Hwaet. I speak of the days of old.

At 409 miles, A1 -- the Great Road North -- is the longest road in Great Britain.

A1 runs from St. Paul’s cathedral in central London, north to Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. A1 courses through Islington, up the Holloway Road, through Barnet, Potters Bar, Hatfield, Welwyn, Stevenage, Baldock, Biggleswade, Sandy, and St Neots. After Alconbury, it joins the route of a Roman road, Ermine Street, running midway between the Pennine mountains (>600 ft) and the Cleveland Hills(>600 ft) to the East. Continuing north, the A1 runs on modern bypasses around Grantham, Newark-on-Trent, Retford, Bawtry, Doncaster, Knottingley, Garforth, Wetherby, Knaresborough, Boroughbridge, Darlington, and Scotch Corner (adjacent to Caldwell, North Riding, Yorkshire), then on to Durham, Chester-le- Street, past the Angel of the North sculpture in Gateshead, around Newcastle upon Tyne, Morpeth, Alnwick, Berwick-upon-Tweed, into Scotland, past Dunbar, Haddington and Musselburgh before finally arriving in Edinburgh at the East End of Princes Street near Waverley Station at the junction of the A7, A8 and A900 roads.

Just north of Scotch Corner, Junction 56 marks the start of the A1(M) -- an upgraded 4 lane motorway -- through County Durham. The Roman road of Dere Street (B6275) diverges at this point, heading a couple of degrees west of north, towards Piercebridge, then north to Edinburgh. In Roman times Dere Street was intended chiefly to ensure rapid access to Hadrian’s Wall. By the middle ages much of Dere Street lie six inches beneath soil runoff. This runoff might in part be due to denuding of the landscape, as the the Normans cleared the forests and woods to create more grazing land for sheep.

Four miles north and a couple of miles west of Scotch Corner along Dere Street lies one of the largest iron age sites in Britain. The Stanwick fortifications are centered around the hamlet of Stanwick St. John in North Riding. When the Romans first arrived in northern Britain, the fort of Stanwick was the most important stronghold of the Brigantes. It was from here that the tribe fought the Romans at the Battle of Scotch Corner. When the Brigantian Queen Cartimandua handed over the British rebel Caractacus to the Romans in the year AD 51 she infuriated her husband Venutius, who occupied Stanwick and rebelled against the Romans. The Romans eventually forced the Brigantes to abandon the fort in AD 73. A pre-Roman earth and rock ridge, known as Scots Dyke, runs parallel to the A1, a little to the west of Scotch Corner, northwards from Richmond as far as Melsonby.

See: The Stanwick Fortifications, North Riding of Yorkshire. (Reports of the Research Committee of the Society of Antiquaries of London, No. XVII). Wheeler, Sir Mortimer Oxford University Press for the Society of Antiquaries, London, 1954.

“Stanwick” is a Scandinavian/Viking word for “stone wall.” Likely the name was acquired after the subjugation of the region by Vikings in AD 876. I do not recall ever having read the names by which the Brigantes, Romans, or Anglo-Saxons called the fortification before the fortification acquired the name Stanwick.

Excavations in the middle of the 19th century revealed some large iron hoops, the tires from a chariot burial. Workmen laying drains discovered a large hoard of highly-decorated metalwork, consisting of a set of weapons and armor, and the fillings for a war chariot. The finds (now in the British Museum) include a fine sword and the corroded remains of a coat of mail, as well as ornate horse-bits, axle-fittings and decorative plaques.

The excavators of 1933 established the line of the road beyond question by digging trenches to cross it at two separate places. They exposed the old surface, fifteen feet wide, well cambered and edged by kerbs, at a depth of about six inches. Further digging revealed the layers of its construction and the fact that an earlier surface existed lower down. During the same season a find was made in the bed of the river, when one of the investigators discovered three groups of oak piles lying with their heads pointing downstream and towards the middle of the channel. The positions of these piles led to the conclusion that they were some of the foundations which carried the stone piers and abutments of the original Roman bridge.

