In a major blow for quarry operator Tarmac, they are being recommended to throw out plans to extend extractions near the three large Neolithic earthworks.
Councillors will meet at 1pm on Tuesday, and the public turnout is expected to be high. The chairman of Timewatch, George Chaplin, was not making any early celebrations yesterday.
He said: "The messages we are getting are that refusal is far from certain."
Decision-makers urged to reject quarrying near henges
From the archive, first published Wednesday 14th Sep 2005.
THE long and often acrimonious battle over the future of one of Britain's most important archaeological sites will come to a head next week.
At a meeting in Masham town hall, North Yorkshire county councillors will decide on the future of quarrying operations by the 5,000-year-old Thornborough henges.
In a major blow for quarry operator Tarmac, they are being recommended to
throw out plans to extend extractions near the three large Neolithic earthworks.
Planning officials said the proposal would have "an unacceptable impact on nationally important archaeological remains".
They also said the move would be contrary to the authority's policy on mineral extraction and that there was no overriding need for it.
Tarmac Northern wants to extend Nosterfield Quarry at Ladybridge Farm,
Thornborough, near Ripon, to extract 2.2 million tonnes of sand and gravel over four years.
An application was submitted in June last year and immediately brought protests from those who feared for the future of the henges, about a kilometre south-east of the extension area.
Almost 850 letters of objection and three petitions with a total of 9,680 signatures were sent in. Some of the objections came from overseas.
The Council for British Archaeology, Yorkshire Archaeology Society and action groups the Friends of Thornborough Henges and TimeWatch also submitted detailed responses calling for the scheme to be rejected.
Tarmac has insisted throughout that the development would pose no threat to the henges, saying the extension would be further from the earthworks than the existing quarry site.
Yesterday, their response to the recommendation to refuse permission was muted.
Tarmac Northern estates manager Bob Nicholson said: "We have only just learnt of the officers' recommendation and will need to study the report to committee in detail before we are able to comment further."
Councillors will meet at 1pm on Tuesday, and the public turnout is expected to be high. The chairman of TimeWatch, George Chaplin, was not making any early celebrations yesterday.
He said: "The messages we are getting are that refusal is far from certain."
Campaigners opposing plans for quarrying near an ancient monument in North Yorkshire must wait until the New Year for a decision by councillors. Tarmac has applied to quarry sand and gravel at Ladybridge Farm, north of Ripon, near Thornborough Henges.
Opponents fear it could destroy clues about the 5,000-year-old earthworks' history but Tarmac says the land could cope with quarrying and conservation.
A decision was deferred on Tuesday to await a full report in January.
On Tuesday North Yorkshire County Council issued a statement saying: "Today's meeting has decided to defer this matter to allow a further archaeological investigation to be carried out.
"We hope to have a full report for members to consider in January."
Members of the North Yorkshire County Council planning board had visited the site in August and were recommended to refuse permission by planning officers.
The henges are believed to be one of Britain's largest ritual gathering places from the Neolithic period.
The henges are in open countryside near the A1
Local campaign group TimeWatch has collected a petition of more than 10,000 signatures against the plans which would see work about half a mile away from the henges.
It said the quarry would contribute to the permanent loss of nationally important archaeology.
US-based conservation group the Landmarks Foundation has also voiced its concern at the quarry proposals, describing them as a tragedy.
But several people have expressed their support for the quarry extension.
Tarmac already has a quarry at Nosterfield, close to the ancient henges which consist of three earthworks built in a line running north-south for about a mile.
Workers at the Nosterfield Quarry and local building firms have sent in 80 letters and a 350-signature petition arguing that more than 50 livelihoods depend on the application's approval.
Tarmac has said the extension is on farmland where there is only "thin and scattered" evidence of prehistoric activity, according to a recent study by archaeological consultants.
The actual henges are under no threat from quarrying because of their status as protected ancient monuments, the company added.
DIVERS are on the verge of rewriting the history books after discovering what appears to be the remains of a long-lost Roman bridge.
The amateur archaeologists believe they may have uncovered the first Roman crossing over the River Wear on the outskirts of Durham City.
Rolfe Mitchinson, Bob Middlemass and his son Philip Middlemass have discovered stakes, other timbers and worked stone in the murky waters close to the modern Shincliffe Bridge, which carries the A177 over the Wear. They bear all the hallmarks of work by Roman engineers.
If corroborated by university dating specialists, it will confirm the existence of a 40ft-wide bridge that would have carried Roman legions across the river.
The team, who came together as deep sea divers in the North Sea, first made the headlines in 1987 when they found the remnants of a Roman bridge at Piercebridge, near Darlington.
