YORKSHIRE ARCHAEOLOGICAL JOURNAL

Abstracts and Contributors to Volume 77

Abstracts

‘A stiff-necked, wilful and obstinate people’:
The Catholic Laity in the North York Moors, c.1559–1603
By Emma Watson
This essay reassesses the role of lay men and women in the preservation of the Roman Catholic faith in the North York Moors region during the reign of Elizabeth I. Traditional views of Yorkshire as a backward and ignorant county are challenged, with evidence that the people of this region were active participants in the development and continuation of their Catholic communities and made the most of the significant numbers of missionary priests who came to England by way of the Yorkshire coast.

Emerson Bainbridge of Newcastle & Sheffield, an overlooked entrepreneur
By David Wilmot
Emerson Bainbridge was born in Newcastle upon Tyne but spent most of his professional life in Sheffield and south Yorkshire. A late-nineteenth century mining and civil engineer with a firm approach to his business dealings, Bainbridge is remembered locally more for his philanthropic gestures. Yet the deaths of his wife, father and other family members in the mid-1890s changed his life. He purchased a large shooting estate in the Scottish Highlands, married a girl of his daughter’s age, and lost his parliamentary ambitions.

ST. OSWALDS CHURCH, FILEY: A STUDY OF A CRUCIFORM CHURCH IN NORTH YORKSHIRE
By Nicky Milner
St. Oswald’s Church, Filey, is a large church of cruciform plan and in its regional context this layout appears to be unique. A study of the construction phases of the church suggests that a tower was originally built at the west end in the 12th century. It would appear from the rebuilding of some of the west end walls that this tower may have collapsed or was taken down because it was unsafe. The reasons for this were probably because the supporting pillars are not aligned and the underlying ground slopes away which may have caused structural problems. As a consequence a crossing tower was constructed and later additions to the church were made in the Early English style.

EXCAVATIONS AT WEST STREET, GARGRAVE, NORTH YORKSHIRE
By A. E. Finney, M. R. Stephensand P. A. Ware
with contributions by J. Carrott, H. E. M. Cool, K. Dobney, F. Large and A. Hall
During 1997 excavations were undertaken in advance of development at West Street, Gargrave on one of the two moated sites known in Gargrave. The earliest evidence for structural activity came from the twelfth/thirteenth century and consisted of at least three timber buildings of posthole construction The moat and associated buildings underwent several phases of recuttting and remodelling in the medieval period. The moat was backfilled in the post–medieval period and the area used for construction activities associated with the Old Hall including limekilns. Under half of the moat platform was excavated and further structures may have existed outside of those areas investigated. During the life of the moat changes to the interior were also implemented.

THE WHITBY MERELS BOARD
By M A Hall
This paper is a fresh examination of the fragmentary graffito-on-stone gaming board recovered during the 1920s excavations at Whitby Abbey by Peers and Radford. A clear identification of the game of merels or nine men’s morris is made, along with the possibilities for its dating and its broader context within medieval gaming culture.

A SWISS MILADY IN YORKSHIRE: SABINE WINN OF NOSTELL PRIORY
By Christopher Todd
By marrying a foreigner, the fifth Baronet of Nostell, Rowland Winn, broke with traditional aristocratic networking arrangements. His wife, Sabine, was never entirely accepted, even though she came from a prominent Huguenot banking family and her money helped transform Nostell. Though Rowland’s political career failed, he was often away on business, leaving Sabine at Nostell to deal with domestic matters, including ever-troublesome servants. She was emotionally dependent on her husband and after his death, became a recluse, even refusing to see her daughter following the latter’s elopement with the local baker. Sabine appears from her letters as a somewhat passive, self-centred figure who does not fit the model of the strong female chatelaine favoured in recent historiography.

EXCAVATION OF THE GREAT HALL OR ‘KYNGESHALLE’ AT SCARBOROUGH CASTLE, NORTH YORKSHIRE
By Colin Hayfield and the late Tony Pacitto
with contributions by G Coppack and J Weinstock
The three seasons of excavations carried out by the late Tony Pacitto on the medieval hall within the Castle Garth at Scarborough Castle were designed to investigate and record the surviving archaeological evidence that remained after Colonel Peck’s excavations of 1888. The hall is shown to have been rebuilt on at least one occasion, and it is suggested that the original hall was probably constructed as part of the building works of Henry II, somewhat earlier than hitherto suspected.

SEAL MATRICES: RECENT YORKSHIRE DISCOVERIES.
By I. H. Szymanski
The introduction of the Portable Antiquities Scheme in 1997 has resulted in a large amount of material being brought forward by members of the public for recording, including a large number of seal matrices from the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. The volume of this material means that it is possible to begin to derive some meaningful statistical information about the types and styles of matrix used, and attempt to relate them to their broader historical context. The first part of this paper concentrates on the statistical evidence, and the second discusses some of the more interesting examples in greater detail.

THE SHEFFIELD COMMUNITY AND PUBLIC WORK, 1790-1914
By John Roach
This article is a study of formative figures in the industrial, professional and community life of Sheffield and its region, and of their contributions to creating a more civilised life for the people. It concentrates on a small number of groups: the medical profession in its social aspects; some friendship connections and their social and political objectives; and the long campaign to create the University, chartered in 1905. Special attention is given to the close networks within which Sheffield life was structured. With a few exceptions, groups of this kind have not previously been much studied by historians.

