, ecclesiastical documents, tithe records etc.) and early map resources, should be encouraged alongside place-name, heraldry and patronage records. Material culture related to these changes (e.g. plough equipment, harvesting tools, querns, mill sites – reported by Mortimer on prehistoric barrows, transportation and storage methods) as well as environmental evidence (faunal and botanical) are often understudied aspects of this period’s archaeology which can be enriched by small-scale developer-funded project insights as well as museum collections/archival material. Soil, pollen and hydrological studies can further enhance understandings of this major transformation in the appearance and use of the Wolds. ActiveYorkshire Wolds Research Framework04/09/2022 Post-Medieval c.1540 – 1901
2.13 What distinguished the agricultural improvement and enclosure movements on the Wolds, in terms of their date, character and impact relative to neighbouring regions? How can landscape archaeology contribute to the rich documentary history of the people driving both piecemeal and Parliamentary enclosure, and how do these individuals and groups relate to existing power structures in the Wolds? What factors drove the ‘rage of ploughing’ which transformed Medieval sheepwalks and pastoral landscapes into larger-scale arable cultivation and which were the favoured new crops that were introduced to the Wolds? How can archaeology contribute to an understanding of the distinctive ‘horse-lad’ system of farming, and how does it contrast with neighbouring regions (e.g. Lincolnshire Wolds)? How did early mechanisation and transformations in farm management (particularly the creation of the High Wolds ‘manure factory’ style farms) change both the character, organisation, location and possibilities of farming on the thinner soils of the region (for example, the need for ‘lime’ pits, visible in air photos)? What were the major differences between estate landscapes (e.g. Londesborough and Birdsall) and non-estate landscapes, in terms of their response to these discourses and the scale and timing of such changes? What were the major changes to the ‘food cultures’ of the Wolds during this period, as new crops, substances and species became available and where were the distinctive centres of food production (e.g. Wolds farm pie culture, the nest-egg culture of Flamborough Head)?
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Post medievalThe physical appearance of the Wolds altered dramatically during this period, creating the mixed farming landscape we see today, with its distinctive hedgerows, contemporary road networks, High Wolds farms and canalised streams. Archaeological landscape studies allied to detailed documentary work could be conducted at parish and estate level, both as small-scale and larger research projects into the implementation of national discourses on farming and the transformation of the ‘wastes’ of the Wolds. Such studies are of special value in terms of understanding the modern landscape character of the Wolds, and giving local communities a sense of how and when the places they inhabit came to gain their modern appearance of hedged, farmed fields, village plan and road networks. By translating this into studies of the impact of regional and global food-ways, tastes and traded/exchange, the gastropolitics of the period can be used to generate strong narratives of the relative self-sufficiency of the Wolds in many regards, as well as its networks with local markets and maritime/river ports. What is the impact of field sports, such as fox-hunting, coursing, and shooting on the archaeological resource of the Wolds and the protection of historically characteristic pastoral or woodland areas?ActiveYorkshire Wolds Research Framework04/09/2022 2.14 Which markets did the Wolds farms use to manage the flow of produce (exports/imports), trade items, goods, services and labour? As the system of seasonal hiring of farm labour emerged, which fairs were used by the Wolds farmers and how did they shape the seasonal rhythms, events, and character of rural-urban relations? Did particular market towns (e.g. Driffield, Pocklington, Malton, Beverley) specialise in specific products/domains of trade and if so why? How was their infrastructure enhanced during the Historic period to facilitate rural-urban and inter-regional trade (e.g. road, rail, canal)? How did these construction programmes alter the population of the Wolds (e.g. navvy communities) and what trace did these temporary communities leave behind? What was the extent to which the Wolds relied on and made use of ports such as Hull, Bridlington, Goole etc.? What was the relationship of the Wolds with smaller fishing villages on the east coast?
