Archaeological Excavations at Street Houses Farm

Revealing the deep history of the coastal region of Cleveland from the Neolithic to the Anglo-Saxon period

Steve Sherlock explaining the archaeological excavation of a Neolithic Cairn at Street Houses Farm in September 2026

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The remarkable excavations at Street Houses have revealed the earliest pottery making and salt making in Britain, dating to the Neolithic, and relatively continuous activity through the Bronze and Iron Ages to the Roman period, culminating in an extraordinary Anglo-Saxon bed burial.

There have been extraordinary Neolithic finds excavated Street Houses Farm site, only four kilometres to the northeast of Kilton, above the cliffs overlooking the North Sea. The excavations at Street Houses began in the 1930s by William Hornsby. A Neolithic cairn was excavated by Blaise Vyner in 1981. Further sites were excavated by Steve Sherlock from 2014 and the work is ongoing. The excavations include a ring ditch, a possible Neolithic house, a mortuary complex and a cairn. This coastal hilltop site is a regionally significant centre of early Neolithic life dating to approximately 3,800 BCE. Evidence of hearths, broken pottery, and storage pits suggests this is the earliest Neolithic salt-making site discovered in Britain. Because salt was a highly valued, essential commodity for preserving meat and dairy through the winter, this site suggests that early farmers operated a more efficient, larger-scale cattle economy than previously thought. A multiphase Neolithic cairn with a burnt timber façade and mortuary structure was used for the deposition of cremated human remains. A Late Neolithic palisaded ritual monument known as the Wossit is located a short distance from the cairn. This roughly 6,000-year-old Neolithic hub predates Stonehenge by over two millennia and is among the earliest found in Western Europe. The activity at nearby Street Houses is indicative of agricultural activity in the vicinity.

Street Houses Farm and its relationship to Kilton, Warsett Hill, the Roman signal station at Hunt Cliff, Carlin How and Boulby

The excavations

Neolithic cairn. This site was excavated by Blaise Vyner in 1979–1981 for Cleveland County Council. The cairn contained a central mortuary structure, with an excarnation platform to the west and a façade trench on the east side. A radiocarbon sample was dated to 3730–3650 cal. BC. A Bronze Age burial mound (c. 2000–1500 BC) was later sited on top of the Neolithic cairn. Finds include Carinated Bowls, flints and jet beads (from the burial mound). Published (Vyner 1984).

Neolithic house Structure 16. Excavated in 2010–2011 as part of the current programme of fieldwork (by Steve Sherlock). This was a small (6m diameter) structure defined by a segmented ditch. The finds include a small number of flint tools and a single radiocarbon date from a hazelnut shell of 3766–3647 cal BC. Published (Sherlock 2019).

Late Neolithic Structure 17. Excavated in 2010–2011 by Steve Sherlock. This small oval structure was defined by two rings of postholes, encompassing an area 8m x 6m with an east-facing porch. Structurally different to the Iron Age structures in the immediate area and stratigraphically earlier, Structure 17 was dated to the Late Neolithic–Bronze Age by a small assemblage of flints (Sherlock 2019).

Early Neolithic Structure 18. Excavated in 2016–2022 by Steve Sherlock. This structure was sited above the Neolithic saltern. Structure 18 was a small dwelling defined by postholes with an east-facing entrance. Finds included Carinated Bowl domestic pottery, flints and worked stone artefacts. Dated to the Early Neolithic by radiocarbon determinations to 3800–3650 cal BC (Sherlock forthcoming).

Neolithic Saltern and Structure 19. Excavated 2016–2022 by Steve Sherlock. The evidence for the manufacture of salt was demonstrated by a series of in-situ features deeply stratified. A furnace, flue and a series of hearths were excavated with kiln furniture and other structural features. The finds included industrial ceramics, that is briquette vessels, props and spacers, associated with salt production. Many of the items had chemical signatures for chloride. This site is supported by a suite of scientific dates clustering around 3711–3634 cal BC. Published (Sherlock 2021; forthcoming).

Street House Wossit. Excavated by Blaise Vyner in 1984–1986. This segmented palisaded monument comprised four “quadrants” with vertically set posts with a large pit in the centre. Unparalleled at the time of excavation, later excavations at Seahenge.

Street House Site 20. Excavated in 2024–2025 as part of the current programme of excavations (Steve Sherlock). The site is south of Cleveland Street, 200m north-west of the Wossit. Initially found as part of a programme of geophysics, the site is a continuous ring of stones, 2m wide defining a clay platform of 11m diameter. The structure has been provisionally dated to the Late Neolithic–Early Bronze Age based upon finds including part of a stone battle-axe, seven jet beads, seventeen examples of rock art and a deposit of carbonised grain within a ceramic vessel. (Sherlock in prep).

Iron Age Settlement. Initially excavated between 2004 and 2007, nine roundhouses dating between c. 150 BC and AD 100 were excavated within a ditched enclosure measuring 71m E–W and 57m N–S. A further six Iron Age round houses were excavated outside the enclosure in 2010–2011. Published (Sherlock 2019).

Romano-British Settlement. In 2008 a Romano-British structure of fourth-century AD date was excavated to the immediate south of the Iron Age sites. Further Romano-British fields were recorded in 2009, whilst to the south a more extensive farmstead was excavated in 2013. The economy at this time was primarily farming with evidence for diversification into jet working, pottery and salt manufacture. Published (Sherlock 2019). A Romano-British saltern was excavated in 2023. Published (Sherlock 2025).