Since then, they have uncovered a priceless hoard of up to 900 coins and about 1,000 other finds in nearby waters.
Known since then as The Piercebridge Divers, the trio went on to discover a Roman road at Middleton-One-Row, near Darlington, a Roman bridge at Tadcaster, in Yorkshire, and a road leading to a suspected crossing of the River Tweed, on the Scottish Borders.
Historians have long known of the existence of Cade's Road, which runs from the Humber to Newcastle, but disappears just north of Sedgefield as it heads towards Durham.
The team received a £19,500 grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund and Countryside Agency towards a two-year project to find the crossing.
Mr Mitchinson, 65, said: "If we can find the Roman bridge, it will be the first confirmed crossing of the Wear and, while we have had success elsewhere, we are all from Durham and it would be nice to discover something on our own patch."
The search was centred on Shincliffe because records show a bridge dating back to the 12th Century, which was eventually swept away in the 18th Century. There is a natural gap in the surrounding escarpment which would have offered the Romans only one easy route down to the river. The site is close to Maiden Castle, where the most northerly villa in the Roman Empire was discovered by archaeologists.
After discovering what appears to be about a dozen supports of a medieval bridge, which spans the river between The Rose Tree pub and Houghall College, the divers are excited to have discovered thicker supports, less than 12 inches in diameter, which jut out more than 15ft into the river and are firmly fixed to the riverbed about 100 metres upstream from the existing bridge.
Mr Middlemass, 57, said: "Roman stakes are just under 12 inches wide and they would have driven them into the riverbed with big piledrivers."
The divers are now working with Durham County's Archaeology Office to verify the age of the surviving timbers - and are also examining encouraging finds further downstream at Kepier, which they suspect could be the site of a second crossing.
The team would like to hear from anyone who has discovered any Roman artefacts in the Shincliffe area to get in touch with them on 0191-385 3655.
A TEAM of archaeologists from Sheffield University have revealed significant new insights into the role of Stonehenge after discovering a prehistoric ceremonial road. The team, also from four other universities, discovered the avenue. It proves there was a walkway between a henge (a circular momument) at Durrington Walls, and the River Avon, three miles away, blowing a hole in the theory the standing stones at Stonehenge were a one-off feature. The new find supports the team's theory that Stonehenge was in fact just one part of a much larger complex of stone and timber circles linked by ceremonial avenues to the river. Radiocarbon dates indicate the henge was in use at the same time as the sarsen stones were erected at Stonehenge. The newly-discovered roadway, with its rammed flint surface, is wider than most modern roads and more substantial than any other Neolithic track in Europe. It runs for about 100 metres (328ft) from the timber circle within the great henge to the river. Analysis has shown that the avenue was heavily trampled by prehistoric feet, and archaeologists have unearthed numerous finds along its edge. Prof Mike Parker Pearson, from the University of Sheffield's Department of Archaeology, believes Stonehenge and Durrington Walls, together with its adjacent site of Woodhenge, were linked by the river to form a single complex. He has suggested the entire complex was a funerary monument. The work was filmed for a Channel 4 Time Team special, to be screened next year.
Can't help but notice this is another nationally important site being quarried by Tarmac. I believe this is the largest concentration of henges in Britain - sixteen in all.
An ancient Greek jar, an Etruscan candelabrum and a gravestone have been returned to Italy from the J. Paul Getty Museum in the US. Rocco Buttiglione, the Culture Minister, welcomed the allegedly stolen artefacts’ recovery, saying that Italy was no longer an easy touch for looters. The artefacts’ return coincides with the resumption in Rome next week of the trial of Marion True, the museum’s former antiquities curator. She faces charges of conspiring to traffic in looted antiquities.
........................................................................ Support the PAS Go with the FLO
Police arrest archaeologist suspected of ancient relic trade
By Jonathan Lis, Haaretz Correspondent
An archaeologist was arrested Tuesday on suspicion of locating and purchasing an ancient document from antiquities thieves.
Professor Hanan Eshel, of Bar-Ilan University, is suspected of purchasing pieces of a Leviticus scroll from the Bar Kokhba period (132-135 CE) from three West Bank Bedouin for $3,000. The three Bedouin allegedly showed the document first to a doctoral student of Eshel, Roi Porat. Porat, who was also questioned yesterday, allegedly called in Eshel, who subsequently made the purchase. Eshel and Porat were released with limitations after questioning.
........................................................................ Support the PAS Go with the FLO
Recent Roman discoveries in Bath have included burial sites and more buildings. A dig at the back of Royal Crescent last year allowed archaeologists to work out how the most important road in early Roman Britain cut through the city.