"The 1934 excavations were concentrated on the north-east corner of the fort and the site was cleared later. They revealed the main rampart, ten feet thick, and the chamfered plinth stones of its base, together with an arched culvert running on its inner side. The culvert may have been an aqueduct supplying the baths or, more probably, the remains of a large latrine. The latest work was carried out in 1935 on the west side of the village, and it revealed the elaborate and thorough construction of the fortifications. The rampart wall was found to be encircled by at least two deep ditches, and possibly three, with counterscarps between tern. This formidable protection showed the strategic importance of the place in the Roman system, but the most interesting conclusion, arrived at from examination of the pottery, was that the fort was built about A.D. 300, late on in the period of the Roman occupation.

http://www.biffvernon.freeserve.co.uk/piercebridge.htm

Between 400 BC and A.D. 79, leather and wool were traded for goods from continental Europe as far away as Greece.

The chief objective of the Brigantes/Celtics in enclosing this area was not to preserve the Anglo-Saxon (Anglian, Angli) settlement of Caldwell, formed at some time after establishment of the first Angli settlement in AD 547 at Bamburgh in present day Northumbria, but to protect the then existing chief trading post, market, and administrative headquarters of the Brigantes.

The 3,182 lines of Beowulf, written in Old English, is a Christian poem describing the arrival of the Anglo-Saxons in the first few decades of the sixth century. The story begins with the funeral of Scyld Scefing, “beaga bryttan,” or British Lord of the Rings. His body is carried down to a great ship and dispatched upon the whale-road and wave-domain of the sea. His grandson, the warrior Hrothgar, built a great “healarn,” or wide-gabled and lofty hall, as a memorial to his triumphant career. It was a place of celebration and joy. It was a wine mansion where bards sing to the men in the hall of the creation of the sun and moon. For dozen of years Hrothgar enjoys tranquility and prosperity, until he and his warriors are attacked and defeated by a moon-dweller and border wanderer, Grendel, a cannibalstic monster who moved by night through mystige moras (mystical moors) and assaulted by moonlight. Beowulf, an Anglo-Saxon, arrives and defeats the Grendel and liberates the land for the Anglo-Saxons.

Under the search words “Stanwick fortifications” are numerous online essays summarizing this history. The following excerpts appealed to me particularly:

“In 1845 (some references say 1844, others, 1854) a hoard of 140 metal artefacts known as the 'Stanwick hoard', which included horse harness and a bronze horse's head, were found nearby at Melsonby. These are now on display at the British Museum.

“Stanwick was the site of Sir Mortimer Wheeler's last major archaeological excavation in Britain, which he carried out from 1951-2. He argued that the vast site had been constructed in three separate 'phases' starting from a modest 17 acre fortified enclosure dated around 400 BC (Phase I) then extended in around AD 50-60 with a new enclosure to the north of over 130 acres (Phase II), and then finally, around AD 79, extended by a further 600 acres to the south (Phase III). Amongst Wheeler's most famous finds at Stanwick were an Iron Age sword, unusually still in its well-preserved wooden scabbard, and the nearby skull of a severed head, showing considerable damage from wounds inflicted by an axe or a sword. These were found in an excavation of a ditch terminal by the location of the main gate and Wheeler believed they may have been hanging from the gate structure itself as a trophy or warning to enemies. Wheeler concluded that Stanwick had been the rebel stronghold of Venutius, who had been the husband of the pro-Roman Brigantian queen Cartimandua, after he had split with her when she had taken his charioteer and armour-bearer Vellocatus as a lover and betrayed the rebel leader Caractacus to the Romans. Wheeler argued that Stanwick was the location where Venutius had rallied his anti-Roman tribesmen and allies for his revolt against the Roman invaders.

“During the course of his excavations, Wheeler cleared a 50 foot section of ditch that the Brigantes had cut from the underlying limestone rock. He partially reconstructed a 10 foot length of dry-stone revetment wall from the fallen stones found in the ditch. This was constructed to an approximate height of 2 feet above the existing rampart, although Wheeler estimated that the original height of the wall above the rampart was probably closer to 15 feet. Known as 'Wheeler's Wall', this entire section remains preserved by English Heritage and provides the visitor to Stanwick with a clear impression of how awe-inspiring the fortifications would have been in Iron Age times. The name 'Stanwick' is thought to be derived from the Old Norse word 'steinvegges', meaning stone walls.

