East Yorkshire’s Middle-Iron-Age story stands out in Britain because the communities who farmed the chalk of the Yorkshire Wolds developed Read more
Intach Ford
In the field of Bridge Barn, close to Nathwaite Bridge, there are two fords marked on the OS Series 1 map. This site page holds the details of our investigation into the fording point we think may be called Intach Ford.
The second ford upstream of Nathwaite Bridge – what the evidence suggests
Evidence strand
Findings
Implications
Cartographic
OS 1st-edition 6-inch (1856) marks “Ford” c. 90 m east-south-east of the bridge, with a dashed path on both banks.
On the 1845 Carlton tithe sketch the same line is shown as an un-named “occupation road” leading into the parcel later called Ford Intack.
The ford pre-dates the masonry bridge and survived at least into mid-Victorian times as a stock or cart crossing.
Topography & LiDAR
1 m LiDAR reveals a shallow, 2 m-wide sunken hollow-way approaching the ford from the north field corner and fading into a terrace on the south bank—exactly where the tithe “occupation road” ran.
Confirms repeated wheeled or hoof traffic; the hollow-way’s degree of infill suggests medieval or early-post-medieval longevity.
Field-name evidence
1732 Bolton Abbey estate survey lists “Ford Intack Close” (later tithe parcel 98) on the south bank; the name vanishes once Nathwaite Bridge becomes the main crossing.
The ford was a recognised landmark long enough to fix a parcel name—normally a sign of 17th-century or earlier usage.
Road-system context
The hollow-way aligns with the old Pack-horse road from Carlton to Park Rash (route to Wharfedale). When the Turnpike trustees rebuilt the dale floor road c. 1790, they sited Nathwaite Bridge a few metres upstream on firmer foundations, leaving the ford track to dwindle into a field lane.
The ford represents the earlier crossing on the pack-road; the bridge was a late-Georgian improvement to put wheeled traffic on a straighter, better-engineered line.
Hydrology
River Cover here spreads over a broad, shaly riffle only 20–30 cm deep in summer; a stable stone riverbed makes a natural ford, but floods cut it off in winter—exactly the limitation that prompted bridge construction.
Seasonal unreliability explains why, once a bridge was affordable, estates favoured the fixed span, and the ford dropped out of regular use.
Archaeological visibility
No masonry abutments or paving blocks are visible today; the crossing probably used laid timber “slew” poles or simply the natural bedrock. Occasional rounded pack-horse cobbles in the river bank hint at light surfacing.
Lack of built fabric means the ford leaves little trace beyond the hollow-way, explaining its absence from later maps once memory faded.
Synthesis
The ford is almost certainly the older, medieval (and probably much earlier) pack-horse crossing for traffic between Carlton/West Scrafton and Wharfedale.
Nathwaite Bridge, built c. 1790-1800, replaced the ford to guarantee year-round passage for lime and coal carts; the bridge’s siting a few metres upstream cut a more direct line to the new turnpike.
After the bridge opened, the ford’s track devolved to a farm access and later to pasture, leaving only the hollow-way and the field name Ford Intack as witnesses to its former importance.
For further confirmation, an on-foot inspection of the hollow-way banks for pack-horse kerbstones—or a dowsing of the riverbed for re-deposited paving—is worthwhile, and the Bolton Estate road orders (NYCRO ZBO IV/12) may still hold the 18th-century proposal drawing that fixed the bridge site and sealed the ford’s relegation to history.
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Intach Ford
