A LITTLE HISTORY of LITTLETHORPE (Created from Easily-Accessible Secondary Sources)
A LITTLE HISTORY OF LITTLETHORPE (Created from easily-accessible secondary sources)
John Edmonstone
In the beginning….
Some 255 million years ago what is now Ripon and all the surrounding area, including Littlethorpe, lay at the edge of a tropical sea and what is now Quarry Moor formed the beach. When the upper rocks at Quarry Moor were formed the sea was beginning to dry up and to become very salty. The crystals formed layers which eventually dissolved, the land above gave way and great holes were formed. As a result, gypsum underlies much of the Ripon area, including Littlethorpe.
The Ice Ages – and beyond
Around 16,000 BC the seas around northern Europe were some 400 feet lower than today and the average temperatures were four to five degrees lower. Britain at that time was not an island but simply the uninhabited north-west corner of Europe, and between it and the rest of the continent stretched frozen tundra, recently named “Doggerland” after the Dogger Bank in the North Sea. The end of the last major Ice Age came around 8,000 BC. As global temperatures rose melting ice sent freshwater rivers spinning through the frozen tundra, irrigating and fertilising it such that it developed into habitable, even hospitable terrain.As the sub-Arctic world warmed up and the ice receded mammoths, woolly rhinoroceri, deer, elks, horses, aurochs, wild pigs and wild boar headed northward and westward from the rest of Europe and the human hunter-gatherers followed.
Coming off the uplands of what is now continental Europe, they found themselves on a vast, low-lying plain. It was a land of hills and valleys, large swamps, marshes, lagoons and mudflats with major rivers dissecting a convoluted coastline. As the climate steadily improved, a richer natural vegetation started to cover the land, including oak, ash, elm, birch, willow, alder, hazel and pine. Stinging nettles grew amidst the grasses. Waterfowl, otters and beavers abounded in wetland areas and the seas, lakes and rivers teemed with fish, including trout. It was probably one of the richest hunting, fishing and fowling ground in Europe at the time.
This whole area of “Doggerland” was settled by tens of thousands of hunter-gatherer Mesolithic people. Such settlers headed further west into what is now the mainland of the British Isles and flint tools dating from this era have been found near Mankin Lane. The melt-water from the Wensleydale glacier came down Skelldale, scouring out the valley and left its’ debris of sand, gravel and silt on the plain below. Remnants survive in the mounds on which the cathedral is built and at Ailcey Hill in Ripon.
Around 6,200 BC, after millennia of incrementally rising seas, a massive release of meltwater from agiant glacial lake in North America called Lake Agassiz caused sea levels to jump bymore than two feet. By slowing the circulation of warm water in the North Atlantic,this influx of frigid water triggered a sudden plunge in temperature, causing “Doggerland”’s coasts to be battered by freezing winds. Around the same time, a sub-sea landslideon the seafloor off the coast of Norway, called the Storegga slide, triggered atsunamithat flooded the coastlines of northern Europe. The collapse involved some 3,000 cubic km of sediment and the waves were about 10m (33 feet) high. By 5,500 BC the British Isles were now totally cut off fromEurope as rising sea levels created the southern area of the North Sea, although the Dogger Bank remained as a low-lying marshy island less than 5m in height and covering an area about the size of Wales for another 500 years, but by around 5,000 BC the Dogger Bank finally disappeared under the North Sea.
New arrivals
Around 4,000 BC a new people from the south arrived on the thickly-forested shores of the now BritishIsles. They came in boats, with sheep, cattle and cereals. This marked the beginning of what have been termed the Neolithic and Bronze Ages. Between 3,500 and 2,500 BC arable farming and the domestication of animals began and henge monuments (circular enclosures with an internal ditch and an external bank broken by one or two entrances) were built at Thornborough on the gravels of the River Ure between Ripon and Boroughbridge. The three circular henges are aligned by a large cursus – two parallel ditches that stretch almost a mile, with a slight kink in shape, so the layout resembles the three stars of Orion’s Belt. Gypsum from further downstream on the river was spread across the banks to give the earthworks a sparkling covering of white. They were clearly sites of major ceremonial interest and are thought to be part of a ritual landscape comparable with Salisbury Plain. Sometimes called the “Stonehenge of the North”, their appearance, situation and workforce requirements all indicate their importance to those who built them. They are the most important ancient site between Stonehenge and Orkney. In fact, to these people, the area close to the River Ure was a sacred or holy area and must have been the supreme religious focus for the whole of northern England.
More locally, about 100 metres south-east of Thorpe Lodge was constructed a 75-metre circular double-banked feature with an interior circle of 10-metre diameter which was probably of importance, as the mediaeval ridge and furrow landscape next to it subsequently respected the shape. It may possibly be a Neolithic henge feature.