Anglo-Saxon Cemetery. In 2005 during the excavation of the Iron Age settlement thirty graves of Anglo-Saxon date were found. Although no bones had survived all of the artefacts that were buried with the individuals survived in-situ. In 2006 further excavations revealed another thirteen graves, including the Anglo-Saxon Princess placed in her grave on a bed. The remainder of the site was excavated in 2007, the finds are on display in Kirkleatham Museum. Published (Sherlock 2012).

The coastal site at Street House Farm lies on exposed but fertile farmland 2km. north-east of the market town of Loftus on the very edge of the North York Moors National Park at 168m above sea level, although the moors proper are 6km. to the south. The chosen site (PL IA) was at first glance neither particularly extensive nor promising. Hornsby had excavated a round barrow 300m. to the south where he found fragments of a collared urn, a pygmy cup and an unidentified urn sherd. That there had been an excavation was known only from the account of the land-owner, Mr. W. Garbutt, for the site was completely ploughed out. The more northerly site was preserved as a gentle swelling in the line of a hawthorn hedgebank which was thought to conceal the profile of the mound as it had appeared when the fields were enclosed in the nineteenth century. This site seems to have lain quite unobserved, although it stood on a false crest above the barrow excavated by Hornsby. However, Crawford’s attention had been drawn to it by Mr. Garbutt, who had in the past removed several cartloads of stone from an area to the south of the hedgebank. (Barcham, Richard C (1982), Excavation of the Street House Farm Long Cairn, Boulby, Cleveland, in the Yorkshire archaeological journal Volume 54, Pages 1-5).

Mesolithic

The area around Kilton and Street Houses was forested during the Mesolithic, with some evidence of Mesolithic hunting.

Neolithic, 4,000 to 2,000 BCE

Archaeological excavations in recent years have considerably enhanced our understanding of the Neolithic period (4000–2000 BC) across the Tees Valley. (Loftus Time Lines, Archaeological Excavations at Street House, Loftus, 2005 to 2025).

Neolithic sites around the Tees Valley

Excavation at a shallow earthwork surviving in a hedgebank at Street House Farm, Loftus in the autumn of 1979 and in the summers of 1980 and 1981 revealed a multiphase neolithic cairn which incorporated a burnt timber façade and mortuary structure. The cairn had been badly damaged by ploughing, but the evidence for the construction and use of the monument survived to a considerable extent. The neolithic monument had been overlain by a Bronze Age round barrow, of which only a part had survived. (Vyner, B (1984), The Excavation of a Neolithic Cairn at Street House, Loftus, Cleveland in Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society Volume 50 pages 151-195).

Cairn Excavation 2026

Fifty years ago only two monuments were known, comprising the cairn on Great Ayton Moor and the site on Newton Mulgrave Moor. Excavations on the cairn at Street House, 1979–1981, changed the perspective with the site scientifically dated to the Early Neolithic period c. 3700 BC. The only site similar to this one is the barrow on Newton Mulgrave Moor (not excavated) 7 km south-east of Street House. At Kirkleatham, geophysical survey and evaluation unearthed a potential henge, 20 m in diameter and dated by flints and one radiocarbon sample to 2464–2276 cal BC. The site was investigated in 2020 with a series of trenches over the ditch that when excavated was over 2 m wide and 1 m deep. Although some bone survived, the ditch contained insufficient material for dating, but further work is merited. A Greenstone axe was also found in the immediate area and is registered on the Heritage Environment Record. This is the only henge currently recorded within the Tees Valley, although others are known in the Vale of York and extending north to Catterick. To the south, on the boundary of North York Moors, an earthen cairn is known on Great Ayton Moor. This site was excavated in the late 1950s. It is undated but appears to pre-date a number of burial mounds alongside the site. At Stokesley, to the west, excavations in 2015 by Durham University uncovered flints and sherds of Neolithic Grooved Ware at a commercial development. Although the finds indicate an Early Neolithic start date for the site, there were two pits that could be contemporary with the finds, but few features to provide further details. Excavations on the Headland at Hartlepool in 2004 exposed an enigmatic structure of postholes and pits associated with a sherd of Beaker pottery and flints of Neolithic–Bronze Age date. The plan of the postholes defines a rectangular area 6 m × 3 m and aligned east–west. This is similar in plan and size to other Neolithic houses recorded in Northumberland, and Mitchell Laithes, Otley and Sewerby Farm, Sewerby in Yorkshire. These examples are similar in size to a house at Gwithian, Cornwall, and Structure 17 at Street House. Many of the sites mentioned here are isolated monuments reflecting a range of ceremonial, burial and domestic activities. Individual structures are also known at Driffield and Yarnbury in Yorkshire, making a total of five sites including those at Street House. Whilst these sites represent individual instances of Neolithic activity, the concentration of sites in the Tees Valley is remarkable. The saltern at Street House adds to this tally of significant sites in the area. (Loftus Time Lines, Archaeological Excavations at Street House, Loftus, 2005 to 2025).

