York Historic Environment Record

The cropmarks of an extensive site comprising a field system of rectilinear enclosures, associated round houses, are visible to the west and south of Wheldrake Wood, centred at SE 6505 4635. The field system is largely rectilinear in nature and there are many double-ditched elements, although whether these relate to enclosures or trackways is not entirely clear. Probable Iron Age/Roman date.

An extensive Iron Age/Roman field system is visible as cropmarks on air photographs. It comprises rectilinear enclosures with associated round houses and trackways. A possible Iron Age square barrow was also identified. The cropmarks are visible to the west and south of Wheldrake Wood.

The above enclosure complex was transcribed at a scale of 1:10,000 as part of the Vale of York Project. The field system is quite extensive, extending north to south for 1.2 km and west to east for 1.1 km. A possible Iron Age square barrow was identified at SE 6501 4608. A large D-shaped enclosure (130m x 130m) was also identified, centred at SE 6543 4596. It appears to be a different phase from the field system, but the relationship between the two is uncertain. A further enclosure complex lies to the north-east (recorded in SE 64 NE 5), north of Wheldrake Wood, and to the
west (recorded in SE 64 NW 14) which is probably part of the same field system. Additional rectilinear enclosures and field boundaries in the western part of this complex are visible as
cropmarks on aerial photographs taken in July 2002.

NMR Information:

The cropmarks of a rectilinear field system are visible at SE 6763 4725 (site-centred). Cropmarks in the field just to the west (SE 6743 4720) are probably a continuation of the same system. Possible Iron Age/Roman date. (1-1a)

The field system described above was transcribed at a scale of 1:10,000 for the Vale of York Project. It extends north to south for 700 metres and west to east for 650 metres and is centred at SE 6729 4695. At the southern end (SE 6709 4664) two round houses are identified and there are many double-ditched elements here. A field system to the west (recorded in SE 64 NE 3) is of similar form and may be part of the same field system.
(2)

1a Oblique aerial photograph reference number NMR SE 6747/7-10
1 RCHME/EH/HE Aerial Photographers comment RCHME Aerial Reconnaissance/08-JUL-1996
2 Oblique aerial photograph reference number NMR SE 6746/15 (12893/11) 02-AUG-1996

Related event: RCHME AERIAL RECONNAISSANCE April 1996-March 1997


Evaluation excavations 2019 (EYO8092) close to Broad Highway revealed a multiple-phase round-house settlement of late prehistoric to early Roman date, confirming the interpretation suggested by crop-mark evidence and prior geophysical survey. This settlement initially took the form of a sub-rectangular double-ditched enclosure around one or more round-houses. Round-houses were also present outside this enclosure during the later occupation, as evidenced by the ring-ditch excavated in Trench 1.
Evidence suggests that the settlement, even in its later phases, had limited communication with Roman trade networks. Almost no post-Roman pottery was present, even in the modern plough soil, indicating that the site was likely used exclusively for agriculture, if at all, after the settlement was abandoned.
Only a small amount of iron smelting waste material was recovered during the excavations,
suggesting that iron working was taking place nearby, but not within the settlement itself.
Likewise, the animal bone assemblage was very poorly preserved and suggested merely
casual disposal of food waste, in the form of sheep and cattle bones, with no in-depth
interpretation possible. A single pyramidal ceramic loom weight found in the enclosure ditch,
and of common Iron Age or Romano-British form, hints at the production of cloth on site. The
biological evidence recovered from the environmental samples was similarly poorly
preserved and provided no real interpretive information.

*North Duffield Cons and Hist Soc, 2019, Broad Highway, Wheldrake GP (Unpublished document). SYO3008.

*North Duffield Cons and Hist Soc, 2021, Broad Highway, Wheldrake EVA (Unpublished document). SYO3009.

*North Duffield Cons and Hist Soc, 2022, Iron Age Ouse and Derwent Project (Unpublished document). SYO3010.