THE WATCHTOWERS AND FORTLETS ON THE NORTH YORKSHIRE COAST (Turres et Castra)*
By J. G. F. Hind
Using literary and archaeological evidence, in combination with inscriptions and numismatic data, this paper considers the date, contemporary terminology and purpose of the series of late fourth-century Roman fortified sites, conventionally known as ‘signal-stations’, located on the Yorkshire coast at Huntcliff, Goldsborough, Scarborough, Filey and, on the evidence of an inscription, Filey. The traditional dating of AD 368/9 is favoured, as is the adoption of the term ‘burgi’ in preference to ‘signal-stations’, and the defence of the prosperous heartlands of late Roman Yorkshire is suggested as their purpose.

LOCAL ANTIQUARIANS, THORNBOROUGH RINGS, AND OTHER PREHISTORIC MONUMENTS NEAR RIPON
By R. A. Hall
Descriptions, discussions and interpretations of henges and barrows in the vicinity of Ripon, originally published by local antiquarians, are presented as examples of mid-Victorian archaeological thought in Yorkshire. Some newly discovered archive material ~ plans and cross-sections of henges, including Thornborough Rings, a drawing relating to the excavation of a barrow near the Hutton Moor henge, and illustrations of two Bronze Age spearheads, one from Hutton Moor, the other from Rainton-cum-Newby ~ add detail to one of these accounts.

EXEMPLARY WIVES AND GODLY MATRONS: WOMEN'S CONTRIBUTION TO THE LIFE OF YORK MINSTER BETWEEN THE REFORMATION AND THE CIVIL WAR
By Claire Cross
This article considers the effect upon York Minster, since the Norman Conquest an exclusively male preserve, of the legislation permitting the clergy to marry passed by Parliament for the first time during the region of Edward VI, abnegated under Mary but then reinstated on Elizabeth's accession. While little information, apart from the fact of their marriages, survives for some of the pioneering women who dared to break an age long taboo by establishing clerical households within the close, others, for whom the evidence is more abundant, emerge as active disseminators of Protestantism in the initially conservative city and diocese of York.

COMMUNICATION:
PRIVATE MARK YEWDALL 764281, 28TH BATTALION, LONDON REGIMENT, (ARTISTS’ RIFLES) AND THE BATTLE OF PASSCHENDAELE
By David Eastwood
Mark Yewdall’s ancestors had lived in the Eccleshill – Calverley area since at least 1556. Although his Methodist and Quaker background could have given cause to appeal as a conscientious objector, he joined the Army in 1916 as a private in the Artists’ Rifles. His letters to his parents give an exceptionally vivid account of his training and active service, in particular the last stages of the Battle of Passchendaele. He died in the Spanish Influenza epidemic the following year.

 

NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS TO VOLUME 77

Claire Cross taught history at the University of York from 1965 until 2000. Her books and articles on late-medieval and early-modern English history include an edition with N. Vickers of Monks, Friars and Nuns in Sixteenth Century Yorkshire, Yorkshire Archaeological Society Record Series CC (1995).

David Eastwood traces his Yorkshire West Riding ancestry back to Tudor times, and has been keenly interested in the history of the County for many years. He has had numerous articles published in local history magazines. The Yewdall family are his wife’s ancestors.

Anne Finney MA is based with MAP Archaeological Consultancy Ltd in Malton and has extensive experience in all aspects of archaeology, especially prehistory and was Editor of CBA Forum for over ten years.

Mark Hall currently curates the archaeology collections of Perth Museum & Art Gallery. His main research interest is medieval material culture (notably the cult of saints and pilgrimage, Pictish and related sculpture and gaming) and the depiction of archaeology in fictional narratives.

Richard Hall currently president of the Yorkshire Archaeological Society and Deputy Director of York Archaeological Trust.

Nicky Milner, PhD, is a lecturer in Prehistory and Bioarchaeology at the University of York.

John Roach is Professor Emeritus of Education in the University of Sheffield. His published work has been concerned with the history of higher and secondary education and, in more recent years, with educational and philanthropic institutions in Sheffield and more widely in Yorkshire.

Mark Stephens is a Director of MAP Archaeological Consultancy Ltd based in Malton. He has worked in field archaeology since graduating in 1979 on all periods of sites, although he is especially interested in the medieval period and its pottery.

Irene H. Szymanski has worked on the recording of artefacts brought to the Portable Antiquities Scheme in York since 1996; relevant research background includes degrees in English, Mediaeval Studies and Mediaeval French.

Christopher Todd was born 1939 and educated in Edinburgh, Elgin, London and Paris. He has taught French at Leeds University and at Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario, and his publications notably include works on the classical press and the critic, La Harpe. He has written on modern French publishing, is editor of several Voltaire texts for the Voltaire Foundation and was awarded a prize for his work on French radio.

Paula Ware is a Director of MAP Archaeological Consultancy Ltd based in Malton. Born and educated in York, which was a major factor in her choice of career, she has worked in archaeology for the last twenty years.

Emma Watson is a research student at the University of York, where she is working towards a PhD on the religious and political culture of mid-sixteenth century Yorkshire.

David Wilmot retired from a career in export finance for the engineering industry in 1998 and has since gained a Master’s degree with the Institute of Railway Studies at the University of York. His interest in industrial history led him to form the North East Derbyshire Industrial Archaeology Society and, while continuing his own studies, he also takes part in research for the Victoria County History of Derbyshire. An earlier version of his article won the Yorkshire Society’s Bramley Award for 2003.