During the early Bronze Age (around 2,300 BC) the first evidence appeared of semi-nomadic people gradually settling more permanently, although the overall population was sparse. Human occupation appeared in the Vale of York and implements made of bronze were used. The metal was refined from ore and hammered or cast into shape.
Between 700 BC and 70 AD (known as the Iron Age) people continued to farm, to clear forest and to use stone tools. Only gradually did iron tools and weapons become adopted. There were major changes in burial rituals away from cremations to using circular mounds of earth (known as barrows).
Around 200 metres to the south west ofa natural spring at Hood Hole Farm (now on Harrogate Road) were constructed two ring ditches. Around 150 metres on the east side of the present A61 Ripon-Ripley road there is a track-way running north-south for around 600 metres before bending to the south- east. Near the southern end of the track-way to the east there is a large 120 x 100 metres rectangular double-banked enclosure containing numerous circular features, hut circles and pits.
150 metres south-east of Thorpe Lodge there is a rectangular enclosure 75 x 30 metres aligned east-west which shows up in aerial photographs as light markings, indicating either rubble or stone foundations. To the south-east of Thorpe Lodge and south-west of Park Hill there is an area of circular anomalies that are possibly Iron Age farmsteads with a west-running curved track, although the traces are overlain with mediaeval ridge and furrow.
At Potgate Quarry, near Ripon, around 130 BC an enclosure was home to several families. Stone beads and quern stones for milling have been discovered.
People locally would have been members of Celtic tribes. Water and watery places were held in great reverence, perhaps suggesting portals between worlds and such natural springs to various gods were strongly revered. One such was St Helen’s Well – a Celtic holy well (probably pre-Christian), grid reference SE 3018 6901 – a strong spring rising at the head of St Helen’s Gutter. Both were named much later after St. Helena (or Helen) of Constantinople, mother of the Roman Emperor Constantine, who was allegedly born in York. She was made a saint because she went on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land and (again allegedly) found the True Cross on which Jesus was crucified. The water is channelled underground and emerges from an opening in a small section of dry-stone walling. It is one of over twenty-five holy wells in Britain dedicated to St Helen.
What have the Romans ever done for us?
ARoman invasion of lowland Britain took place in 43 AD by 40,000 troops led by the Roman Emperor Claudius. Claudius received deputations from eleven kings and queens, including Queen Cartimandua (the name means “Sleek Pony”) of the Brigantestribe and made terms for peace and made Brigantia a client state of Rome. It is highly likely that large loans helped to smooth the way. The native population of Littlethorpe, the Celtic or Brythonic tribal or clan confederation of the Brigantes (the name could mean “hill-dwellers”, “high-persons”, “high-place or “highlanders”or be derived from the Celtic mother-goddess, Brigit) were the largest tribal grouping in northern England and in pre-Roman times controlled Brigantia – the largest section of what would become northern England between Tyne and Humber, centred around Yorkshire, straddling the Pennines and reaching down to both the North Sea and Irish Sea coasts. They were both territorially and population-wise the largest tribe in Britain, encompassing sub-tribes or “septs”. They lived in small villages and raised cattle, sheep, goats, pigs and horses. At least in the upper part of their tribal society the Brigantes were wealthy. Three miles north of Ripon at Hutton Moor is a large earthwork created by them. Their tribal “capital” was at the huge Iron Age hillfort at Stanwick, near Scotch Corner. This comprises over 9 kilometres (5.6 miles) of ditches and a perimeter of massive rampart dykes enclosing approximately 300 hectares (800 acres) of land and included a substantial water supply.
The name Mankin Lane may well date from this period, as the term “mankin” is of Celtic origin. The “kin” means leader or head and in the combined form “mankin” means head of a group or headman. In the Oxford Old English Dictionary (OOED) a “mankin”was a fierce wild man. It is a term particularly associated with Yorkshire (there is a Mankinholes near Todmorden).
During the Roman invasion of Britain the Governor, PubliusOstorius Scapula, was forced to
abandon his campaign against the Deceangli tribe of north Wales and the Druid sanctuary on Mona (Anglesey) in 47 AD because of “disaffection” among the Brigantes , whose leaders had, until that time, been seen as allies of Rome. A few of those who had taken up arms were killed and the rest were pardoned. The following year a Roman army operated in Brigantia assisted Queen Cartimandua in suppressing the rebels. The Brigantian aristocracy imported Romanised goods and masonry buildings were constructed.