A broad range of finds and a large number of Neolithic artefacts have been recovered from the excavations held in this area between 1979 and 2022. The corpus of finds includes ceramics, worked stones in various forms, lithics, jet, cremated bone from the cairn and environmental evidence. With over 5,000 items from the saltern and over 2,000 flints alone from the Wossit, the total number of artefacts may be 10,000. The ceramics are some of the most interesting finds. Assemblages of the earliest pottery in the UK, known as Carinated Bowls, were found in Structure 18 and the cairn. Analysis of the Carinated Bowls found lipid deposits, indicating that dairy products such as butter and cheese were heated in the bowls and consumed as part of the diet. Of crucial importance, salt production vessels were found on site. This type of pottery, called briquettage and first recognised in Neolithic Britain at Street House, was probably made on site, fired in the furnace. There are various forms of worked stones, including saddle querns and pounders, used for grinding seeds for flour and perhaps crushing stones used for tempering the clay to make pottery and briquettage. There are also burnishing and hammerstones as well as decorative pieces of stone, often termed rock art. Stone axes have been found during excavations on the cairn. One example, a Greenstone axe, came from Langdale in the Lake District. This would have been a highly prized item and traded or offered as a gift. Other highly prized items associated with the Later Neolithic period include a mace-head fragment, found in 2010, and two partial axe heads, one found at the Wossit in 1985 and a second found at Site 20 in 2024. The final group of artefacts are the lithics. Microliths are distinctive during the Mesolithic period (8000–4000 BC), but unusually they are found in Neolithic contexts at Street House. Microliths were found at the Wossit and also at the saltern. These finds serve as testimony to Mesolithic activity in the area. Other items included leaf‑shaped arrowheads, scrapers, and cores that are distinctive to the Neolithic period. (Loftus Time Lines, Archaeological Excavations at Street House, Loftus, 2005 to 2025).

One of the ways archaeologists understand and explain the sites they find is through artistic recreations and technical reconstructions based on the features excavated. The materials used to illustrate the structure, that is the walls and roof, in these reconstructions are based on environmental evidence and parallels from well-preserved sites. Reconstructions are still interpretations of the evidence found, but the impact of seeing structures that existed 6,000 years ago in the landscape so familiar to us today is profound. There is a remarkable range of archaeological sites within a small area surrounding Street House Farm, Loftus. A number of these sites date to the Early Neolithic period. The cairn and mortuary structure, excavated by Blaise Vyner, has been reconstructed to show a processional route towards a façade trench, behind which was a timber mortuary chamber and a platform where human remains were laid prior to a ceremony. Two Early Neolithic houses were also excavated at Street House, each rather different from one another. Structure 16 was a small roundhouse. Structure 18 was a larger house with an entrance porch to the south-east. Domestic items and flint-working debris were found on the floor. A further type of structure known about, but not yet found at Street House, was the Neolithic hall. This structure has been reconstructed at Stonehenge in Wiltshire and Butser Ancient Farm in Hampshire. These large halls are harder to identify, but they are impressive in scale, and the interiors were spacious and light. Also dating to the Early Neolithic period are the industrial saltern structures at Street House. See ‘Salt Production in the Neolithic Period’ for a reconstruction. A small timber palisaded site (the Wossit) was only 9m in diameter with four quadrants of vertical posts and an internal pit. To the south-east of the Wossit, near the path to Easington, aerial photographs suggest there could be a henge. The Wossit and the possible henge date to the Late Neolithic period. They were structures with ditches, external banks and sometimes rings of internal posts, similar to Maelmin Henge excavated at Milfield (Northumberland) and reconstructed there. (Loftus Time Lines, Archaeological Excavations at Street House, Loftus, 2005 to 2025).

Salt production in the Neolithic Period at Street House

Street Houses was a site of intense Neolithic activity including the earliest pottery in Britain, which benefitted from the clay soil, and the earliest evidence of salt making. Whilst the saline solution was collected from the sea, the beach was not suitable for salt making, given the tides and the shading of the cliffs. It may be that lightning strikes had cleared areas of the forest on the heights above the cliffs, leaving an optimum site for Neolithic industry.

The land was much further out from its present position, but there was nevertheless advantage from siting industry on the higher ground at Street Houses.

Pottery and salt was made at scale for local use. This might suggest local agriculture was beginning across the region, as the forest began to be cleared. They probably reared cattle more than sheep.

Salt was valuable. By allowing farmers to preserve both dairy and meat, it revolutionised early agriculture. Salt was used to preserve meat and also to treat milk so that it could be consumed by a lactose intolerant population.

Archaeological evidence shows that early farmers combined salt production with cheesemaking to manage their lactose intolerance and preserve their food. Early unsalted cheese, made by separating curds from whey is highly perishable and quickly spoils. Adding salt allowed Neolithic people to preserve the cheese, creating a reliable food source that lasted through the winter. Salt draws moisture out of cheese curds. Because Neolithic people didn’t have advanced pressing tools, using salt helped dry out the curds to create a firmer, more stable cheese.

Farmers stayed in one place to tend crops, making fresh meat harder to get. Soaking meat and fish in salt brine stopped bacteria growth, allowing communities to store food for the winter and survive famine. Adding salt to vegetables restored the savoury flavour people missed from meat, while providing the sodium needed for basic body functions like nerve and muscle work.

Over time there is evidence of trade, including with the Tay estuary.