“The next major archaeological excavation at Stanwick was carried out in 1981 by a team from Durham University led by Professor Colin Haselgrove. One of the Haselgrove team's most enigmatic finds was an adult burial near the boundary of the fortifications, where a horse's head had been carefully placed above the body. Haselgrove argued that Stanwick's huge outer circuit of ditches and banks had probably been built first, during the mid-first century AD, and then the inner area sub-divided. He maintained that the six mile fortification was too long to be easily defended and that its enormous size was to emphasise the power, prestige and wealth of its owner. Haselgrove concluded that Stanwick had not been the fortress stronghold of Venutius but was rather the estate of his ex-wife, Queen Cartimandua, and possibly even the original tribal capital of the Brigantes.

“The complex of prehistoric earthworks known as Stanwick Camp lies in the fertile, rolling countryside of North Yorkshire, between the rivers Tees and Swale. Dere Street eased travel north to Edinburgh and Berwick. Gaps in the Pennine Mountains to the west of Stanwick Camp eased trade with S hropshire and Wales to the West.

“Sheep and cattle were kept, and a variety of cereal crops grown [, chiefly oats and barley].

“Recent archaeological research has shown that there were many such prehistoric fields in the north, and a considerable number are now known in the Tees valley. It was during the 1st century AD that Stanwick grew in importance and became much more than a normal Iron Age settlement: this may have been the result of the general transformation of British society which was caused by the arrival of the Romans.

“Pottery and other finds indicate that, during the reign of Cartimandua, the Brigantes enjoyed a privileged lifestyle, with ready access to luxury goods imported from all over the Roman Empire. The finds include fine pottery from southern France and the Rhineland; glass vessels from Germany and Italy; and amphora jars which once held imported Mediterranean wine. Pieces of Roman roofing tile indicate the existence of a building constructed in sophisticated Roman style. All of this reached Stanwick before the arrival of Roman troops in AD 71.

“It appears that Stanwick is much more likely to have been Cartimandua’s court and seat of power than a stronghold of Venutius, as the presence of expensive Roman commodities may be the result of her favoured status. the houses which have been found appear to be the residences of Brigantian nobility.

“It is not clear how many other people lived within the ramparts, but it is unlikely that much of the area was occupied by settlement. Most of the interior was probably grazing land for cattle and horses, or may even have served as a market center.

“An idea of the scale of the Stanwick defences may best be found at the [English Heritage] Guardianship site, reached through a signposted gate on the edge of Forcett village. This was Wheeler’s largest excavated section, and it has been left open and partially reconstructed to show the original appearance of the earthworks. The lower part of the defensive ditch is cut through solid rock, and this has been used to build a vertical stone wall at the front of the rampart: elsewhere this wall is no longer visible, but it originally ran round the full circuit of the site (the name Stanwick means ‘Stone Walls’).

“Clearly, a huge labour force was need to build the Stanwick ramparts, which run to 6.5 kilometres (about 4 miles) in length. This indicates the power of the ruling class of the Brigantes, and the size of the northern population. Despite the apparent strength of the ramparts, it would have been difficult to defend such a circuit, and it is probable that the impressive, stone-faced banks and ditches were as much an expression of status and power as a practical fortification.

“Across the road to the south from the Guardianship site may be seen one of the original entrances to Stanwick (and the only entrance definitely identified). The University of Durham’s work has shown that the entrance was strongly defended by stone-faced ramparts, with a massive double gate. Here, Wheeler made two spectacular finds: an iron sword, still in its scabbard of wood and bronze, and a human skull, chopped off at the neck and mutilated by a series of savage sword cuts. These relics seem to have been part of a trophy, hanging above the gateway, the result of tribal warfare.

“There is little evidence for settlement at Stanwick after the arrival of the Romans. It is possible that the population moved to enjoy the amenities of the new Roman towns, perhaps at Piercebridge. Stanwick did, however, become the site of a village in the Middle Ages. Little trace of this remains: the houses seem to have been in the area of Kirkbridge Farm, and the remains of the mediaeval cultivated fields may still be made out in the surrounding pastures.

“The site of Stanwick Church has been a religious focus at least since Anglo-Saxon times. the building includes numerous fragments of limestone sculpture which date from the 9th century onwards. The church itself contains many mediaeval features, although most of it, apart from the fine tower, was rebuilt in the 1860’s.

