Home
I wonder if anyone out there might know owt about an earthwork, last described (I think) in a short essay by Francis Villy in July 1908. He described them as being between Oxenhope and Haworth, but I don't know owt about them. Any help would be great in identifying what he described:
Earthworks at Bentley Hey, Oxenhope
"So far as I know these have never previously been described. The inhabitants put them down as Cromwell’s work; but, as we shall see presently, they are certainly not of a military nature, nor I believe are there any evidences that a large army (such as alone could have needed these very extensive works) was present in the region during the Civil Wars. I may say at once that many appearances of such earthworks around the countryside are ascribed to this same cause, and it is hardly rash to premise that such haphazard guesses and generalized traditions carry their own refutation.
"Leaving Oxenhope Station and turning to the left, a strip of moor running towards Haworth is seen on the higher parts of the ridge ahead. The greater part of this moor is enclosed by the lines of these earthworks, which stretch north even further through the pastures (after interruption by a road and a quarry), nearly, if not quite, reaching the course of the beck running down past Royd House. This — the eastern face — runs therefore for more than half a mile, and by far the greater part lies on a great slope in a quite untenable way, and the interior is exposed to observation from the whole of the valley below. On the other side is a narrow and shallow ditch, the soil removed having been piled on the inner side so as to suggest a fortification; but the work is so slight..."
The article goes onto describe more of the earthworks here, but I got the notes from one of the library archives and the library closed when I was writing the notes and so I only got to the bit described above. I'll get the rest of the notes later this week. The author, Mr Villy, contextualizes them alongside the Catstones Ring, the Counter Hill earthworks and similar structures in the region. It'd be good to get out and check them on a day like this and hope to get some clear images of any remsins.