Discovery of the Neolithic saltern at Street House was initially made in 2013 during a programme of geophysical survey, although the significance of the site was not known at the time. During excavation, begun in 2016, it became apparent that this site was unique. It was a salt production site founded in the Early Neolithic period. The earliest salt production sites known in the UK date c 1250 BC, during the Bronze Age. Thirty sites from the Bronze Age are known across the country. The salt production site at Street House is scientifically dated 2,500 years earlier than all other UK sites. The Street House site dates from 3,800 BC. It is the earliest salt production site in Western Europe, whilst acknowledging there are older sites in Bulgaria and Romania to the east. The site at Street House survived within a deep hollow, measuring 8 x 5m and up to 3m deep. It was a major construction, and this supports the argument that salt was made on an industrial scale. Potentially, a tonne of salt per annum was produced over several years. The Street House site is important for the extent of the surviving evidence found in situ. There are hearths, a furnace and a flue. The structural evidence for manufacture, including kiln furniture (props, spacers, supports), alongside intact vessels on stands were found. The vessels are stained with salt deposits, and chloride (a key component of salt) was detected on the inside of the evaporation trays. All this evidence allows us to reconstruct the process of salt production. The excavation has recovered many finds, all Early Neolithic in date, and over 20 radiocarbon dates that range from 3900 BC to 3660 BC. The finds include carinated bowls, some of the earliest pottery to be made in this country, and some unique industrial pottery vessels, made on this site and not found anywhere else in this country. The pottery was probably fired on site in the furnace. Over 3,000 flint tools were found, including arrowheads, blades and cores, distinctive to the Early Neolithic period. There were also stone burnishers, grinding stones and props. The environmental evidence for crops cultivated included barley and flax, and hazelnuts were collected from the mixed woodland around the site. (Loftus Time Lines, Archaeological Excavations at Street House, Loftus, 2005 to 2025).

Salt making at Street Houses

Archaeologists in the UK have found an ancient stone age-era salt-production house in North Yorkshire, estimated to be older even than Stonehenge, UK media outlets reported on Wednesday. Dating from the Neolithic period around 3800 B.C.E. the 6,000-year-old find is the latest discovery from the Street House Farm site in Loftus. Finds unearthed on a shoreline near Loftus include three hearths, fragments of broken Neolithic pottery, a ditch, some still containing salt deposits, shaped stone artifacts, and a storage pit. All of the finds are cited as important evidence of salt processing. According to Steve Sherlock, the archaeologist who led the dig, the finds are “spectacular and of national significance”. The discovery is particularly important in that it can substantially rewrite the historical understanding of Neolithic England because the facility is not only the oldest facility found on the island but also one of the oldest facilities found in Western Europe. This new finding, he explained, according to The Independent, indicates that properly settled civilisations developed on the island earlier than expected, with stone-age Britons transitioning into an agricultural society from a hunter-gather lifestyle. In fact, it pushes salt-making back by nearly 2,400 years. Salt was an extremely valuable commodity, and the extraction process is very complex and implies a certain level of sophistication. In fact, according to UK sea-salt production expert David Lea-Wilson, “Any ancient coastal culture that was able to master that technology would have been able to expand their economy substantially,” according to The Independent. Salt was essential to the expansion of the Stone Age. This is because it gave the people of the Neolithic Age the ability to preserve meat. According to the Independent, James Swift, a traditional meat preservation expert, said that effective management of cattle is almost impossible without salt. In other words, the fact that salt can be used at all means that the entire early agricultural sector will undergo revolutionary changes. Male calves can be preserved after slaughter throughout the year, and cows have more grass, which in turn means more milk production. And not only was this salt production house effective but according to Sherlock, salt-making experts said “you’d expect to find that in the Iron Age,” according to the New Scientist news site. Through some archaeological detective work, Sherlock not only figured out how the salt-making facilities work but also first figured out how the process reached Britain. The pottery used to extract salt from seawater is a special type of bowl that can be traced back to France. According to The Guardian, there is a theory that migrants from the north of France brought ceramics, and thus even technology, to Britain around 4000 BC (Arkeonews, 6000-Year-Old Salt Production House Rewrites Europe’s History).

Neolithic people were manufacturing salt in Britain almost 6,000 years ago, before the building of Stonehenge and more than two millennia earlier than was first thought, a new archaeological discovery suggests. Excavations at a site at Street House farm have revealed evidence of the earliest salt production site ever found in the UK and one of the first of its kind in western Europe, dating to around 3,800 BC. The finds, uncovered at a coastal hilltop site near Loftus in the borough of Redcar and Cleveland, include a trench containing three hearths, broken shards of neolithic pottery, some still containing salt deposits, shaped stone artefacts and a storage pit – all key evidence of salt processing. According to Steve Sherlock, the archaeologist who led the dig, the finds are “spectacular and of national significance”. Numerous bronze age salt-working sites are known in Britain, the earliest of which dates to around 1400 BC. But while neolithic salterns have been found in continental Europe, notably in Poland and the Balkans, no comparable sites were known in the UK. Sherlock is a professional archaeologist who mostly works with commercial partners including Highways England, and led excavations on the A14 development in Cambridgeshire. His annual excavations at Street House with a team of volunteers are part of his own self-funded research, however. “It took me a while to get the confidence to stand up and say: ‘This could change how we view the neolithic,’” he said. But he sought input from other academic experts in ancient salt production “and they are all of the view that this is evidence for neolithic salt-working, and is tremendously significant”. The people who were using the Street House site at the time were like “pioneers”, said Sherlock, who had cleared oak and elm forests to form their settlements. Pottery found at the site was of a type introduced by people who migrated from northern France about 4,000BC, and “the salt-working technology probably arrived with these migrating people”, said Sherlock. Earlier research on pottery found at Street House showed lipid deposits, indicating the presence of dairy products and suggesting a society that was moving away from hunter-gathering to a more settled farming lifestyle reliant on growing crops and keeping animals. Salt would have been a rare and highly valuable commodity at the time, as it allowed foodstuffs to be preserved for use throughout winter. “The people who can control and manage salt and distribute it, are usually the wealthier elements of society,” he said. Other structures dating from the period excavated at Street House – including a cairn, mortuary structure and house – indicate a community that was thriving. Sherlock believes the early neolithic people would have collected seawater at beaches nearby, where it would be allowed to evaporate to a concentrated brine. This was then transported to the processing site and stored in a brine pit, before the brine was heated in pots, which were then broken to retrieve the salt cakes. It is likely these were then traded for other goods. The fact that no comparable early neolithic sites had been found may simply be due to rising sea levels and coastal erosion in the intervening six millennia, said Sherlock. The discovery, he said, “changes our view of [early neolithic people]’s ability to farm and prepare and cook food. We need to think about the dynamics of how this industrial process worked, and how it is marketed and distributed. It changes how these people are seen – as farmers – to people who are undertaking a level of industrial processing, and distributing this product over an area.” (The Guardian, 9 April 2021, Dig Reveals 6,000 year old salt hub in north-east England).

