Monument record MDR3617 - 'Cranes Fort' Hillfort, 150m North East of Meadow Place Grange, Youlgreave
Type and Period (3)
Protected Status/Designation
- None recorded
Full Description
Linear earthwork, two banks on the line of walls. Presumably associated with the medieval grange. (1).
Reinterpreted as a hillfort. The sub-rectangular plan to the ramparts encloses an area of 9.71 acres (3.929 ha). It uses the location for defense, with a precipitous dale to north and steep slopes to south. The ramparts are univallate, their northern and southern lines running parallel to the crest of the ridge. They consist of low walls (0.8 metres high, six metres wide) reinforcing the naturally steep slopes. The eastern and western alignments, cutting across the ridge, are much more substantial. The ramparts are built of limestone blocks with a rubble infill. Traces of external ditches are slight, probably due to farming erosion. The western rampart has been damaged in places by stone - robbing for the lime kilns and for the enclosure walls. It is still one and half metres high and c. nine metres wide at its base. The farm gateway in the northern quarter may be original, although the south-west corner, pitted by stone quarries, may have provided a better entrance location. The eastern rampart, across the narrower part of the ridge, is formed by a quarry ditch with traces of a counter scarp bank. Near the centre is a cut for the slightly turned-in narrow entrance. The eastern rampart is one and half metres high and ten metres wide at the base. The flattish ditch is five metres wide and the counter scarp bank averages five metres in breadth. (2).
Relationships to other, dated, features provides an indication of age. Field walls on top of the earthworks were partly built by 1617, and there may be map evidence for these dating back to at least 1528. Overlying the eastern earthwork (rampart) is at least one lynchet. This forms part of a larger strip lynchet and ridge and furrow system almost certainly of medieval date. Built on top of the western earthwork (rampart) is a bank of partly industrial debris, probably a post-medieval field boundary which was superseded by the present wall. The monument predates the enclosure of medieval and post-medieval date. Probably this is a hillfort although other possibilities exist. (3).
The monument sits on a natural saddle, defined to the north by a steep scarp. A similar, though more shallow, slope creates a natural boundary to the south. Both scarp edges are enhanced by low manmade walls. Two lines of earthworks define the eastern and western limits of an enclosure c. 0.9ha in area. Access could not be gained in 2011. <4>
Sources/Archives (4)
- <1> SDR14774 Index: NDAT. 3351. 3351.
- <2> SDR7067 Article in serial: Hart, C & Makepeace, G. 1993. 'Crane's Fort, Conksbury, Youlgreave, Derbyshire: A Newly Discovered Hillfort', Derbyshire Archaeology Journal. Volume 113. 16-20.
- <3> SDR616 Unpublished document: Bevan, B (PDNPA). 1995. Meadow Place Grange, Youlgreave, with land near Weaddow Lane, Middleton & Smerrill, Derbyshire, archaeological survey, 1995. 207. Feature no. 1.
- <4> SDR24169 Unpublished document: Waddington, C and J Brightman (ARS Ltd). 2012. Peak District Hillforts: Conservation and Management Audit.
Map
Location
| Grid reference | Centred SK 2037 6591 (307m by 173m) (Centre) |
|---|---|
| Civil Parish | YOULGREAVE, DERBYSHIRE DALES, DERBYSHIRE |
Related Monuments/Buildings (0)
Related Events/Activities (2)
- EDR3889
- EDR4691
Please contact the HER for details.
External Links (0)
Record last edited
Feb 28 2020 1:21PM