York Historic Environment Record

(SE 5805 5055 FCE) Medieval ridge and furrow

On the western edge of Hob Moor, the eastern ends of at least 20 broad cultivation ridges aligned roughly east - west are well-preserved as earthworks and exhibit (half of) the classic 'reverse-S' pattern. The most pronounced stand some 0.4m high, but they are also traceable as much more degraded earthworks within the playing fields of Hob Moor School. The eastern headland lies against a shallow, slighly meandering channel, now usually dry,probably natural in origin though artificially straightened in places, which was once presumably 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 western 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 (Event record 1376159). (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.