For some years now a small group of friends has been exploring the evidence for prehistoric activity in the South Pennines, roughly from the M62 up to the Stanbury-Colne road and from the main Pennine watershed in the west across to the urban fringe in the east. There is no particular prehistoric or archaeological significance in these boundaries, this is simply the present extent of our fieldwork.

The growing need to centre our activities on a local base and to work from a more established and ‘official’ footing led to the recent creation of the HBLHS Prehistoric Section. Whilst we have been described, misleadingly and somewhat ungenerously, by one member’s partner as ‘Last of the Summer Flint’ our very real intention is to explore, describe, record and disseminate with sufficient accuracy and rigour for other archaeologists to be able to use our findings with confidence.

It must be stressed that there is no exclusivity or possessiveness here, anyone is welcome to join the Prehistoric Section, and the sites, features and artefacts located belong to everyone - they represent the past of us all.

Until recently the South Pennines were regarded as something of an archaeological desert. Although some fieldwork had been carried out, notably on Midgley Moor, few features were known, access was difficult and the moors were remote; there was an assumption amongst prehistorians based elsewhere that very few traces of prehistoric activity existed. Brian Howcroft’s tireless field-walking, producing a museum-quality assemblage of flint artefacts, from mesolithic through to bronze age, has shown this assumption to be false. Work to identify features in the landscape has complemented Brian’s work with the location and description of over fifty standing stones, around a dozen burial areas, a variety of circular and linear features, and some eighty examples of rock art.

We have sought to publicise our interim findings by giving talks, writing articles and conducting field visits. Aspects of our work have been seen and endorsed by John Barnatt, senior archaeologist with the Peak District National Park, Dave Weldrake of West Yorkshire Sites and Monuments Record, and Keith Boughey and Edward Vickerman, the authors of the definitive work on rock art in West Yorkshire. We have consulted and been advised by academic archaeologists and geologists and by personnel involved in the English Heritage rock art recording project. We also have useful associations with a number of bodies listed below under Links.

At present we are mainly occupied in identifying and describing the carved rocks of the South Pennines. There seem to be significant differences from those found in other areas both in terms of style and complexity.

We intend (hope) to eventually produce a coherent account of the first people who lived here - simply because there should be one.

Update to July 2008

The period since last summer has seen a great deal of activity both in Calderdale and further afield.

Four ‘prehistoric walks’ have been conducted, around The Ridge and around Meg Dyke and Rishworth Moor, for HBLHS, Halifax Antiquarians, South Pennine Research Group and an adult education class from Bradford University. We attended a guided walk around the rock art of Middleton and Snowden Moors led by Edward Vickerman, president of Huddersfield and District Archaeological Society and joint author of ‘Prehistoric Rock Art of the West Riding’.
July 2008 - full report

Update to June 2007

Recent work with photos including the revamping of Heptonstall Museum; a prehistoric dug-out boat; the Bronze Age burial area; A visit to Cresswell Crags; fieldwork in our home area and much more.
June 2007 - full report

Links

Yorkshire Archaeological Society
Yorkshire Geological Society  
The Prehistoric Society
Huddersfield and District Archaeological Society 
Halifax Antiquarian Society
Council for British Archaeology
Megalithic Portal                                 
English Heritage
Archaeology Data Service
Council for Independent Archaeology