“[Text reproduced in 2003 from the North Yorkshire County Council leaflet ‘The Stanwick Fortifications’, drawn up by Brigantia Archaeological Practice and available free from tourist offices and The Heritage Unit at County Hall, Northallerton, North Yorkshire DL7 8AH, Tel. 01609 780780]

http://stanwick-st-john.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=7&Itemid=30.

Heathen Angli or Anglians (immigrants from southern Denmark) and their descendants moving north from the Kindoms in West Sussex, East Anglia and Mercia, subjugated the British inhabitants to the north of Mercia beginning in A.D. 547, beginning with the reign of King Ida over the Anglian Kingdom of Bernicia, just to the north of the Anglian Kingdom of Deira. These kingdoms were united in AD 635 by a Christian King Oswald to form Northumbria.

The earliest Anglian settlements within Yorkshire occurred in East Riding, before advancement of Anglians into North Riding and West Riding. At some time between 576 and AD 635, the Anglians likely assigned the place name Caldwell to a hamlet within the Parish of Stanwick St. John, in what is now North Riding, Yorkshire.

The place name Caldwell is not a a pet name or term of endearment, as were many of the place names chosen by the Anglians in North Riding. Instead it is a descriptive word meaning “cold spring” (artesian well).

There is clear evidence that the Anglo-Saxons early on had a sense of English identity. Pope Gregory sent Augustine to Great Britain with the mission of establishing a Church in England and converting the inhabitants, because he wanted angels, not Anglis. The Venerable Bede (AD 672-735) authored a book, Historia Ecclesiatisca Gentis Anglorum, or Ecclesiastical History of the English People, in AD 731. “Gens Anglorum” was a term meant by Bede to describe a race whose roots were traced back to immigation of three Northern European Germanic tribes, the Angli, Saxons, and Jutes. In a ninth century treaty, King Alfred described himself as “rex anglorum et Saxonum.” (Peter Ackroyd, Albion, 2002, Anchor Books, p. xxviii.)

Few British OE place names survived at the time of the Domeday Book survey published in 1086 - only 12 in North Riding, such as Alpe, Glasedale, Lemming, Crayke, Deira, and Pernhill.

45 Anglian-derived place names (28 with the Anglo-Saxon suffix -tun”) and 30 Scandinavian-Danish Viking place names outnumbered the British place names.

The Anglian place names were most common in the river valleys and alongside ancient Roman Roads. That generalization fits the location of Caldwell, which lies a few miles from Dere Street, and within the relatively horizontal land at the base of Swale River valley, where artesian wells abound.

See: The Place-Names of th North Ridings of Yorkshire, by the English Place-Name Society. Vol. V. A Mawerne & F. M. Stenton (eds.) Cambridge Unv. Press, 1969.

At some time between the invasion and settlement of Yorkshire in A.D. 876 by Danish Vikings moving north from the Kingdom of Mercia with the objective of attacking the Picts and British in Strathclyde, and AD 915 by Scandinavian Vikings from Dublin, Ireland, who desired to establish a fortified land route through present day Scotland to York, Yorkshire was divided into three subdivisions, called North Riding, West Riding, and East Riding. These ridings converged at the city of York. The bolundaries of North Riding correspond closely with the boundaries of the southern half of the former Kingdom of Deira.

The geography and climate of North Riding were favorable to raising sheep. Eventually North Riding ranked 3rd or 4th among the regions in Britian during the middle ages with greatest quantity of sheep per hectare. The upland moors had grasses year-round. Occasional frosts into June limited what grain could be grown to mostly oats and barley. The valleys and former lake beds tended to be covered with forests except where the inhabitants had cleared the land for meadows. The median temperature ranged in the valleys from the 30s into the 60s Fahrenheit. In the warmer months, the sheep could feed on the upland grasses. In the colder months, the sheep remained in the valleys sheltered against the cold winds that came from the west. Frequent rains in Pennine mountains fed streams that flowed year round to the valleys. Artesian springs (cold wells) abounded.

Each of these ridings were further subdivided into administrative units, called wapentakes, of which there were 12 in North Riding.

One such wapentake was Gilling-West, that included Stanwick, and smaller villages and hamlets, including Caldwell.

