West Heslerton, North Yorkshire

This small village at the foot of the Yorkshire Wolds, has been the setting for one of the largest EH rescue archaeology projects, and this year excavation of the Anglian settlement was concluded. Nearly 45 acres of this site, threatened with destruction through plough damage, have now been examined, providing a comprehensive picture of an Early Anglo-Saxon or Anglian settlement. The site has also contributed significantly to our understanding of the Roman/Saxon transition and the from Early/Middle Saxon transition. These 2 themes were key research objectives for the excavation.

An area of c 4 hectares was examined, extending 200 metres south of a spring situated at the heart of the settlement. Although plough damage had already almost completely removed all evidence of past activity in parts of the areas examined, a dry valley extending south towards the Wolds contained well preserved deposits including a number of Late Roman structures interpreted as possible shrines. During the late-4th century this dry valley, which seems already to have become a focus of activity, was landscaped by construction of a number of broad flat terraces, prior to the building of a remarkable structure measuring c 16 x 11 metres. This building, which had been cut back into the chalk bedrock on the western side of the dry valley, had been carefully constructed from small cut chalk blocks, which survived standing 9 courses high at the back of the structure. Aligned north-south, the structure incorporated flattened apses at each end, with an entrance in the north rather than in the long walls. To the north a series of bread-ovens had been built into one side of the valley, and large quantities of oyster and mussel shells were associated a with large, poorly defined, timber structure built across the valley entrance. This would not be out of place in a Roman town, but is unusual in a rural setting where despite the presence of a number of unusual structural remains there is no clear evidence of long-term or substantial settlement. The reworking of the valley, incorporating built terraces up to a metre high, and the presence of both the structures and a well, seems to represent a ritual complex which also includes a series of worn pebble paths running from the spring in the north up through the centre of the valley.

The Late Roman buildings were very carefully dismantled after AD 410, after which there is evidence of continued activity in the main structure represented by a series of shallow pits cut through the chalk floor. These pits contained large quantities of very crude Late or Sub-Roman ceramics. The presence of a series of very late coins, crude ceramics, and, elsewhere on the site, ceramics of early Anglo-Saxon form but late-Roman fabric, indicate continuity, perhaps related to the ritual use of space rather than reuse of structures. By the end of the 5th century an Early Anglo-Saxon settlement had become well established although the terraced valley appears to have been deliberately cut-off from the settlement by a large post-hole building and associated fences which blocked access to the valley proper.

The Early Anglo-Saxon settlement was established around the spring which lay at the northern end of the dry valley, where a series of Late Roman enclosures, perhaps constructed to prevent stock having access to the clean spring-water, define the most densely utilised part of the site. By AD 500 the settlement extended over an area of c 25 hectares, incorporating different zones devoted to housing, craft and industry, and to agricultural processing. By AD 650 the settlement had contracted to a point where it covered only the area of the late Roman enclosures in the southern half of the site. Over 200 buildings have been examined including carefully built posthole buildings and Grubenhäuser, cavity floor buildings incorporating a deep pit beneath the floor which were subsequently used as rubbish pits. Evidence recovered confirmed that although the architectural styles of the posthole buildings were broadly similar, a new construction technique developed during the Middle-Saxon period when individual posthole construction was replaced by a method employing posts set in a shallow trench. By this time the scale of the cavity floor buildings seems also to have increased.

The finds include one of the largest assemblages of animal bone ever recovered (more than 750,000 fragments), and evidence of trade in the form of glass vessels, ceramics, metalwork, and quern stones imported from the Rhineland. Metalworking, bone working, pottery production, and the production of textiles were all important although mostly for local consumption. A detailed environmental sampling programme has produced good evidence which will allow us to examine aspects of diet and agrarian economy as well as land-use in and around the settlement. Although the Middle-Saxon settlement covered only c 10 hectares this still represents a very large area which includes a large number of buildings and associated features; the use of space within the settlement seems less well defined than in the early period but the principal buildings are for the first time contained within fenced enclosures.

The settlement was finally deserted, presumably in favour of the present village site, c 500m to the west, by about AD 850, and extensive deposits of burnt daub and ashy material show that there was a great deal of burning associated with the desertion of the site. It would be easy to see this in the context of a Viking attack, but there is no direct evidence, and the burnt material may simply derive from the dismantling of the settlement. The results of this huge excavation, following on from that of the associated cemetery, to be published at the end of 1996, provide an opportunity to re-evaluate early Anglo-Saxon settlement, to examine the case for continuity, and to assist in the identification of similar sites worthy of preservation.

A schools support programme, supported by the EH Education Service, was run in tandem with the excavation, bringing large numbers of school parties to the site during the school term. During the holiday period, family open days allowed several thousand people to see the work in progress and gain an insight into the practice of modern archaeology. Following the end of the excavation the project Schools Officer followed up site visits with visits to schools to show how the work had progressed and discuss how the results are interpreted. A multi-media computer application, developed by the Schools Officer and the project team, was used in primary schools to provide information on the site, the archaeological methods used, and the Anglo-Saxons in general. After nearly a decade of volunteer assisted excavation, the site at West Heslerton has for the first time provided a detailed picture of the development of an Anglo-Saxon settlement in the North of England; in addition it has produced new evidence which may help define more clearly what took place in the critical transition from the Roman to Anglo-Saxon periods.