Eston
Hills
Iron Age hillfort and burial mounds.
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The Eston Hills are northern outliers
of the Cleveland Hills in the north-east of England,
and consist of an east-west lying ridge separated
from the North Yorkshire Moors by a small valley,
which contains the medieval town of Guisborough.
The
ridge of the Eston Hills reaches a highest point
of 242 metres at the Eston Nab, but the hills
in general are between 150 metres and 200 metres
above sea level. There are a variety of different
habitats on the Hills ranging from moorland in
the west and agricultural land in the east and
south.
Map Reference NZ 566 184
By 1400BC farming had been taking
place on and around the Eston Hills for at least
a thousand years. Much of the woodland had been
cleared to be replaced by grazing cattle and sheep,
round barrows, fields and farmsteads. The people
of this period saw the sacred in the landscape
all around them and this was reflected in the
number of religious monuments they built.
The
round barrows, mounds of earth some 12 metres
across and up to 2 metres high, not only acted
as monuments to their religion, but also as territorial
markers, defining the tribal boundaries. The burials
within the mounds were almost certainly of the
highest status members of the society and these
important few were usually cremated and placed
in pots.
The
large number of burial mounds on the Eston Hills
suggest a high population in the area at the time
and also that the tree cover had been largely
destroyed by about 1400BC when construction of
the round barrows ceased.
In the late Bronze Age and early Iron Age, farming
expanded all over the Eston Hills to cope with
the increased population. The round barrows were
ignored as more extensive field systems were
developed and defended settlements were established.
Eston Nab was one of these.
Eston Nab occupies the highest point
along the precipitous north facing slopes of the
Eston Hills, overlooking Teesmouth and the Lower
Tees Valley and on a clear day offers extensive
views to the Pennines and far into County Durham.
The remains of a Bronze Age palisade has been
excavated on the highest point of the site and
traces of round houses were found within the enclosure.
In the
mid 5th Century BC, the site was enlarged and
the defences, which can still be seen today, were
constructed. These consist of a stone wall that
was later buried in soil to create a bank. The
site does not appear to have been occupied at
this time. This suggests that the cultivation
of the Hills had led to erosion and that the farmers
were forced to move their farmsteads onto the
heavier clay soils of the Tees Lowlands.
The Eston Hills had become an area
of moorland by the end of the Iron Age and it
was not until the 19th century that people were
again attracted to the resources they offered.
After war broke out with France in 1803, a system
of temporary fires and beacons was established
around the coast to warn of any invasion attempt.
A sandstone beacon house was constructed in 1808
and after the war ended, the beacon house was
used as a private dwelling.
From
1850 the discovery of the Main Seam of ironstone
at Eston appears to have ensured its survival,
and a small cottage was built nearby. By the end
of 1850, 187,950 tons of ore had been mined and
both buildings were occupied by ironstone miners.
The buildings were finally demolished in 1956
and a stone pillar now marks the site of the beacon.
Today there are many readily identifiable remains
of this nationally important industry on the
Eston Hills including the railway inclines which
linked the mines at Eston with the sorting areas
at the foot of the Hills.
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