See online at google.books:

Record Id:13590968 (Australian National Library Collections)
Author:Plantagenet-Harrison, George Henry De Strabolgie Neville, 1817-1890.
Title: The History of Yorkshire : Wapentake of Gilling West / by Marshal-General Plantagenet-Harrison.
Published:London : Hazell, Watson, and Viney, Ltd., 1885.
Description:xii, 576 p. : ill. ; 44 cm
(available online at google.books)

Historical Notes on the Parish Church of Gilling West, North Yorkshire
by Kenneth Laybourn - 1979 -
Parish Church of Gilling West (available online at google.books)

The Parish Church of Gilling West
by Kenneth Laybourn - 1973 -
Yorkshire (Yorkshire, Gilling, Parish churches Guidebooks);
Parish Church of Gilling West (available online at google.books)

Gilling West & Hang West Wapentakes (includes Richmond, Middleham, Upper Wensleydale, Upper …
by C Norris - 2002 -
Yorkshire (England) (Genealogy); Yorkshire (England) (Directories)
(available online at google.books)

The Stained Glass Windows and Associated Memorial Plaques in Gilling West Parish Church, North …by Phyllis M Benedikz, Kenneth Laybourn - Stained glass (Stained glass, History);
North Yorkshire (England) (North Yorkshire (England))
(available online at google.books)

Heraldic Monuments in Gilling West Parish Church, North Yorkshire: The Arms and Pedigrees of the …
by Kenneth Laybourn - 1986 - North Yorkshire (England) (Genealogy)
(available online at google.books)

The History of Yorkshire.
by George Henry de Strabolgie Neville Plantaganet - 1885 - Find libraries
Gilling West (England); Yorkshire (England) (History);
Yorkshire (England) (Genealogy)
(available online at google.books)

During the first half of the 14th century -- when destructive raids by Scots were common -- many tower castles were hastily erected in North Riding, that served both as a temporary residence for the Lord of the Estate and for housing horse-mounted knights and their on-foot aides. Most of the towers were built with weak foundations and not designed to last as permanent structures. By the 15th and 16th centuies the majority of these towers were in ruins because of weak foundations.

Caldwell was protected by two mortared castles at Barnbaum and Richmond. The Barnbaum Castle was placed under seige and badly battered, but the Richmond Castle was never attacked and remains intact, its foundation resting on solid rock.

On the internet I saw photographs taken alongside A1 or as aerial views that show what we urbanophiles miss: expansive bright green grassland, blue skies, hills and dales gilded by a sun just above the horizon, and open roads. These photographs of Vale of Yorkshire and the Midlands ignore the mist and fog that permeate the classical writings of Yorkshire and Midland England authors, such as the Bronte sisters, who sought to convey a haunting or melancholic mood that characterizes the coastale region of Yorkshire. I imagine seeing Heathcliff emerging from the fog like the ghost of Hamlet’s father. A luminosity envelops a streetlight like the circle around the Eye of Illuminati. Men talk to themselves, but mystic shadows do not cast shadows. Trees rise from fog-blanketed meadows like islands.

While traveling in in the Midlands of England, formerly the Kingdom of Mercia, you can visit Mercia’s capital at Lichfield, and its Lichfield Cathedral. An 8th or 9th century Anglo-Saxon chapel or church was erected at Caldwell, Derbyshire, within the Diocese of Lichfield, and is listed in the Domesday Book of A.D. 1086. A1 is a timeline to the past.

Alongside A1 today there are newly planted acres of hazels, chestnuts. and conifers, creating interlinked woodlands, moorlands, meadows and hedgerows. The denuded treeless landscape of the 18th and 19th centuries is shrinking.

Sections of A1 are being upgraded to 4 lane motorway, designated A1(M). Excavations in connection with this highway construction have revealed both Neolithic and Roman remains, including pre-Roman iron age and Roman forts long forgotten. Two thousand millennia ago Caldwell, North Riding was in the center of a pre-Roman trading community.

http://www.iht.org/motorway/a1mwaldish.htm

The Romans had started construction of this road in A.D. 80. They had to cut their way through woods and forests. About A.D. 122, Dere Street became the main supply route to Hadrians Wall from the fortress at York. Later portions were renamed Watling Street.

http://www.durham.gov.uk/durhamcc/ usp.nsf/pws/tourism+-+tourism+Tours+Dere+Street+wall

Roman soldiers were garrisoned at several fortresses in close proximity to Caldwell, North Riding, in the first and second century AD.
http://www.yorkshirehistory.com/romans_intro.htm.)