Street House is significant because of the range of Neolithic sites found in this small part of north-east Yorkshire. Whilst much of the recent work focused upon the saltern, the investigation began with the excavation in 2016 of a Neolithic house overlying the saltern. Structure 18 was defined by a group of postholes that formed the foundations for the house with a south-east entrance. Pottery, flints and a suite of radiocarbon determinations date the structure to the Early Neolithic period (c 3700 BCE). This date is contemporary with Structure 16, excavated in 2011 and radiocarbon dated to 3766–3647 cal BCE. A further small building, Structure 17, was oval in plan with a porch entrance. It is dated to the Late Neolithic period by the finds and similarities in size and plan to a number of Late Neolithic houses found in Cornwall and elsewhere. The excavations between 2016 and 2019 identified a deep feature beneath Structure 18 that has been recognised as a saltern. This site, along with other similar anomalies, was identified by geophysical survey. An area immediately north of the saltern was excavated in 2022 to reveal Structure 19. It had an upper horizon of compacted white chloride deposit overlying a stone pavement. The cairn and mortuary structure, excavated by Blaise Vyner between 1979 and 1981, dates to c 3700 BCE. This monument had a deep façade trench as a setting for vertical posts, with a timber mortuary structure and paved area beyond to the west. Excavations at Street House between 1984 and 1986 exposed a small circular structure, the Wossit, as four quadrants with settings for vertical posts and a pit with two further posts in the middle. This site was dated by radiocarbon determinations to 2270–2030 cal BCE. (Loftus Time Lines, Archaeological Excavations at Street House, Loftus, 2005 to 2025).

Bronze Age, 2,000 to 800 BCE

Street Houses probably formed part of a ritual landscape with significant Bronze Barrows on Warsett Hill and in Kilton lining with further sites on the moors.

Early Bronze Age Ring Ditch, Site 20: a ceremonial stone monument excavated in summer 2025

Archaeologists discovered a large circular ditch, 15 metres in diameter, constructed over 4,000 years ago. The ditch had been filled with more than 4,000 sandstone boulders, all brought from a cliff 500 metres away. The ditch itself was dug using antler picks. Over 25 of the boulders were decorated with carved peck marks before being placed into the ditch. Later, jet beads were deposited between the stones, and a battle axe made of imported stone was found beside the boulders. All stones in the ditch were carefully drawn to examine settings for timber posts. The site is identified as an Early Bronze Age ring ditch, a type of monument associated with ceremonial and burial sites. Three factors suggest this is a ceremonial site rather than a burial monument: its size and visual impact; the large number of carved boulders; and the absence of graves, cremation burials, and pottery. The site is contemporary with the nearby Street House “Wossit”, a timber‑palisaded ritual monument located 250 metres to the southeast and differs from the smaller burial mounds to the north and east. (Loftus Time Lines, Archaeological Excavations at Street House, Loftus, 2005 to 2025).

Iron Age, 800 BCE to 70 CE

Iron Age and Romano British sites in the Tees Valley with evidence of Salt

Salt Production in the Iron Age

Salt was probably produced along the Yorkshire coast during the Iron Age. Excavations at Thorpe Thewles, Catcote and other sites in the Tees Valley (Tees Valley) found pottery vessels (termed briquetage) used for salt distribution, but we did not know where the salt was produced. Excavations on the Iron Age settlement at Street House in 2006 changed everything when a salt production site was found. A gully, defined a rectangular area. Within it there were two pits, and a saltern, with a stokehole on the north side. Measuring 1.84m long and 0.66m wide, the saltern had burnt stones and fire reddened clay on the north side, with an in situ vessel at the west end, and a base and kiln furniture with part of the collapsed structure at the east end. A second saltern was excavated in 2007. A saltern and two pits cutting into the boulder clay north of the saltern were excavated. Measuring 2.70m long and 0.40m wide, the saltern had a stokehole on the south side. The saltern was packed with stones, some burnt, and the edges of the feature were fire reddened. The two pits adjacent to the saltern contained salt vessels, with a rim sherd from a container and briquetage, oven furniture and a 1st-century AD Romano-British flagon fragment. There is much evidence for salt production during the Later Iron Age at Street House, dating between 50 BC through to the Romano-British period. The distribution of the vessels, structures, working areas and debris from this activity is shown on the site plan. This is the most extensive Iron Age salt-working site in North-East England, although there are probably others, not yet found. (Loftus Time Lines, Archaeological Excavations at Street House, Loftus, 2005 to 2025).

Romano-British Period, 70 to 410 CE

The proximity of the site to the Roman Signal Station at Huntcliff suggests a degree of direct Roman influence by the fourth century CE.

