Details

The monument includes a section of the Cleave Dyke system, a prehistoric
linear boundary system on the Hambleton Hills, known as the Casten Dike.
Orientated east to west, the linear boundary extends westwards for 90m from
the head of Flassen Gill. At its eastern end it has been truncated by modern
trackways which cut through this area. It is unclear how far it originally
extended at this end. The monument is preserved as a prominent ditch with two
flanking banks. The ditch is 4m wide and up to 0.9m deep. The northern bank is
3m wide and 1.2m high and the southern bank is 3m wide and 0.5m above the
ground to the south and 1.5m above the bottom of the ditch.
This section of earthwork is part of a wider system of prehistoric linear
earthworks continuing for 9km north-south along the western edge of the
Hambleton Hills. Shorter east-west earthworks linked valley heads to the main
dyke and thus divided the terrain into discrete units for agricultural and
social purposes.
The dyke is associated with earlier round barrows which also marked the
division of land. Together the monuments on this area of the Hambleton Hills
provide important evidence of territorial organisation and the development of
settled agricultural practices.

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

The Cleave Dyke system is the most westerly of a series of dyke systems on the
Tabular Hills of north east Yorkshire. The name has been given to a series of
linear ditches and banks stretching north-south over 9km parallel with and
close to the western scarp of the Hambleton Hills. The system was constructed
between the Late Bronze Age and the Iron Age to augment the natural division
of the terrain by river valleys and watersheds. Significant stretches remain
visible as upstanding earthworks; elsewhere it can be recognised as a cropmark
on aerial photographs. The system formed a prehistoric territorial boundary in
an area largely given over to pastoralism; the impressive scale of the
earthworks displays the corporate prestige of their builders. In some
instances the boundaries have remained in use to the present day. Linear
boundaries are of considerable importance for the analysis of settlement and
land use in the later prehistoric period; all well preserved examples will
normally merit statutory protection.

This section of the Cleave Dyke system is preserved as a prominent earthwork
for most of its length, forming a clear division across the landscape.
Significant remains are preserved which will retain important information
about the original form and function of the earthwork. Lying perpendicular to
the main spine of the Cleave Dyke, the Casten Dike further subdivides the
landscape and illustrates the complexity of the Cleave Dyke system. It offers
important scope for the study of the division of land for social, ritual and
agricultural purposes in different geographical areas during the prehistoric
period.

Source: Historic England

Sources

Books and journals
Spratt, D A , 'The Archaeological Journal' in The Cleave Dyke System, , Vol. VOL 54, (1982), 33-52

Source: Historic England