York Historic Environment Record

(SE 5832 5010 FCE) Medieval ridge and furrow
Within this field on the southern edge of Hob Moor, some eight broad cultivation ridges, approximately 300m long and aligned roughly south-south-west - north-north-east, are well-preserved as earthworks and exhibit the classic 'reverse-S' pattern. The most pronounced, where the ground is low-lying and slightly boggy along the western edge of the field, stand some 0.8m high. One of the ridges has been sub-divided into two. The earthworks in the eastern half of the field are much less pronounced and may have been over-ploughed at some stage. The northern headland has been cut through on the line of several of the furrows, apparently after the disuse of the ridges, to allow drainage into the Moor Drain, a tributary of the Holgate beck.

Although now generally considered part of Hob Moor common (SE 55 SE 175), the field lay just beyond the southern edge of the ancient common. A map of the Manor of Dringhouses surveyed in 1624 (1a) shows the ridge and furrow described above to be a small fragment of a much larger field system that formerly surrounded the common. The map depicts individual strips and names the tenants.

A Level 1 survey of the area was carried out in 2003 as part of English Heritage's Archaeology of Urban Commons project. (1)

1A VIRTUAL CATALOGUE ENTRY TO SUPPORT NAR MIGRATION Map of the Manor of Dringhouses by Samuel Parsons, surveyed 1624, published 1629, held in York City Reference Library
1 Field Investigators Comments English Heritage: Archaeology of Urban Commons Project

NMR, 2019, NMR data (Digital archive). SYO2214.