Ilkley North West Trail #13: Scalewra Settlement
This is the last of a 13-cache series which takes you on a 4.3km trail around some of the lovely countryside between Middleton and Austby immediately to the northwest of Ilkley above the north bank of the Wharfe. Allowing for an easy pace, stopping for caches | to admire the view | spot birds the trail should take you about 3 hours or so.
See GC8Q381 Ilkley NorthWest Trail #1: Intro & Start for background info on the trail and parking waypoints. See Gallery for a map of the trail showing parking spots and approximate cache locations.
The cache, a screw-capped, camo-taped plastic pot, is hidden alongside the trail just after a rickety footbridge over a small stream on the upper slopes of the well-wooded Crab Tree Gill which lies just west of the western edge of Middleton Woods.
To reach the cache:
If following the cache sequence: from #12 head back west along Harding's Lane to the junction and head left (south) down Langbar Road from here to the trailhead around N 53 56.188 W 1 49.905 where there is a signposted Public Footpath heading down into the woods of Crabtree Gill and the cache location near a small stream.
If doing as a one-off: park carefully tucked into the roadside adjacent to the trailhead.
The subject of the cache is a Scheduled Monument - the remaining traces of an ancient settlement which lie in the sloping field adjacent to the parking spot/trail head. It cannot be seen from the road but is clearly visible in aerial photos.
The monument includes the earthwork and buried remains of Scalewra medieval settlement and part of the associated open field system (see Gallery for area map). which is located just south of Myddleton Lodge on a steep south-facing slope rising from 100-150m asl.
Scalewra means ' nook of land with a shieling'. It is within the medieval ecclesiastical parish of Ilkley which consisted of three townships, Ilkley, Middleton and Nesfield each of which had subsidiary scattered settlements around a central village.
Scalewra belonged to the Middleton township, which is first mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086 when it is recorded as a berewick [outlying estate] of the Archbishop of York's Otley estate. By the middle of the 12th century it was held by Hyppolitus (de) Braham (Brame) (de Middleton) [1187-1217, Lord of Middleton], an ancestor of the Middleton Family which continued to hold the manor until late in the 19th century.
Middleton village still exists [some 1.2km to the ENE] but has become much smaller since the making of the Tithe Map in 1846. Documentary evidence shows that Scalewra still existed in 1456 but had been split into two parts known as Overscallwray and Nedirscallewray. Documents record that in 1490 Anne Middleton received in dower 'all their messuage [buildings + associated land] of Scalewray' and that a Middleton marriage settlement of 1587 includes Scaweray, alias Scalwerey'.
Scalewra had certainly disappeared by the time the Tithe Map and early Ordnance Survey maps were made. 
It is unclear exactly when Scalewra was abandoned but it is likely that the settlement was depopulated by the late 15th century as a result of emparking [making of a park | enclosure eg. with a fence]
Myddleton Lodge, the former home of the Middleton family was built in the 16th century and is situated immediately north of the monument. Most likely any remaining buildings would have been removed when it was built.
The monument survives as a series of earthworks and buried remains. Running E-W along the northern edge of the monument is a series of sub-rectangular enclosures marked by low banks which survive to ~30cm high.
The enclosures are interpreted as medieval building platforms with the low banks representing buried walls. Some parts of these were degraded during construction of field drainage and sewage pipes, which makes it difficult to know the exact layout of the earthworks on the ground surface - but aerial photographs still show the overall pattern.
The buildings would have been approached from the south by a terraced track which runs from east to west across the monument. This is most clearly defined at its eastern end where the trackway opens up to form a junction with Langbar Road.
Abutting the south side of the trackway and the southern edge of parts of the area occupied by building platforms are the remains of part of the medieval open field system. These are visible as part of several furlongs (groups of lands or cultivation strips) marked by headlands. The cultivation strips collectively form ridge and furrow and survive to a height of ~40cm. The ridge and furrow run from north to south following the natural slope of the ground and related drainage pattern.
All modern fences and walls are excluded from the scheduling, although the ground under them is included.
See here for an unexpected source of detailed and interesting information on medieval villages and here for fascinating info on life in such a village. See here for a video on a year in the life of a medieval village.