The Archaeologist’s Shoes

The Landscape Research Centre has been actively involved in rescue archaeology at Cook’s Quarry, West Heslerton, North Yorkshire in the Vale of Pickering since a visit by the director in 1977. The original excavations at Cook’s Quarry were published in the Journal of the Royal Archaeological Institute in 1986 (Powlesland, D.J., Haughton, C.A. and Hanson, J.H. 1986 ‘Excavations at Heslerton, North Yorkshire 1978-82’, Archaeol. J. 143, 53-173). Since then with the exception of a gap in excavation during the late 1980s and early 1990s, when parts of the quarry were extended without any archaeological observation, excavations have continued to examine and record areas prior to sand extraction on an almost biannual basis.

The cumulative results of these excavations have confirmed the importance of the Cook’s Quarry site with reference to the Prehistory of the North of England including the excavation of possible major Late Mesolithic or Neolithic but as yet undated post settings…