Salt Production in the Romano-British Period at Street House

Evidence for Roman salt‑working was found during excavations at Street House in 2023, although the Iron Age salt‑working site probably continued to the end of the 1st century AD. The excavation revealed a pit to the north where the brine was stored, a furnace, nearly 4m long with a stokehole and two flues. The area around the structure was heavily burnt clay with a stone structure that had a series of ‘steps’ as locations for ceramic trays. Hot air from the furnace flowed beneath the trays and evaporated the brine leaving salt crystals. Chemical evidence for this evaporation process was confirmed by portable X‑ray fluorescence. Chloride (a key component of salt) was detected and recorded between 168 and 2,845ppm (parts per million). Analysis of the material used as fuel in the furnace identified charred spelt and emmer wheat and barley. One barley seed was radiocarbon dated to cal AD 236–365, early 3rd to mid 4th century AD. Finds from the excavation included a jet bead and over 30 sherds of Romano‑British pottery, with a broad date range 3rd to 4th century AD. There is little evidence for Roman salt production in Yorkshire. Only one other site is known at Black Dyke, near North Cave, East Yorkshire. There a pit was excavated and briquetage salt vessels were found. The Black Dyke structure is nothing like the Street House example. Sites in East Anglia are more comparable, and there is a 4th‑century AD structure known at Middleton in Norfolk that could be contemporary with the Street House saltern. (Loftus Time Lines, Archaeological Excavations at Street House, Loftus, 2005 to 2025).

Anglo-Saxon Street Houses, 450 CE to 1066

It may be that a person of the Anglo-Saxon elite class bought the industrial site at Street Houses as a going concern.

An aristocratic burial ground at Street House near Loftus and Carlin How, in Cleveland, dates to about 650 CE, a period of transition from paganism to Christianity in England. This location would have been just within the northern border of Deira. The cemetery was superimposed on a prehistoric monument and there lay a high-ranking woman on a bed surrounded by 109 graves. The royal princess watched over Carlin How, the hill of witches, for thirteen centuries until she was excavated in 2005. The Saxon noblewoman died between 650 and 700 CE. There were no remaining bones in the grave, but she has been identified as a female of an elite class by the jewellery and other treasures. She was laid to rest on a wooden bed which was placed into the earth. The grave was then fitted with a timber structure which was built over the top of the mound. This practice is referred to as a bed burial. Similar practices in Kent might suggest that this family had some link to the East Saxons.

Evidence of elite burial in Deira has come to light spectacular in a late 7th century cemetery of unique layout at Loftus in the Cleveland hills. Some 109 graves are known, with more than 80 set out in four neat rows, two of them double rows, to form an open rectangle, almost square, of 36 metres by 34 metres. Within the open area is a ditched mound, thought to be a mausoleum, some small buildings and possibly the primary feature, a rarely seen case of an individual laid out on a wooden bed. The rite of bed burial and grave goods, including a scallop shaped pendant of gold and garnet, suggest a high-status female; a nearby grave, thought to be that of a male, may be associated with her.

The cemetery was only used for a short period of time and is focused on one burial near the centre of the cemetery, known as grave 42. The objects from this grave were the first indication to archaeologists that this was the site of the burial of an important person. Grave 42 contained three gold pendants, each one unique in northern England. The female had been placed on a wooden bed with iron fittings and decoration. Bed burials are very rare and had only been found previously in southern England.

The grave contained some extraordinary objects including three golden pendants, two glass beads, a gold wire and part of a jet hairpin.

The most extraordinary object is a shield shaped golden pendant. Nothing like it has been found amongst Anglo Saxon archaeological artefacts apart from the Sutton Hoo treasures. The pendant is made of gold with 57 small red gemstones sitting on a thin gold alloy foil. The pendant may have been made from gold coins from the continent that had been debased.

The remarkable grave jewellery to be seen today at Kirkleatham museum

Close to the bed burial place of the princess, in a nearby grave, a pendant was found, with a reused Iron Age bead as its centrepiece, surrounded by gold, carefully crafted to fit its triangular shape.

Another remarkable piece was this magnificent golden pendant, which was probably created between 630 to 650 CE in a workshop in Kent. It was found in the bed burial grave, together with other treasures, including four glass beads, one adorned with gold wire, and a small gold cylinder that acted as a spacer. These items together were probably worn on a chain. It may have been an amulet, worn as a charm for religious purposes.

There are only a small number of bed burials in England including two at the royal cemetery at Sutton Hoo in Suffolk. There is another example at the Prittelworth burial site in Essex, which was recreated at the Chalke History Festival in 2024. The bed was placed in a chambered tomb with a low mound marking the site of the grave. Other graves define the extent of the burial area which forms an irregular square 36 metres by 34 metres. There are two buildings within the cemetery, one possibly a mortuary house where the princess from grave 42 may have been laid prior to her burial. The cemetery was created within an earlier Iron Age enclosure dating to about 200 CE and the link to the past may have been deliberate. Grave 42 is the richest single Anglo-Saxon grave in the North East defined by the quantity and quality of the material found.

This diorama at the Kirkleatham Museum represents the Royal Saxon settlement excavated at modern day Street House.

