The 21st Century archaeological discoveries in Pocklington, rated as of international importance, prompted re-evaluation of the town and district’s heritage potential and how it could be realised and improved. This includes informing and inspiring the local community and schools to engage with its history and environment, enabling further study and research, developing its growing visitor economy, and encouraging wider tourism by promoting Pocklington’s key position between York and Beverley, and its identity as the ‘Gateway to the Wolds’ and conduit for visitors to the rest of the East Riding.
Pocklington and district’s rich heritage within a historic landscape has been recognised for many years (“Pocklington has a great deal of potential in answering some of the questions about the emergence of towns in Britain”, Council for British Archaeology, 1972); but there has never previously been a clear opportunity to display its notable past.
The Burnby Lane site revealed a thousand artefacts, mainly Iron Age but also early Saxon, including weapons, jewellery and domestic items, some exceptional and never previously found in the north of England. It also uncovered a chariot – the first with charioteer and horses attached found in Britain for 200 years. The subsequent Mile excavation uncovered an even more extraordinary chariot (“Iron Age Britain’s most spectacular grave” – BBC 4’s Digging For Britain, 2018), buried upright in unprecedented fashion and including its charioteer laid on an unparalleled repousse decorated shield (“the most important British Celtic art object of the Millennium.” Melanie Giles, 2019), now known as ‘The Pocklington Shield’.
News of the Pocklington digs went around the world, with extensive coverage on television and in hundreds of newspapers. The post excavation analysis is expected to rewrite the history of Iron Age Yorkshire, revealing that life here before the Romans was much more sophisticated than previously recognised.
The East Riding and Wolds is already universally recognised for its Iron Age heritage – The Arras Culture – and Pocklington can greatly develop this and appeal to both local and wider audiences.
The project sees preserving and showcasing the Burnby Lane and Mile archives in one place as a priority; but it wants to go further to create a heritage facility that tells the whole story of the district, covering all eras in a way that interests and informs visitors, residents, students and schoolchildren alike. It is a continuous story of human occupation, of local people getting on with their lives and work, going back over 6,000 years, with pottery finds from The Mile of 4,500 years ago; and we are committed to put together and deliver a desirable and sustainable project that includes a museum/heritage centre in Pocklington as its hub.
Local artefacts are available to enhance the district story from every era from prehistoric to present. They include dinosaur fossils, Neolithic axes, Roman statuettes and coins, a transcript of the Domesday Book entry (Pocklington was one of just five Yorkshire towns in 1086) and Saxon and Norman items and stories of people and events. Pocklington takes its name from its Saxon leader, Pocela, c600 AD and became capital of the Poclinton Hundred, with the Sotheby Cross commemorating Paulinus’ visit in 627. The Mile excavation also uncovered a rare and important mid-Anglo Saxon settlement site from the same period, where Pocela’s people lived, worked and kept their livestock in sunken floored houses and halls and enclosures, called ‘Grubenhauser’.
In the Medieval era the town received its first market charter, and the rise of the wool and malting trades helped fund the imposing All Saints church, known locally as ‘The Cathedral of the Wolds’ in the 12th and 13th centuries. Tudor times saw Pocklington Grammar School founded, several locals find fame and fortune, and others being executed for their part in revolt and rebellion. The C17th brought Gunpowder Plot connections, plague and more executions (local legend claims the last witch burning in England was in Pocklington Market Place), and we have musket and cannon balls said to be from the Civil War, plus numerous other finds.
William Wilberforce began his anti-slavery mission as a 1770s schoolboy at Pocklington, and we possess copies of his early essays criticising slavery. A few decades later another Pocklington emancipator, William Ullathorne, successfully led the campaign to end transportation to Australia. Others left Pocklington to make their mark on the world in the Victorian period, including inventor Thomas Cooke, and confectioner Joseph Terry, plus several leading sportsmen, astronomers, artists and self-taught scientists. The town saw the arrival of the railway and the Pocklington Canal, now an increasingly popular leisure facility (“the best canal in the country for its wildlife”, John Craven, BBC Countryfile, 2008).
We have an archive of around 8,000 photographs portraying life in the late 19th and early 20th centuries; and Pocklington had a significant role in both WWI and WWII, with a remarkable scale model of RAF Pocklington seeking a permanent home. Burnby Hall Gardens is already a visitor jewel with its lakes, gardens and museum housing the internationally important world-wide collection of explorer, Major PM Stewart.
The surrounding villages also produce many notable finds which currently cannot be displayed locally; including items from the Roman fort and town at Hayton, the Iron Age hillfort at Grimthorpe, and settlement site above Nunburnholme. The Wolds countryside around Pocklington also contains remarkable ancient features, such as Millington Pastures and Huggate Dykes, with their nearby dry valleys, historic walking trails and picturesque villages. It is also a place rich in environmental and natural history that is currently undervalued (“The cultural heritage of the Wolds is relatively untapped and has yet to contribute its full potential to the tourism and rural economies of the area”, Historic England 2018). Wildlife and flora flourish in the Wolds, including a nearby Red Kite roost; while Pocklington features in Yorkshire Wildlife Trust’s ‘Nature Triage’ and a third of Humberside’s Sites of Special Scientific Interest are within ten miles of the town. Developing and promoting opportunities for walkers and cyclists, and connecting with other heritage and environment initiatives is also a key part of our plans and further enhances Pocklington’s role as The Gateway to The Wolds for tourism and visitors.