Aldborough and Caldwell are in close proximity to one another and are situated within Stanwick St John Parish

"The Romans formed a settlement at Aldbororough, to trade with and at the same time Romanise the Brigantian tribe. It became a township of the Romans and was the home of the 9th legion. By 150 AD it had grown into Isubrigantum - a civillian township - the cantonial civitas of the Brigantes and the most northerly tribal centre in Roman Britain. Aldborough means the old burgh - the old fortified place and was the site of a Celtic stronghold and later a Roman town called Isurium Brigantum.

“The original settlement of the great northern Celtic tribe called the Brigantes extended between Aldborough and Boroughbridge and it is interesting to note that their greatest fortification lies at Stanwick near a place called Aldbrough (note the different spelling) just to the north of Scotch Corner."

http://www.thenortheast.fsnet.co.uk/Ripon.htm.

“The vast majority of Roman fortifications within the county [is] Flavian, that is to say, they date from the period 69 A.D. to 96 A.D., which encompass the imperial reigns of Vespasian, Titus, and Domitian. The obvious conclusion drawn from this is that after the initial conquest, most of the native populations had acquiesced to their new condition, and posed no or little threat to the newly imposed Roman status quo. This was an assumption, in the case of the Brigantes, which was to prove erroneous. Prompted by the depletion of Yorkshire garrisons required for the construction of the Antonine Wall, the Brigantese revolted in the year 155, even threatening the southern side of Hadrian’s Wall. They were effectively and efficiently repressed by C. Julius Verus. A second period of unrest occurred in the year 300, when the Brigantes once again showed that they were not fully defeated in spirit.”
http://www.yorkshirehistory.com/romans_intro.htm.

In 1997 a museum at Aldborough was opened dedicated to the history of the site. Anyone with opportunity wishing to know more about Caldwell, North Riding, should drop by this museum.

Near the southern end of A1 Road are signs saying "Edinburgh and the North." In the north there are signs saying “London and the south.” You will not see a signpost saying “Caldwell.” If you ask for directions, most people in London or Edinburgh likely will tell you that they never heard of Caldwell, North Riding, or Caldwell, Derbyshire. You might be asked to spell the name, and when you do, they might ask if you are American or Australian. Some of those in North Riding still spell and pronounce it Cadwell or Cawdwell and many of those in Derbyshire spell it Cauldwell. They might be unaware that the lowland Scots and the Ordnance Surveys prefer the spelling Caldwell. They may regard Caldwell as an Americanism as bizarre as spelling “centre” “center”, “defence” “defense,” or "honour" “honor.”

Today these Caldwell hamlets are on the byways, not highways, at the backwater of civilization, rather than at its chief port. The young people mostly have moved to the city and left their parents behind on the farms. Crime is negligible. You can leave your door unlocked. No one is sleeping in a doorway. Neither settlement has a jailhouse. If you need to see a barber or a sip a beer at a tavern, you go to the next village. Barnbaum Castle is a market town several miles ot the west of Caldwell, North Riding. The City of Richmond and Richmond Castle are 8 miles to the south. Boys and girls no longer consider clergy or nunneries in their career choice options. Some of the churches have no clergy assigned to them. Stanwick St. John Church in North Riding has been closed for a decade for services and open only for tourists. The strong North Riding dialect of a millennium ago made it difficult to be understood by someone familiar only with the West Sussex dialect. These dialects are fading although traces remain.

In bygone times portions of this "the Great North Road" between Yorkshire and Edinburgh formed the Roman supply road - Dere Street - or Empire Street, by which supplies were brought from York past Caldwell, North Riding, in the Parish of Stanwick St. John, to Hadrian’s Wall. I am unsure whether the Romans ever extended the paved portion of Dere Street beyond to Antonine’s Wall.

Here and there along Dere Street you can stop, get out of your car, and walk around and photograph the stone foundations of Roman fortresses.

I have read that Dere Street is mentioned in the Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_North_Road_(United_Kingdom).

