The Yorkshire Dales in the Early Medieval Era

Until very recently it was widely assumed that there is no visible evidence of settlement from the Anglo-Saxon period – the so-called Dark Ages – in the upland North West. It has also been claimed that what evidence there is relates to Viking settlers. Across the Yorkshire Dales remains of isolated settlements can be seen, and artefacts have been found, where limestone is the main rock type, but it is only since extensive archaeological investigations began in 2008 that many sites have proved to be from the Anglo-Saxon period. Individual farmsteads or farmstead groupings, all with very similar clusters of small rectangular buildings and associated paddocks and fields, as well as summer shielings, have been excavated. A large number of radiocarbon date ranges have been obtained from the seventh to the late tenth centuries, and it has been possible to build up a picture of life and society in the Dales using archaeological evidence, place names and the scant documentary sources that have survived.

David Johnson, who ran the research programme, uses the new evidence to dispel the myth that Vikings were dominant in the Dales and reveals the fascinating story of how its occupants lived and worked over a thousand years ago.