Grinton-Fremington Dykes: Names, Places and Spaces

Abstract

ABSTRACT In Landscapes 16 (1), a debate following a survey of the largest and best preserved of four cross-dale dykes in Swaledale (Yorkshire, northern England), known as the Grinton-Fremington Dykes, produced agreement that its main section belonged to the Late Bronze Age or Early Iron Age. Apart from chronology, many more questions about the dykes remain unanswered. This new contribution to the debate, by a non-archaeologist, draws on place-name interpretations, map studies and ground observations to explore new areas of interest that can expand our understanding of the dykes and their environment, and raise new challenges for future investigations. It includes the first full analysis of the place-names associated with the dykes, revealing new understandings and interpretations of the landscape in which they stand. It explores a previously published suggestion that the upper section of the surveyed dyke might be a later extension, and considers how this could reinvigorate the generally unpopular idea that the four dykes were built as land boundaries rather than as elements in a system of political defence.