Walking tours along Dere Street are available:

http://www.durham.gov.uk/durhamcc/usp.nsf/pws/tourism+-+tourism+Tours+Dere+Street+building

Pat Anderson is an authority on excavation finds in North Riding. He chairs an archaelogic study group in North Riding. He tells me: “Scotch Corner” refers to at least two places: The term refers to ia major junction on the A1, the major road up the east side of the country, about five miles south of Aldborough. It’s also used to identify a battle site twenty-five miles to the east near Thirsk.”

Pat Anderson states that the best starting point is the Durham Archaeological Journal Vols 14-15, 1999, ‘Melsonby revisited’, by Fitts, Haselgrove etc, because of all the references in it. He also recommends a look at Haselgrove’s own ‘Excavations in the Tofts, Stanwick, North Yorkshire’, a report for the Yorkshire Archaeological Society.

Pat Anderson writes of Scotch Corner: “It is usually accepted, given the status of the finds in the Tofts meadow, that it was a significant site and probably Cartimandua’s. [Chieftess of the Brigante tribe occupying North Riding and much of the lands to the west, up to Clyde Firth, at the time of the Romans arrival.] Since the only reference to this personage is a few lines in Tacitus, this is however heavily speculative. There probably was a gateway on the south side (the entrenchments make a suspicious wiggle at one point). And there might have been another at the NE corner.”

Pat Anderson likes the corral idea as a better explanation than the notion that the rubble earthwork enclosures at Scotch Corner served solely as a defensive structure.

Checking the University of California Bancroft (UCB) Library Catalogue and that of the Stanford University Green Library I found more books than I would ever read, relating to these subjects (Stanwick, iron age fortifications, Brigantes, Yorkshire, North Riding, and Richmondshire). Durham University Library in North Riding also has a large listing. Google books makes all of these publications available online.

The most promising appears to be the following:

Robert Eric Wheeler. The Stanwick Fortifications, North Riding of Yorkshire (1954)

Barry Cunliffe. Iron Age Britain. (2004)

David Hey. Yorkshire from AD 1000. (1986).

T. D. Whitaker. History of Richmondshire in North Riding of Yorkshire (1823)

CD Whelan's York and the North Riding of Yorkshire
Volume I (1857)
Volume II (1859)
Volume III (1871)

Bulmer's "History, Topography and Directory of North Yorkshire", Whelan's "York and the North Riding" and "Topographical Dictionary of Yorkshire" 6 Books on one CD rom. T. Bulmer and Co., T. Whelan and Co. & T. Langdale
"Richmondshire" Volumes I & II. 2 books on one CD-rom Edmund Bogg
http://blunham.com/CDroms/NorthRiding.html

Concise Oxford dictionary of English place-names, edited by Eilert Ekwall (fourth edition, 1960)

Blackwell encyclopaedia of Anglo-Saxon England, edited by Michael Lapidge, John Blair, Simon Keynes and Donald Scragg (Oxford, 1999)

Charters of Burton Abbey, edited by Peter H. Sawyer (1979)
Domesday Book: or the Great Survey of England of William the Conqueror, Photozincographed at the Ordnance Survey under the direction of H. James (35 vols., 1861-64)

Domesday Book, vol. 27: Derbyshire, edited by Philip Morgan (Phillimore, 1978)

Domesday Book, vol. 30: Yorkshire, edited by Margaret L. Faull and Marie Stinson (2 vols., Phillimore, 1986)

Place-names of the North Riding of Yorkshire, edited by A.H. Smith, English Place-Name Society, vol. 5 (1928)

Place-names of Derbyshire, edited by Kenneth Cameron, English Place-Name Society, vols. 27-29 (1959)

Place-names of Warwickshire, edited by J.E.B. Gover, A. Mawer, F.T.S. Houghton and F.M. Stenton, English Place-Name Society, vol. 13 (1936)

Place-names of Nottinghamshire, edited by J.E.B. Gover, A. Mawer, and F.M. Stenton, English Place-Name Society, vol. 17 (1940)

Domesday names: an index of Latin personal and place names in Domesday Book, edited by K.S.B. Keats-Rohan and David E. Thornton (1997)

Dictionary of English place-names, edited by A.D. Mills (second edition, 1997.

See additional listings at

http://www.domesdaybook.net/helpfiles/hs3920.htm