Swaledale's ‘Early Medieval Kingdom’ Revisited

Abstract

Andrew has proposed that an early medieval kingdom occupied the upper end of Swaledale in North Yorkshire, based primarily on the suggestion that the westernmost of the Grinton-Fremington dykes post-dates a settlement of Romano-British origin. Based on new field surveys, this study argues that the settlement in question is probably of medieval origin, but in any case that the dyke is the earlier feature. Moreover, field boundaries associated with a recently recognised bona fide late Iron Age or Romano-British settlement close by certainly do post-date the dyke. Accordingly the westernmost dyke, and perhaps the other cross-valley dykes in the vicinity (but not necessarily the whole of the so-called ‘dyke system’), can be reassigned to the late Bronze Age or earlier Iron Age.