Ryton Motte or Tumulus

Trip No.18  Entry No.1  Date Added: 24th Apr 2017
Site Type: Artificial Mound Country: England (Tyne and Wear)
Visited: Yes on 23rd Apr 2017. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 4 Access 4

Log Text: Ryton Motte, Gateshead: Parking on the main road opposite The Old Cross pub and Holy Cross church on Barnmoor Lane, as there was an event on at the church, the first surprise was to see the old cross located on the village green.

Pastscape reveals this is relatively modern, having been erected in 1765, but the base looks much, much older. Historic England say in list entry 1018642 that there was evidence of an earlier cross on this site.

A stream of very well dressed people were exiting the church yard, indicating a service had just finished. I spent a few minutes photographing the cross, then we sauntered in the churchyard. The name board on the gate to the churchyard says that the church was founded in 1220, and whilst there appears to be old stones in the fabric of the church, popping our head into the church itself, it looks very Victorian. There were people inside, so we didn’t linger.

Walking round the tower at the west end of the church, and round to the north wall, we came across a man digging up brambles and dock plants around the graves. He told us he wasn’t’ associated with the church, but had got fed up of the graveyard looking as it did. He also said he’d just removed shrubbery and brambles off the motte, which looked bare and brown in the warm sunlight. He also told us to look out for the grave of a woman to the north-west of the motte, which had inscribed on the headstone about the grave also containing her husband, who’d lost his arm at Trafalgar.

The motte is certainly a significant structure (I thought it was only small, but it’s not, measuring 3.30 metres with a diameter of 30 metres, according to Pastscape. The mound certainly appears much higher when viewed from the river side, where it looms high above you.

These days, the river is largely hidden by trees, but glimpses of silver water appear as you follow the path round the motte and back up to the east side of the church. It would have had a very commanding spot above the river when it was built.

Holy Well, Greenside

Trip No.18  Entry No.2  Date Added: 24th Apr 2017
Site Type: Holy Well or Sacred Spring Country: England (Tyne and Wear)
Visited: Yes on 23rd Apr 2017. My rating: Condition 4 Ambience 4 Access 5

Log Text: Holy Well, Greenside: From Ryton Motte, we headed off south towards Greenside through the back lanes. Considering how close were are to Winlanton, Blaydon, Gateshead and Newcastle, you could be forgiven for thinking you were in the depths of the countryside at this site. Disappearing down a small road leading from Greenside to Barlow (Barlow Lane on UK Grid Finder) we parked where the lane met a tarmacked path leading to Reeley Mires Farm. It was then a question of walking a couple of hundred yards south-east down Barlow Lane, where the well is located at the base of the Drumlin.

To your right hand side, as you walk down the lane, there is a red metal gate into the field, although this is heavily overgrown by hawthorn and brambles, and is impossible to open. The central pool of the well can be seen at near the base of a telegraph pole, although the whole feature forms an attractive long ‘s-shape’ in the pasture.

It is a really pretty spot here. I was impressed there was so much water here, as it has been little rain here for weeks.

Have as yet been unable to find any notes/further information about this well. Thanks to durhamnature for his original entry.

Axwell Park Barrow

Trip No.18  Entry No.3  Date Added: 24th Apr 2017
Site Type: Round Barrow(s) Country: England (Tyne and Wear)
Visited: Couldn't find on 23rd Apr 2017. My rating: Ambience 2 Access 5

Log Text: Axwell Park Tumulus, Gateshead: OK, even with the grid reference, we couldn't find any trace of this - not surprising, since checking the Pastscape records this morning (24th April), they say no trace of the mound exists! There were lots and lots of humps and hollows on the slope to the left of the path as you walk up the hill. The area seems to be part of an estate and has been heavily modified, with an artificial waterfall and stone-lined channels for water visible in the undergrowth.

This area today is on the edge of a modern housing estate, which is still being constructed. The only thing I can say about this is that it is an easy walk up through the park on tarmacked road.

St. Mary's Well (Jesmond)

Trip No.18  Entry No.4  Date Added: 24th Apr 2017
Site Type: Holy Well or Sacred Spring Country: England (Tyne and Wear)
Visited: Yes on 23rd Apr 2017. My rating: Condition 4 Ambience 4 Access 4

Log Text: St. Mary's Well, Jesmond: From the elusive (non-existent!) Axwell Park Tumulus, we headed off down the Coast Road to Jesmond to find this well. It was a delight – an oasis in the midst of the city.

Parking on Jesmond Dene Road where it meet Grosvenor Avenue, we headed west up The Grove – a shady footpath that runs between The Grove and Red Park Road, in between the back gardens of the houses.

We found the gate to this well to our right hand side, several hundred metres up the path, highlighted by the blue signpost.

Descending into this shady nook, down the stone steps, the first view of the well was of the small statues, tea-lights and mementos left on top of the well covering. As my eyes adapted to the shade, the pool of the well came into view.

The well was full of water, with a steady flow over the cobbles towards the pool. There was a cute copper jug left attached to the side of the well, which I took off and dunked into the water. Andrew and I both tasted the water, and it was completely tasteless, which was a surprise.

After enjoying the peace and calm, we headed off to find St. Mary’s Chapel, now ruined, just down the road. Really enjoyed this visit.

