Ancient Monuments

History on the Ground

This site is entirely user-supported. See how you can help.

Linear earthwork north east of Collingwood Farm

A Scheduled Monument in Cottam, East Riding of Yorkshire

We don't have any photos of this monument yet. Why don't you be the first to send us one?

Upload Photo »

Approximate Location Map
Large Map »

If Google Street View is available, the image is from the best available vantage point looking, if possible, towards the location of the monument. Where it is not available, the satellite view is shown instead.

Coordinates

Latitude: 54.084 / 54°5'2"N

Longitude: -0.5413 / 0°32'28"W

OS Eastings: 495517.98878

OS Northings: 466326.087632

OS Grid: SE955663

Mapcode National: GBR SPN6.LR

Mapcode Global: WHGCX.NLFZ

Entry Name: Linear earthwork north east of Collingwood Farm

Scheduled Date: 16 January 1963

Last Amended: 30 June 1994

Source: Historic England

Source ID: 1007862

English Heritage Legacy ID: 21222

County: East Riding of Yorkshire

Civil Parish: Cottam

Traditional County: Yorkshire

Lieutenancy Area (Ceremonial County): East Riding of Yorkshire

Church of England Parish: Cowlam St Mary

Church of England Diocese: York

Details

The monument includes a section of linear earthwork on the Yorkshire Wolds. It
is 700m long and up to 20m wide. It includes two parallel ditches each 2m wide
and 0.5m deep between which is an earthwork bank 5m wide and 0.5m high.
Slighter earthworks banks 5m wide and up to 0.75m high flank the outside of
the ditches. Together the various elements form a complex 20m wide. The
earthworks are visible throughout Collingwood Plantation although they survive
best at its south western and north eastern ends. They also extend into the
field to the immediate south east of the plantation. Here they have been
reduced by former cultivation and the ditches have been largely in-filled and
the banks spread to form low mounds 0.3m high and 6m to 8m wide.
The linear earthwork originally extended further to both south west and
north east; however beyond the ends of the scheduling the earthwork is not as
clearly visible and the extent of any surviving remains is not fully
understood.

MAP EXTRACT
The site of the monument is shown on the attached map extract.
It includes a 2 metre boundary around the archaeological features,
considered to be essential for the monument's support and preservation.

Source: Historic England

Reasons for Scheduling

Linear boundaries are substantial earthwork features comprising single or
multiple ditches and banks which may extend over distances varying between
less than 1km to over 10km. They survive as earthworks or as linear features
visible as cropmarks on aerial photographs or as a combination of both. The
evidence of excavation and study of associated monuments demonstrate that
their construction spans the millennium from the Middle Bronze Age, although
they may have been re-used later.
The scale of many linear boundaries has been taken to indicate that they were
constructed by large social groups and were used to mark important boundaries
in the landscape; their impressive scale displaying the corporate prestige of
their builders. They would have been powerful symbols, often with religious
associations, used to define and order the territorial holdings of those
groups who constructed them. Linear earthworks are of considerable importance
for the analysis of settlement and land use in the Bronze Age; all well
preserved examples will normally merit statutory protection.

This section of earthwork survives well. Together with other similar
monuments in this part of the Yorkshire Wolds it provides an insight into
prehistoric land division in this area.

Source: Historic England

Sources

Other
4204, Humberside SMR,

Source: Historic England

Other nearby scheduled monuments

AncientMonuments.uk is an independent online resource and is not associated with any government department. All government data published here is used under licence. Please do not contact AncientMonuments.uk for any queries related to any individual ancient or schedued monument, planning permission related to scheduled monuments or the scheduling process itself.

AncientMonuments.uk is a Good Stuff website.