Initially identified during the 2005 excavation of an Iron Age settlement, Street House excavations slowly revealed a large Anglo-Saxon cemetery over three years, 2005–7. This site revealed many important finds and contributed significantly to the understanding of the Anglo-Saxon world during the conversion period between c AD 650 and c AD 750. The cemetery at Street House hosted 109 graves that were marked by timber posts and laid in a unique square pattern, with the graves oriented east to west. Placed within an Iron Age enclosure, this site included two Anglo-Saxon structures in addition to the graves. One structure is believed to have been a Grubenhaus (a post-built structure with a timber floor constructed over a foundation pit) that was used as a mortuary house, while the other was a larger posthole building that is believed to have been a chapel. Of the 109 graves, 67 revealed an abundance of various grave goods including many glass beads, iron accessories and several small knives, while only one weapon; a seax, was found. Several high-status items were also recovered at this site, including a string of two gold coins with eight coloured glass beads, a circular gold pendant alongside a silver pin, a circular silver brooch alongside a gold and silver necklace, and a gold pendant with intricate glass and gold beads. While these finds suggest that the individuals buried at this site were powerful, the discovery of a bed burial elevated the believed status of this cemetery. The bed burial found at Street House is one of 18 currently known in the UK, many of which were found in East Anglia. Excavation of this grave revealed two polished glass and gold cabochon pendants, a gold wire bead and a gold shield pendant. This last pendant is set with 56 small garnets and a large scallop-shaped garnet in the central setting. The scallop shell is an early Christian symbol and denotes pilgrimage, after the Apostle St James. The bed burial, which used intricate ironwork and ash wood, is believed to have been set within a timber structure that was then enclosed in the centre of a burial mound, a practice usually reserved for the highest-status burials during this period. The value of grave goods found within this burial and the status of bed burials suggests that the individual interred here was a prominent female member of the Northumbrian royal family. The Anglo-Saxon princess found within the bed burial may well have been related to, or at least known to, St Hild of Whitby. The discovery of the royal cemetery at Street House has given us a unique insight into Anglo-Saxon burial and ceremonial practices during the 7th century AD. The square orientation of the site is unique within 7th-century AD England, while the presence of the buildings, the timber grave markers, the burial mounds, and the creation of structures within the graves suggest well-ordered burial rites for this community. The wealth of finds, the gold, jewels, silver and beads, also suggest long-distance and powerful connections between this community and others, and further reinforce the belief that this site is that of a royal Anglo-Saxon cemetery. (Loftus Time Lines, Archaeological Excavations at Street House, Loftus, 2005 to 2025).

It has been suggested that the Kingdoms of Deira and Bernicia merged in the late seventh century to form the Kingdom of Northumbria. Deira has been associated with the lands that later became Yorkshire. Following the Roman withdrawal from Britain a number of successor kingdoms rose in northern England, reflecting pre-Roman tribal territories. The area between the Humber and River Tees known as Deywr or Deifr corresponds to the tribal lands of the Parisi, bordered to the west and north by the Brythonic kingdoms of Elmet (Elfed) and Bernicia (Bryneich) respectively, and to the east by the North Sea. Bernicia is associated with the land from the Tees north to the Forth.

The only known Anglo-Saxon royal burial site in north-east England is near Loftus, overlooking Loftus and Carlin How. The location would have been just within the northern border of Deira. The royal princess watched over Carlin How for thirteen centuries until she was excavated as part of a 109 grave site at Street House, Loftus.

Anglo-Saxons in the Tees Valley

The Anglo-Saxons came from northern Europe and began raiding and settling in Britain from the 4th century AD. By the end of the 6th century AD they had become a significant cultural group in Britain, establishing numerous settlements across the Tees Valley. Excavations completed at 20 sites on both sides of the River Tees, dating between AD 500 and AD 700, reveal evidence of a shared culture across the region. Surveys of two of these sites, Catterick and Hartlepool, offer valuable insights into Anglo-Saxon life.

Catterick. Catterick has been the focus of archaeological attention since the 19th century. During this period, archaeologists have identified seven distinct sites of Anglo-Saxon activity. Of note is a 2015 evaluation supported by Operation Nightingale (a programme designed to help rehabilitate injured soldiers through involvement in archaeological investigations) that took place within Marne Barracks. There, the archaeologists found Skeleton 8 aligned north-south within an earlier Roman structure, adjacent to the threshold. The team uncovered an iron knife, a potsherd and an annular brooch, all identified as Anglo-Saxon in style. These items, together with brooches and a bone comb from other burials within the structure, were dated to the 6th century AD. Similar finds, including glass beads, have been discovered at Maltby. At Catterick, there is a clear trend for the reuse of Roman stone buildings as burial places in the Anglo-Saxon period, such as at Bainesse and elsewhere, particularly near Hadrian’s Wall. Excavations elsewhere at Marne Barracks revealed a Grubenhaus (a post-built structure with a sunken floor constructed over a foundation pit) 200m south-east of the burials. It is suggested that the building was used for craft activities including weaving.

Hartlepool. The monastery at Hartlepool was established c AD 640, but it is perhaps best known for the period when St Hild was abbess, AD 649–657. The monastic community that settled there was associated with a concentration of 37 buildings, 28 of which were of earthfast timber construction and eight had stone-footed foundations. These buildings are significant as their design is distinctly Anglo-Saxon, marking the arrival of a Northumbrian presence with its own cultural and political identity. Several artefacts from these buildings are of Christian character, such as an 8th-century AD disk-headed gilded copper-alloy pin and a 7th- to 8th-century AD clay mould. The pin is decorated with two opposed animals with open jaws and intertwined bodies, a motif also found in manuscripts including the Lindisfarne Gospels. Pins of this quality belonged to the wealthy. It is notable that this item was prudently repaired and preserved. A clay mould, used for manufacturing jewellery, was decorated with a depiction of an apocalyptic animal interpreted as a calf, the symbol of St Luke the Evangelist. This object is testimony to the skill of Anglo-Saxon craftsmen at this monastery. The concentration of Christian artefacts and iconography found at Hartlepool sheds light on the complex landscape of conversion in Anglo-Saxon England.