Exhibition Park Circle

Trip No.18  Entry No.5  Date Added: 24th Apr 2017
Site Type: Modern Stone Circle etc Country: England (Tyne and Wear)
Visited: Yes on 23rd Apr 2017. My rating: Condition 4 Ambience 1 Access 4

Log Text: As we’d failed to find the Axwell Park Tumulus, we sat in Café Nero in Fenwicks and I was looked up details of sites we were going to on the mobile version of the Portal. I came across an entry for ‘Leazes Park Circle’ which mentioned a modern stone circle. This took me by surprise, as we’ve been parking our car by Leazes Park when we come into Newcastle, at least once a week, and not come across any mention of this before. Bringing the map up on my phone, we sat puzzling where this was, and decided to head off and look for it.

'Modern Stone Circle', Newcastle: In actual fact, it is in Exhibition Park, not Leazes Park, although I’ve spent a while trying to find more about this on the web. Not finding anything, I’ve emailed the Parks and Countryside Department at Newcastle City Council, simply out of curiosity.

Having stumbled upon the ‘circle’ (the grid reference on the Portal was also a bit off), I’m convinced it’s part of the children’s play park. However, I might yet be proved wrong. When we arrived, a student was walking over the tree trunk to the mound and generally walking around the ditch surrounding this tiny ‘monument’. Disappointing, but pleased to have found it and been able to contribute a photograph to the Portal.

Horsley Hill Homestead

Trip No.18  Entry No.6  Date Added: 25th Apr 2017
Site Type: Ancient Village or Settlement Country: England (Northumberland)
Visited: Yes on 23rd Apr 2017. My rating: Condition 2 Ambience 3 Access 4

Log Text: Horsley Hill Homestead, Northumberland: Well, this site got the adrenalin racing, if only for the crossing of the footpath across the A69 dual carriageway, at a very fast spot! We parked in Horsley Village on the B6528, outside the Hearth café, and walked up Lead Lane, which runs just to the west of the Hearth, and to the side of the (now) antiques shop. Running past some houses, the tarmacked road quickly becomes a glorious grassy lane. It was very tranquil here, but for the wooden fence and footpath sign at it’s northern end, with the A69 just ahead.

I have to say I’d been worrying about going to this site for some days. We’d tried walking the long way round, from the north of the site, but it was a very long way round. In all fairness, there is a pedestrian sign on both sides of the A69, a tarmacked pavement and gap in the central barrier does aid a crossing. But, with traffic whizzing past a very high speed and heart in mouth, we waited until there was a sufficient gap in the traffic and RAN to the central reservation. It was very odd standing in the middle of such high speed cars and vans on a Sunday evening.

Eventually making it to the other side, the footpath takes a tranquil stroll up to a grassy meadow complete with mobile phone mast with all its electrics. Great views to the north, west and east from here. No wonder our ancestors built a homestead here.

The top of the hill is a large, long oval shape, aligned north-south with slopes down to the surrounding land on the north and eastern side, and signs of ridge and furrow ploughing to the north-east, although Pastscape tells us that this homestead was only 60 metres in length and 47 metres wide.

I’m glad I’d been out with the archaeology group, looking at different banks and features in other areas, as it was a little tricky to make out the low banks which defined this settlement, combined with the more modern trackways from the field gate to the east up to the mobile mast mounds. There are what appear to be very old boundary walls, together with many large stones in an old wall system just to the east of where the northern part of the footpath meets the field, but we concluded this just might be part of the old field system before it was cut by the A69.

The banks were easier to see with the naked eye rather than with the camera. Andrew thought he detected the low, round shape of a roundhouse, but I wasn’t convinced.

A second dash back across the A69 meant I could finally relax. Onto Croft’s Well in the centre of Horsley.

Ballymeanoch Kerb Cairn

Trip No.18  Entry No.19  Date Added: 3rd Aug 2018
Site Type: Cairn Country: Scotland (Argyll)
Visited: Yes on 18th Jul 2018. My rating: Condition 2 Ambience 4 Access 4

Log Text: Ballymeanoch Kerb Cairn: With a number of other cars pulling up in the car park with other people wanting to look at the cairn, we hastened down the marked path towards the stone row, wondering why there were large, fresh cowpats in the cordoned off pathway. We were shortly to be confronted by a large bullock who stood and stared at us, completely blocking the path. The wire fence between the field/woodland and the path had been knocked down and the cattle had invaded, some sitting by the gate. This bullock absolutely refused to move, and his other companions started to stir and look our way. Andrew tried to move it away, but it stood firm and looked as if it might charge. Even Andrew backed away at this point.

Fortunately, there was a gate into a field of pasture to our left hand side, so we let ourselves into that field of pasture and followed the fenced off path along on the wrong side of the fence. There was another gate, leading from a track from the road, into the standing stone field. This gate was next to a babbling stream with a stone bridge across. This field also had a large number of other large bullocks, but these continued grazing and took little notice of us until we got to the two standing stones at the far end, when they started to take a definite interest.

Having made sure we weren’t going to be under (immediate) danger of attack by the bullocks, we tiptoed carefully further into the field. Having read about the cairn in "In The Footsteps of Kings" booklet, I circled it and photographed it as best I could. The sun was intense, being low in the sky, and it was so hot I could have laid down on the ground and fallen asleep. However, time was pressing, so I gathered my courage and explored further.