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Horse Head medieval shieling on Greyfell Common 50m west of confluence of Gosling Sike and Horsehead Grain

Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places

Overview

Heritage Category:: Scheduled Monument
List Entry Number:: 1016400
Date first listed:: 22-Dec-1997

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Official list entry

Heritage Category:: Scheduled Monument
List Entry Number:: 1016400
Date first listed:: 22-Dec-1997

Location

The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.

County:: Cumbria
District:: Carlisle (District Authority)
Parish:: Bewcastle
National Grid Reference:: NY 61747 80605

Reasons for Designation

Shielings are small seasonally occupied huts which were built to provide shelter for herdsmen who tended animals grazing summer pasture on upland or marshland. These huts reflect a system called transhumance, whereby stock was moved in spring from lowland pasture around the permanently occupied farms to communal upland grazing during the warmer summer months. Settlement patterns reflecting transhumance are known from the Bronze Age (c.2000-700 BC) onwards. However, the construction of herdsmen's huts in a form distinctive from the normal dwelling houses of farms, only appears from the early medieval period onwards (from AD 450), when the practice of transhumance is also known from documentary sources and, notably, place-name studies. Their construction appears to cease at the end of the 16th century. Shielings vary in size but are commonly small and may occur singly or in groups. They have a simple sub- rectangular or ovoid plan normally defined by drystone walling, although occasional turf-built structures are known, and the huts are sometimes surrounded by a ditch. Most examples have a single undivided interior but two roomed examples are known. Some examples have adjacent ancillary structures, such as pens, and may be associated with a midden. Some are also contained within a small ovoid enclosure. Shielings are reasonably common in the uplands but frequently represent the only evidence for medieval settlement and farming practice here. Those examples which survive well and which help illustrate medieval land use in an area are considered to be nationally important.

Horse Head medieval shieling survives reasonably well and is part of a larger group of shielings sited amongst the uplands and along the river valleys and tributaries of north east Cumbria which, taken together, will add to our knowledge and understanding of the wider border settlement and economy during the medieval period.

Details

The monument includes Horse Head medieval shieling located on a slight rock spur on Greyfell Common 50m west of the confluence of Gosling Sike and Horsehead Grain. It measures approximately 8m by 3.5m externally with its long axis aligned east-west and has walls of drystone construction one course high protruding through the covering vegetation in places. A small cairn has been constructed with debris from the shieling and piled in the centre of the building.

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.

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:: 27786
Legacy System:: RSM

Sources

Books and journals
Ramm, H G , Shielings and Bastles, (1970), 29

Legal

This monument is scheduled under the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979 as amended as it appears to the Secretary of State to be of national importance. This entry is a copy, the original is held by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.