Elsewhere in Britain the defeated British resistance leader Caratacusof the Catuvellauni tribe fled north in 51 AD after having tried and failed to raise an insurrection in the south was defeated in a last stand against the Romans at DinasEmrys and sought sanctuary with Queen Cartimandua, but she showed her loyalty to the Romans by handing him over in chains. She and her husband Venutiusof the Carvetii tribe were therefore described by the Romans as loyal and “defended by Roman arms”, but they later divorced. Venutius was outraged by what he considered his wife’s pro-Roman treachery and he took over Caratacus’ role as leader of the Brigantian opposition to Rome. Thus during the the Governorship of AulusDidius Gallus (52-57 AD) the estranged Venutius gathered an army and invaded Brigantia, starting a civil war - but the Romans sent troops to defend Queen Cartimandua and so defeated Venutius’ rebellion. Ten years later, in 67 AD Queen Cartimandua married Venutius’ charioteer and armour-bearer, Vellocatus, and raised him to the kingship. By 69 AD Venutius staged another rebellion, taking advantage of Roman instability in the “year of the four Emperors”.Venutius called for help from the Selgovae and the Novantes tribes based north of Brigantia in what is now southern Scotland. The Romans under Governor Marcus VettiusBolanus were only able to send an auxiliary force of Batavian (Dutch) horse and foot soldiers who succeeded in rescuing and evacuating Queen Cartimandua but left Venutius and his anti-Roman supporters in total control of the kingdom. After Vespasian’s accession as Emperor that same year Quintus PetilliusCerialis was appointed Governor of Britain and the conquest of the Brigantes was begun, but took many decades to eventually complete.
Governor Quintus PetilliusCerialis led IX Hispana Legion based at Lincoln northwards in 70 AD into Brigantia via Hull in order to quell the civil war between Queen Cartimandua and Venutius. By the next year the Roman military advance had subdued the Brigantes and had reached Eboracum - the name means “place ofthe yewtrees” (York), effectively ending Celtic or Brythonic rule in what is now England. The Legionary fortress of Eboracum was set up and was the military rather than the civic base. Constructed at a bend in the River Ouse, at this time the sea-tide washed up from the Humber and the small sixty-man patrol ships could supply the army base from the sea.
The Brigantiansurvivors were pushed north into Caledonia.
One of the Roman objectives in conquering Brigantia was to gain access to its’ natural resources – especially lead, which was mined at Greenhow Hill. Aldborough (IsuriumBrigantum), six miles to the east of Ripon on the Roman road of Dere Street, became the centre of the local civitas(civilian administrative area) that took in all of North Yorkshire and was, in effect, the civic capital of the northern province of Roman Britain. Situated at the junction of roads from Eboracum (York), Calcaria (Tadcaster), Olicana (Ilkley) and Cataractonium (Catterick), it was defended by an earthen rampart and ditch and included an amphitheatre for combined spectacles and entertainments – making it the equivalent of a national theatre of the north. The amphitheatre was also flanked by a sports stadium (all at an area now known as Studforth Hill) and the town would also have included a forum, stone and brick buildings and temples to the gods. The civitas was run by the ordo, a council of decuriones, men of property drawn from the region as well as the town – more a county council than a town council. At full complement, the ordo of a civitas had 100 members with property over a certain value.
Venutius’ rebellion was finally crushed at the Battle of Stanwick in 74 AD. He had created a defensive structure whose great length made it impossible to defend. Druid priests had built “ghost fences”, placing skulls at important points on the turf walls trying to use magic to protect the tribesmen and their horses and repel the advancing legionaries, but this clearly did not work.
By the 80s AD theRomans were smelting lead at Greenhow in Nidderdale.There is some further archaeological evidence for Roman occupation in the central Ripon area, which might have included structures of some sophistication.
Brigantian resistance continued, however and between 78 and 84 ADRomanGovernor Gnaeus Julius Agricola engaged in warfare on Brigantian territory. Later when Hadrian became Emperor in Rome in 117, his appointment coincided with another major revolt against the Romans by the Brigantes, but Quintus Pompeiuss Falco, the new Governor of Britain, finally subdued them.
All did not go the Romans way, however, for in 120 the 9th Hispania legion marched up Dere Street (the A68) and into what is now Scotland – and disappeared. As a result 122 saw the commencement of building of the 73-mile long Hadrian’s Wall, although it was not completed until 136. It was probably built to keep the Brigantes from allying with the tribes in the lowlands of what is now Scotland. In the militarised zone to the south of the Wall in Durham and North Yorkshire there were no major cities (with the exception of Eboracum) and very few rural villas were located. Native sites have produced very few Roman coins and artefacts. Most of the local Brigantian population continued to live in traditional roundhouses in increasingly impoverished conditions. The massive Romanmilitary presence (some 60,000 soldiers) subsequently had a parasitical effect on the people living in the militarised frontier zone. Native economic and cultural development largely ground to a halt. Two Roman roads passed within a few miles of Ripon and there is a tradition of a Roman ford about 50 yards below North Bridge. A military outpost also existed at North Stainley. The foundations of the crypt of the Cathedral contain re-used Roman stones which suggests use of material from a pre-existing Roman structure and tessellated pavements represent the existence of a high-status building.
The language that people spoke at this time was a Celtic one, closer to that spoken by the Cornish and the Welsh than the Gaels of Ireland and their descendants, who would later colonise western Scotland.