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Sites have been identified from Scheduled Ancient Monuments records, the North Yorkshire SMR database, the Ordnance Survey Antiquity Record and from historical maps. Further sites have been added from the 'events records’ of archaeological interventions and from published sources. Sites recognised from aerial photography have only been plotted as symbols on the map where they have been entered in the SMR. All sites have been ascribed a Desk-Based Assessment number (DBA) and entered on a gazetteer (Appendix A) with cross references to their Scheduled Ancient Monument number (SAM), National Monument number (NMN), or North Yorkshire SMR number (NYM) where applicable.
Using the Ordnance Survey 1:10,000 raster data as a base, a general map has been presented at 1:25,000 (Map 2, web version omitts geology) to show the distribution of sites in relation to the geology and topography of the area, and a more detailed distribution map has been compiled of all archaeological sites, features and find spots according to period where possible. This has been presented at 1:10,000 on six A1 maps (Maps 3A-3F, combined as single Map 3 in web version). For the purposes of the gazetteer and distribution map, pit alignments have been assumed to be Neolithic and have been represented as a symbol at their centre.
Contours at 10m intervals have been plotted from the Ordnance Survey 1:25,000 Explorer maps and the drift geology of the area from the British Geological Survey’s 1:50,000 maps of Masham and Thirsk.
For the more detailed area, aerial photographs were sourced and plotted in order to provide an assessment of the survival and visibility of archaeological sites in relation to the underlying geology. Where the modern raster data had an insufficient number of field boundaries to plot accurately the aerial photographs, earlier boundaries, footpaths and landscape features such as ponds and quarry pits were added to the map using information from the 1856 1st edition Ordnance Survey map and from vertical photographs dating to the 1940s and 1950s. These were then used as a control for rectifying, plotting and interpreting the photographs. In some cases it was not possible to see prints of one or two of the pertinent photographs at the locations visited, therefore these sites have either been plotted from other published sources or their location marked as a symbol with a brief description in the gazetteer.
Photographs were rectified and digitised using AutoCad, and in some cases the plot has been checked or augmented using published sources such as photographs not seen in the above archives or excavation plans.
For the purposes of the gazetteer, cropmarks are grouped according to concentrations seen in a particular field or area. Individual features from these groups may be described in the body of the text under period, but miscellaneous features which include probable geological features, field drains and ephemeral or uncertain features are only described in the index to photographs consulted (Appendix B). Other sites are listed in the gazetteer according to their DBA number and are either plotted on Map 5 as earthworks or their position shown by symbols.
All sites have been shown on the general distribution maps (Map3A, 3B, 3C or 3D, web version Map 3), but for the detailed assessment area another map, Map 5, has been compiled showing the sites (DBA 1-73, 329 and 330) colour coded according to their category (see below). On this map the positions and boundaries of Scheduled Ancient Monuments are shown but Listed Buildings have only been included as sites on the gazetteer where they are not sited within the nucleus of a village, such as the three isolated houses, Chapel Hill Farm, Camp House and Manor Farm. Where Listed Buildings are found within villages, the village itself has been allocated to category A. A table of all Listed Buildings within the detailed assessment area are listed in Appendix C. The gazetteer for the detailed assessment area listing the categories of the sites is presented in Appendix D.
For the detailed assessment area, sites have been assigned to categories from A-E for the purposes of the assessment (Table 1). The categories reflect the level of archaeological significance of a site, a judgement often made according to how much is known about the specific site or the type of site, but they also reflect the level of archaeological constraint, for example if a site is legally protected. Category E includes chance find spots and sites which may have had a high level of significance but which have now been completely destroyed. Category E sites which have been archaeologically recorded before their destruction have been represented in a different colour on Map 5. Field boundaries shown on the 1856 Ordnance Survey map are assumed to be Category D sites and do not appear as separate entries in the gazetteer.
Table 1 Category definitions
| Category | Description | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| A | Legally Protected | Scheduled Ancient Monuments, Listed Buildings |
| B | Known archaeological sites, historic buildings | Burial sites, Deserted Medieval Villages, Roman roads, known pit alignments |
| C | Archaeological sites of uncertain character or date | Field systems, former buildings, courses of Roman roads, dense finds scatters |
| D | Historic landscape components and possible sites | Ridge and furrow, old field boundaries, unidentified features on aerial photographs |
| E | Single find spots, modern landscape components, excavated or destroyed sites | Single find spots, modern field boundaries, drains and ponds |
Data for this assessment was collected from detailed searches of records, maps, photographs and documents held by the North Yorkshire County Sites and Monuments Record, the National Monuments Record, the North Yorkshire County Records Office, the J B Morrell Library at the University of York and the City of York Library reference collections. Geological data was taken from the British Geological Survey 1:50,000 Drift Geology maps of the Masham and Thirsk areas. Aerial photographs were studied at the North Yorkshire County Sites and Monuments Record, the National Monuments Record and the Cambridge University Committee for Aerial Photography.
Permission has been obtained to reproduce 6 of the aerial photographs held by Cambridge University Committee for Aerial Photography in this web site. Those reproduced are listed in the details and content page of this assessment, and also from the relevant entry in Appendix B.