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Post medievalThis theme can be explored through interdisciplinary studies of documentary, buildings and map data, census records and newspapers, to explore the networks of production and consumption that developed over the Historic period, enabled by global and regional trade and how this transformed rural and urban populations (further rural depopulation of villages but seasonal and work-specific influxes e.g. for harvest, navvies for road, rail and canal building, etc.). Material culture studies can complement these to reveal the exceptional and the mundane items that characterise the transition into modernity and capitalism (e.g. locally made objects versus mass-made items) as well as those items which were acquired, curated or collected – including early antiquarian assemblages. Strategic studies of food cultures, health, disease and diet, agricultural/industrial and conflict-related trauma (analysing the impact of local and international war), medical care (the emergence of hospitals, workhouses, and medical practice etc.) would create local research resources for use in the National Curriculum. ActiveYorkshire Wolds Research Framework04/09/2022 Modern 1901 – Present
2.15 What are the major agricultural changes that defined the C20th century landscape, and what were their practical drivers: mechanisation, intensification and monocultures, impact of the wars on local labour and horse-stock, new cultivation methods and crops, fertilizers and hydrology, grain silo location and technology, transport etc.? How did these alter the appearance and use of Historic field systems, e.g. removal of hedgerows, transformation from small to large fields, drive towards more contiguous land holdings, remote estate management, tenancy methods? In addition to new technological possibilities, how did changes to agricultural policies, subsidies and narratives affect what was grown, where and by whom (e.g. relative proportions of cereals, rape, potatoes, root crops, hay and sileage production versus bought feed) and which stock were fostered (e.g. emergence of intensive pig farming methods, decline of dairy farms, re-emphasis on elite beef production on pasture and over-wintering methods)? How have demands on productivity versus sustainability narratives played out over the last 150 years? How have the climate and environmental challenges of the C21st century been met so far by new technologies (e.g. remote control of farming machinery, micro-soil, topography and fertility analysis)? What are the implications of these changes on the make-up of local farming communities, and their residences (e.g. High Wolds farms, villages, off-Wolds towns)? How have all of these affected the preservation of upstanding and below-ground archaeology (e.g. air photos that reveal sites are indicative of their disappearance under the plough, deeper ploughing for potatoes has disturbed deeper deposits) as well as buildings archaeology (e.g historic farmsteads and yards, associated light industry such as blacksmithing, barns and ancillary buildings)? How has the modern ‘food culture’ of the Wolds emerged and what makes it distinctive?
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20th centuryResearch projects focusing on the changes of the C20th-C21st century should prioritise those sites under most immediate threat, such as the disappearing farmsteads, buildings and structures associated with pre-modern agricultural methods and the housing, education and social life of their communities. Much of this relates to upstanding buildings archaeology, allied to photographic records. Aerial photographic records are a key resource for understanding the significant changes to the landscape during this period, particularly in the face of post-war agricultural intensification and mechanisation. They will chart around 80 years of landscape change. Special emphasis should be given to digitising and disseminating oral histories from the early-mid part of this century with active collection of later C20th century oral narratives from the recently retired who have lived and worked on the Wolds, during periods of considerable technological, political and social change. Family archives could be especially rich and fragile resources, whilst parish based projects should seek to collate, digitise and disseminate or curate collections for future generations. Developer-funded archaeology and buildings conversions should pay particular attention to these past life-ways as they transform the infrastructure of farm-buildings, school-houses and chapels into private residences or clear light industry of previous use. Biodiversity and aquatic survey, allied to newspaper reports and policy documents can chart the significant impact on wildlife species (e.g. birdlife, insect life) impacted by major 20th century changes such as use of pesticides, changes to hedgerow provision, introduction of farming subsidies, changes to woodland management cultures and modern discourses on biodiversity at small-scale and regional levels. Research studies could bring these changes into focus through the topic of food-ways, helping to reveal the radical transformation in regional production versus global markets, the transformations wrought by motor traffic, rail and shipping, as well as new preservation methods (e.g. grain dryers, industrial and domestic refrigeration, slaughter-house techniques). New initiatives in brewing, local beef and pork production, and the ‘fish&chip’ culture of cross-Wolds coast-bound visitors or (motor)bike tourism is worthy of contemporary ethnographic studies of gastro-tourism and its impact on local infrastructure. ActiveYorkshire Wolds Research Framework04/09/2022
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