Scriven is a historic village adjacent to the medieval town of Knaresborough where our Group is based.
Scriven Park (now known as Jacob Smith Park) was previously part of the Slingsby Estates.It has now come into the administration of the local authority and is open, after 900 years of private ownership, as a public park.
The Park and the district in which it is situated are of great historic interest. In the sixteenth century the Scriven estate was passed to the Slingsby family through marriage.The Slingsby family were heavily involved in the Civil war.
Our project is designed to investigate the extended history the archaeology and heritage of the Park, the village, the Manor of Scriven and the surrounding district from the earliest times to the most recent.
All our research will be made available to the local authority Heritage Unit for inclusion in their database. During the project cycle we will engage the general public so as to encourage interest and enthusiasm for the work that Community Archaeology Groups carry out in various parts of the district.
We are now nine months into the project which has been spent carrying out a desk top survey. This means visiting record offices at Northallerton, Leeds, Wakefield, York and the National Arcives at Kew. These offices supplied us with old maps and documents to assist us with our research.
In March we began the Field Survey of Jacob Smith Park and there have already been some interesting discoveries at the northern end of the area. The park has an area of some thirty acres and will take around six months to complete.
On 16th March we had a visit from our consultant geologist who talked to the group about the geology of the Study Area and we have arranged a field visit with him in May. It surprised us when we were told that Malachite was mined in the area in the eighteenth century.
The geology of an area has a profound influence on land cultivation and settlement petterns and this in turn bears on it's archaeology and history.
Our study area has geology of great complexity. There are carboniferous rocks and sandstone beds including some coal measures 1,000 metres below the surface. In Scriven there is a lower magnesium limestone ridge, which stretches to Knaresborough. Gritstone and sandstone also formed in the remote past and the movements of the of the River Nidd laid down the sand and gravel deposits in the north of the area.
On the 14th May consultant geologist Tony Benfield gave the group a full and comprehensive presentation of the solid and drift geology of the study area and conducted a tour of the landaround Coney Garth, a prominent wooded hill, examining the various abandoned limestone, gritstone and sand quarries which have provided building materials in the past. The feature is of particular significance since the limestone cap lies on top of the underlying gritstone.
The visit to the site was made with the kind permission of the local farmer who accompanied the group and he was able to much information to supplement the geologists observation.
In August 2009 rapid field surveying began with a number of the group walking through the fields looking for "lumps and bumps" and recording them for further investigation later on during the programme. Very shortly after the start of the survey one field revealed, from an aerial photograph, a 70m diameter circular feature with a number of smaller circles within it. In Jacob Smith Park more of these circular features showed up, also to be investigated later.
On 1st August a "Finds Day" was held when members of the public were invited to bring in any finds they had to be identified and dated. We were fortunate to aquire the services of Dave Evans of the Yorkshire Museum and Kevin Cale of Community Archaeology Ltd. to assist us and the response from the public was excellent. Some of the artifacts which needed further identification were held back by us until we managed to arrange for specialists to examine them. Buttons went to Mr. Ian Scott and spindle whorls toNicky Rogers of the York Archaeology Trust who will also identify buckles.
Another "Finds Day" was held on 25th March 2010 in Scriven particularly for the residents of the village when a small exhibition was included to report on our progress. Included in this exhibition were the remains of a number of beehive querns provided by a local resident. Another resident reported that his rockery was built from stones like this and would we like to have a look at them. We contacted John Cruse, a recognised expert on beehive querns, who visited the garden with us and we found a large number of querns dating from the Iron Age, Roman and medieval. Where they came from is not known as they were in position when the occupiers purchased the house and the previous owner is now deceased.
Work continues on the area and we have now increased the period of our research from four to five years.
|