Description

Wessex Archaeology was commissioned by Videotext Communications Ltd to carry out recording and post-excavation analysis on an archaeological evaluation by Channel 4’s ‘Time Team’ at Brimham Hall Farm, Hartwith, near Harrogate, North Yorkshire (NGR 422150 462950).
The site is believed to be that of a medieval grange, one of the 25 granges that formed part of the extensive Fountains Abbey estate. The aims of the project were to confirm that this was the site of a grange, and to understand its development over the last 500 years.
Previous excavations on this site were undertaken by Colin Platt and D. Wild in the 1960s. A small number of evaluation trenches in the vicinity of the farm revealed the presence of well-constructed stone walls; the archive for this fieldwork was subsequently lost, and the current project aimed to revisit the trenches and expand them.
Nine trenches were opened, in the immediate vicinity of the modern farm buildings of Brimham Hall Farm. Two were positioned over the location of Platt’s 1960s investigations and two were subsequently opened adjacent to these to determine the extent of the buildings revealed. Two trenches were subsequently opened over other possible structures where walls had been exposed by cattle trampling, and three more to investigate geophysical anomalies.