Details

The monument includes the earthwork remains of the medieval settlement at
Ebberston and part of its associated open field system. The settlement
occupies a position to the north west of the present village, just to the
south east of Ebberston church and to the south of Ebberston Hall. The
nature of the surviving remains and the broad layout of the settlement and
it's relationship to associated field system remains can clearly be seen
on a range of aerial photographs.

The settlement is believed to have originated in or before the 11th
century, when the first church was constructed. Although specific
documentary evidence for occupation at the site is inconclusive,
occupation continued until 1801, when some cottages were illustrated on a
print along with Ebberston Hall (built 1718).

The settlement site consists of the remains of house platforms delineated
by low banks and ditches, fronting on to a trackway across the northern
edge of the settlement, now revealed as a hollow way. The earthworks
suggest that the properties had linear crofts to their south side,
approximately 100m long, where the ground slopes gradually away until
another hollow way separates the settlement from the ridge and furrow
cultivation strips to the south. These strips (known as lands) were the
subdivisions of large open arable fields, which permitted individual
tenants to have their own allocation within a village's communal system of
agriculture. This ridge and furrow is of the reversed `S' type and still
survives as part of a clear open field system, although the modern A170
road bisects the strips, so that only a small portion of the field system
falls within the protected area.

The 1801 print appears to show a row of stone cottages occupying the house
platforms along the northern side of the settlement, with trees and bushes
forming boundary lines enclosing the different areas. A small pond is also
shown in the area of the south west corner of the settlement. These
elements form a distinct settlement area, with relationships to the
surrounding landscape features of churchyard, woods, ridge and furrow and
18th-century designed landscape.

The walls and fences are excluded from the scheduling, although the
ground beneath them is included.

MAP EXTRACT
The site of the monument is shown on the attached map extract.

Source: Historic England

Reasons for Scheduling

Medieval rural settlements in England were marked by great regional diversity
in form, size and type, and the protection of their archaeological remains
needs to take these differences into account. To do this, England has been
divided into three broad Provinces on the basis of each area's distinctive
mixture of nucleated and dispersed settlements. These can be further divided
into sub-Provinces and local regions, possessing characteristics which have
gradually evolved during the past 1500 years or more.
This monument lies in the East Yorkshire sub-Province of the Central Province,
an area characterised by marked local terrain variations: from the North York
Moors, to the Tabular Hills and Howardian Hills, to the Vale of Pickering and
the chalk Wolds, to the Hull Valley and the silt lands of the Humber and
Holderness. The sub-Province has the relatively low density of dispersed
settlements which marks the Central Province, but this uniformity masks strong
settlement contrasts. Some regions were typified by low density dispersed
settlement in the Middle Ages, whereas others have achieved a similar pattern
through extensive depopulation of medieval villages.
The Tabular Hills local region is a limestone plateau on the southern fringe
of the North York Moors. Where it dips beneath the younger, softer deposits of
the Vale of Pickering, varied soils and assured water supplies have encouraged
a distinctive chain of villages and hamlets along the break of slope.
Nevertheless nucleations are also found high on the plateau and in the deep
valleys between the moors and the limestone.

Medieval rural settlements in England were marked by great regional
diversity in form, size and type, and the protection of their
archaeological remains needs to take these differences into account. To do
this, England has been divided into three broad Provinces on the basis of
each area's distinctive mixture of nucleated and dispersed settlements.
These can be further divided into sub-Provinces and local regions,
possessing characteristics which have gradually evolved during the past
1500 years or more.

This monument lies in the East Yorkshire sub-Province of the Central
Province, an area characterised by marked local terrain variations: from
the North York Moors, to the Tabular Hills and Howardian Hills, to the
Vale of Pickering and the chalk Wolds, to the Hull Valley and the silt
lands of the Humber and Holderness. The sub-Province has the relatively
low density of dispersed settlements which marks the Central Province, but
this uniformity masks strong settlement contrasts. Some regions were
typified by low density dispersed settlement in the Middle Ages, whereas
others have achieved a similar pattern through extensive depopulation of
medieval villages.

The Tabular Hills local region is a limestone plateau on the southern
fringe of the North York Moors. Where it dips beneath the younger, softer
deposits of the Vale of Pickering, varied soils and assured water supplies
have encouraged a distinctive chain of villages and hamlets along the
break of the slope. Nevertheless, nucleations are also found high on the
plateau and in the deep valleys between the moors and the limestone.

The medieval settlement immediately south east of Ebberston Hall is a
well-preserved example of an abandoned settlement area, set within an
unusual range of landscape elements. The site has the capacity to inform
the study of settlement patterns, if examined as part of a wider
landscape.

Source: Historic England

Sources

Books and journals
The Victoria History of the County of North Riding of Yorkshire, (1923), 434-7
Guide: St Mary the Virgin, Ebberston
Oswald, A, Ebberston Hall, Yorkshire, (1954), 1158-61
Walker, J, Ebberston Lodge, Yorkshire, (1801)
Other
NMR SF/703/443, (1979)

Source: Historic England