(Loftus Time Lines, Archaeological Excavations at Street House, Loftus, 2005 to 2025).

Anglo-Saxon cemetery at Norton-on-Tees

In May 1982 two children playing on a spoil heap at Mill Lane, Norton, found a skull. This led to the discovery of 120 burials forming part of an Anglo‑Saxon cemetery. The excavation, carried out between 1984 and 1985, revealed unique burial customs. The graves were arranged in rows aligned east–west. Male burials often contained weapons, while female burials included jewellery such as brooches. These objects dated from AD 550 to AD 630. The absence of Christian symbols suggested Pagan beliefs. The position of bodies varied: some were laid on their backs, others on their sides. Grave goods indicated social status. Double burials suggested familial or social connections. The findings have contributed significantly to understanding Anglo‑Saxon England’s burial customs, material culture, and religious beliefs. (Loftus Time Lines, Archaeological Excavations at Street House, Loftus, 2005 to 2025).

Life in Anglo-Saxon England

Sites like Norton‑on‑Tees and Street House, Loftus, are examples of large‑scale Anglo‑Saxon burial grounds in north‑east England. When Anglo‑Saxons in the Tees Valley buried their dead, they did so along with personal objects, or grave goods. Individuals were buried with what they used and wore in daily life. By studying these objects, including tools or weapons, accessories and textiles, archaeologists can begin to understand how people in the past lived, worked and expressed themselves. Anglo‑Saxon life was centred around the village or farmstead. The people of these settlements grew crops, tended livestock, hunted game, and caught fish and waterfowl. These settlers also worked with materials such as wood, bone, antler and leather, and smelted, cast and smithed with metal ore. Textile production, too, was embedded into daily life as a key part of the yearly farming cycle. Work began in the fields, with flax and hemp sown in spring and harvested in July or August and sheep shorn in June. The labour moved to the village outskirts in the autumn as fibres were prepared for a winter of yarn‑spinning and ended indoors with sewing and weaving the following spring. While men did some of the heavier labouring in the fields, most of the textile production in an Anglo‑Saxon community was the work of women. Women worked together throughout the year, as harvesters, spinners, dyers and weavers, influencing production techniques and clothing trends through these specialised crafts. Taking up a substantial part of the year, and involving a large portion of the village population, the production of cloth was part of a wider community effort. Communities in the Tees Valley had a much greater range of clothing styles. Compared to southern Anglo‑Saxon kingdoms, communities in the North were influenced by surviving Romano‑British technologies and cultural exchanges with Celts and Scandinavians. Variety was also introduced at a local level as production techniques were shared by women within and moving beyond their home villages through marriage or migration. As found today, clothing in the Anglo‑Saxon period could be functional, decorative and symbolic. Metalwork was especially important in terms of function and form. Accessories like brooches that fastened on to cloaks and wrist clasps that closed dress sleeves functioned like modern buttons and zippers. Some accessories were probably expressions of the owner’s age, culture, status, gender and individuality. Iron latch‑lifter keys, for example, worn on a woman’s belt with a girdle hanger (Fig 6), were used to secure goods behind locked doors; as an accessory, it also represented the role of Anglo‑Saxon women as keepers of the home. Items made from precious metals were, like today, status symbols. Ornate jewellery, such as silver and gold bracelets or amulets, were expressions of individual or familial wealth and craftsmanship. Anglo‑Saxon clothing also followed fashion trends. For example, in the early Anglo‑Saxon period women wore tubular gowns, or peplos, fastened with a brooch on either shoulder in a style first found in classical Greece, and which was worn across Iron Age Europe and Asia. The migration of people from the European Continent further influenced clothing styles, with wealth carried in the form of accessories, such as necklaces comprising up to a hundred amber and blue glass beads (compare “Anglo‑Saxons in the Tees Valley” with “Anglo‑Saxon Cemetery at Street House”), belt buckles and brooches made of precious metals like gold and silver, or other practical objects such as hide shields or iron swords and seaxes. As Anglo‑Saxon communities became more established by the mid 6th century AD, clothing and burial practices also reflected a more settled way of life. Grave goods emphasized craft tools over weaponry; and fashion trends shifted from an abundance of accessories to fewer, higher‑quality pieces. Established settlements across the Anglo‑Saxon world produced unique forms of dress and old styles, such as the use of belt buckles, fell out of fashion with changing times. The changes in style of accessories form a distinct chronology and together with analytical techniques they are used by archaeologists to help date burials and settlement activity within the Anglo‑Saxon period. (Loftus Time Lines, Archaeological Excavations at Street House, Loftus, 2005 to 2025).

Cleveland Way along the coast adjacent to Street Houses

1948

There is an Ordnance Survey map showing Street Houses Farm in 1948 (The National Archives U.SG/8/33 held at Teesside Archives).

The Farndales and Carlin How

In Victorian times, the Craggs line of Farndales would make Craggs Farm at Carlin How, their home, in this place of Saxon ghosts. The Farndales have had a close association with Craggs Hill which sits just above the old village of Carlin How, including the Craggs Line. Kerling is the Old Norse for a hag or witch and how comes from the Scandinavian haugr or hill. Carlin How is therefore the hill of witches.

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