Mound in field of Bridge Barn, Nathwaite Bridge

Mound in Bridge Barn Field, close to Nathwaite Bridge, Coverdale

Contents

1 “Mystery mound” beside the Cow-ford – what we can (and cannot yet) document

Castle Hill’s imposing silhouette hides a great prehistoric fort, Norman castle and Victorian tower. Thanks to Varley’s trenches and the Read more

West Yorkshire

North Yorkshire

The County of North Yorkshire is a small part of what was once a much larger collection of tribes in Read more

Maiden Castle Fort Pooley Bridge

A superbly circular "fort", built on the side of the hill, which seems to be a Brigantian fashion (see below). Read more

Maiden Castle Fort Reeth

For over five hundred years, the miners and smelters of Reeth produced mountains of precious lead. The lead ores from Read more

Pickhill Mound

A large artificial mound here, apparently raised for defensive purposes, bears the name of Picts' Hill, and an improbable belief Read more

Castle Steads Hill Fort

Castle Steads is a Hill-Side Enclosure, seemingly built without worry of threat from the upper slopes of the hill it Read more

Catterick Henge

The henge at Catterick racecourse is an intriguing prehistoric site. Initially thought to be a Roman amphitheatre, it is now Read more

Catterick Roman Marching Camp

Discovered only recently by air survey and geophysics, this camp lies on the alluvial plain of the River Swale, on Read more

East Yorkshire

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

Castle Naze Hill Fort

This is a Promontory fort of probable Iron Age date. It uses the natural cliffs of the hill that it Read more

Sutton Common Fort

Sutton Common is an early Iron Age fort/enclosure site just north of Doncaster, A key feature of this "marsh fort" Read more

“Mystery mound” beside the Cow-ford – what we can (and cannot yet) document

Located in the same field as Bridge Barn, close to the Cow Ford, there is a mound. In may be around 4-5m in diameter and perhaps 1.5-2m high. Our initial search drew a blank as to what it may be. But it's proximity to Cow Ford suggests it may have a mining, or masonic origin.

Initial search results

Check-point	Result	Source / comment
Public HER search (North Yorkshire & YDNPA)	No monument record within 20 m of NGR ≈ SE 0658 8370. Nearby entries list the bridge, barn and coal workings only.	Manual query of NYHER & YDNPA HER databases (May 2025).
Historic mapping	OS 1st ed. 6-inch (1856) and 25-inch (1893) show no symbol or “tump” text on the spot; field is labelled “Pasture.”	NLS geo-referenced scans.
LiDAR (Environment Agency, 1 m DTM)	A roughly circular hummock 5 m Ø, c. 1.5 m high with slight apron on the west side. No stone kerb or encircling ditch visible at 1 m resolution.	EA Composite 1 m (2021).
Aerial imagery (RAF 1946, Google 2022)	Tone identical to surrounding pasture; no parch halo.	Historic England Aerial Photo Explorer; Google.
Soil probe & surface inspection	Hand-auger (30 cm) hit angular Shale mixed with small coal, not rounded fieldstones; scatter of burnt shale and a few clinker fragments.	2025 field visit notes.
Local documentary scans	No mention in Carlton tithe (1845), Bolton estate rentals, or parish vestry minutes.	NYCRO IR 29/43/165; ZBO IX; PR/CAR.

Likely interpretations (ranked)

19th-c. Spoil heap from Engine-Shaft reservoir cutting The burnt shale / clinker mix matches reservoir dump material recorded at the upstream spoil-tongue; size and location (40 m from the spoil bank) could mark an auxiliary tip made when carts over-ran the main stack.
Clearance Cairn / field-gathering heap Small farms often piled stone and turf cleared from plough-rigs; but the shale/clinker composition argues against simple fieldstone clearance.
Debris from the initial creation of the ford Proximity to the seemingly "mission specific" Cow Ford may indicate a relationship with that ford, and perhaps the result of levelling carried out at the time of its creation.
Burnt mound / prehistoric cooking site Typical burnt mounds show crescents of reddened stone; here the material is black, untorched shale. Nothing in artefact scat.
Burial cairn Diameter fits small Bronze-Age cairn, but absence of visible stones, kerb, or ditch is atypical, and mapping silence (OS often annotated ‘Tumulus’) weakens the case.

How to firm up the identification

Step	Method	What it would prove
1. Core sample	Hand-auger deeper (1 m) and bag stratified samples; look for ash lenses or tip layers.	Distinguish deliberate tip (layered) from turf-covered clearance cairn (homogenous).
2. Magnetometer & resistivity	Quick 20 × 20 m grid to detect hearths, burnt stone or kerbed ring.	Burnt-mound signature vs. sterile spoil.
3. Test pit on down-slope apron	1 × 1 m pit to find artefacts (pot, charcoal, metal).	Reservoir-era clinker or 18th-c. domestic waste would clinch modern origin; prehistoric flint would prompt full survey.
4. Cross-check estate engineer’s plans	Bolton Estate “Engine Shaft reservoir” drawings (1872) may show spoil dumps.	A sketched ‘spoil hill’ labelled would settle the debate quickly.

Interim conclusion

No archival or HER source currently records a prehistoric or medieval mound at the Cow-ford. The fabric (shale + coal clinker) strongly hints at a 19th-century industrial spoil tip, quite possibly a secondary dump from the West Scrafton Engine-Shaft reservoir works. Until coring or small-scale excavation is carried out, though, a prehistoric origin cannot be ruled out entirely.