Scheduled Monument: CAIRNFIELD ON GIBBET MOOR WEST OF UMBERLEY BROOK, 1.2KM SOUTH WEST OF DALEBROOK HOUSE (1018996)

REASONS FOR DESIGNATION The East Moors in Derbyshire includes all the gritstone moors east of the River Derwent. It covers an area of 105 sq km, of which around 63% is open moorland and 37% is enclosed. As a result of recent and on-going archaeological survey, the East Moors area is becoming one of the best recorded upland areas in England. On the enclosed land the archaeological remains are fragmentary, but survive sufficiently well to show that early human activity extended beyond the confines of the open moors. On the open moors there is significant and well-articulated evidence over extensive areas for human exploitation of the gritstone uplands from the Neolithic to the post-medieval periods. Bronze Age activity accounts for the most intensive use of the moorlands. Evidence for it includes some of the largest and best preserved field systems and cairnfields in northern England as well settlement sites, numerous burial monuments, stone circles and other ceremonial remains which, together, provide a detailed insight into life in the Bronze Age. Also of importance is the well preserved and often visible relationship between the remains of earlier and later periods since this provides an insight into successive changes in land use through time. A large number of the prehistoric sites on the moors, because of their rarity in a national context, excellent state of preservation and inter-connections, will be identified as nationally important. Cairnfields are concentrations of cairns sited in close proximity to one another. They often consist largely of clearance cairns, built with stone cleared from the surrounding land surface to improve its use for agriculture and on occasions their distribution pattern can be seen to define field plots. Occasionally, some of the cairns were used for funerary purposes although without excavation it is difficult to determine which cairns contain burials. Clearance cairns were constructed from the Neolithic period (from c.3,400 BC) although the majority date from the Bronze Age (2,000-700 BC). Cairnfields can also retain information concerning the development of land use and agricultural practices as well as the diversity of beliefs and social organisation during the prehistoric period. The cairnfield on Gibbet Moor west of Umberley Brook, 1.2km south west of Dalebrook House, survives well and provides an insight into Bronze Age agricultural use of this moorland. DETAILS The monument includes a group of cairns occupying a ridge of moorland and forming a discrete cairnfield resulting from the clearance of land for agriculture during the Bronze Age. The cairnfield occupies a ridge of well drained ground to the south east of an extensive area of Bronze Age settlement on Gibbet Moor, the subject of a separate scheduling. The cairnfield was part of the overall pattern of settlement and related activity across the moor, but separated from other surviving remains by areas of boggy and stony ground. There are at least 12 cairns forming a small elongated cairnfield, of which most or all appear to survive intact. The cairns stand in a relatively stone free area, the larger being approximately 4m in diameter, although some are only about 2m in diameter. Many of the cairns are ovoid in shape indicating that they once formed part of a system of field plots possibly divided by hedges or fences. The cairns were formed as a result of the systematic clearance of the ridge for agriculture during the Bronze Age. SELECTED SOURCES Book Reference - Author: Barnatt, JW - Title: The Chatsworth Estate Historic Landscape Survey (Moorlands) - Date: 1998 - Page References: 79-80