The Anglo Saxon period following the Roman road is much harder to discern in the archaeological record, and that is the same in Green Hammerton. It seems likely that given the proximity to road, and likely continued use of the road, that settlement continued in the area. From the Anglo Saxon period we have a fragment of a cruciform brooch which is from the PAS: This is part of a brooch which would have been…
The Roman period is when we might expect more activity in around Green Hammerton. Why? It’s right next to the Roman road from York to Cramond. RR8 is our Margary number, and the section through Green Hammerton is RR8a. This is the section of road from York (Eboracum) to Aldborough (Isurium Brigantum). Often this road is referred to as Dere Street, but that is not a name the Romans would have used. Dere Street is…
The Iron Age (800BC – 43AD) is where we start to see much more activity in the Green Hammerton archaeological record. Within the village, we’ve had several housing developments in recent years, which have turned up some interesting finds dating from the Iron Age. The Ambretone development (ongoing as of March 2023) and the Redrow development (Circa 2018) contain some Iron Age evidence. Let’s start with Ambretone: From the image above, there is a series…
There is not a huge amount of information from Green Hammerton for the period pre-dating the 8th Century BC. However in the wider area, there is much more evidence of prehistoric activity. There has been settlement in the Vale of York since prehistoric times due to York’s geographical location at the confluence of two rivers, and in the largest river valley in northern England. It also has access via the river to the sea (Radley…
In part 1 of this series, we looked at the first set of sources we used to research the archaeology of Green Hammerton. In this second part, we’ll look at the remaining sources of information available to us. Historic Maps Historic maps, provided by the National Library of Scotland, can give us clue to how the village has changed over time. You can see an example here from 1848, but we also have maps going…
In this series of articles, we will summarize the talk that we recently gave at the Village Club covering “The Archaeology of Green Hammerton: What We Know So Far”. In the first part, we will look at sources of information we can use to find out about the archaeology of our village. Even without putting a shovel into the ground we can find out a great deal about our past using the many sources of…
Thank you Green Hammerton! We had a fantastic turn out for the Finds Day held on 19th November and have loved seeing so many of you come along with your items or just to learn more about what we’re up to. We had a brilliant turnout from young children to long time residents. Items brought in for us to assess included slate pencils, ceramic marbles, a shard of late medieval pottery, other pottery including parts…
Join us at the Green Hammerton Village Club on Monday January 23rd from 1930 onwards. Members of the GHAS committee will present a talk briefly covering the aims and goals of the Society, followed by an interesting look at the research done so far on the archaeological past of the village. We’ll cover research sources and methods, and break down what we’ve learned about Green Hammerton from pre-history through to the post-Medieval period.