Raikes Road - next steps

Following on from the Total Station survey the IAG conducted last year at Raikes Road Burial Gound (RRBG) in Skipton, Bob Moore has been leading plans to conduct a small scale investigation to help the RRBG Volunteers understand the site better. In particular the volunteers have hearsay evidence of a doorway in the mortuary mound by the Skipton-Grassington road wall. They’d like to know if there was a doorway in the mortuary building below the mound that enabled coffins to be moved directly to the chapel for a service and burial, rather than being taken out at the road entrance and then into the burial ground via the entrance gate.

The aim is to offer an opportunity this year to IAG members to help with excavating a small number of test pits between the chapel and the mound in the hope of finding paving or a pathway leading to a doorway. To this end a small team did a preliminary 2-hour tape and offset survey on Monday 10 March to draw a plan of the mound before undertaking any further work. It was indeed very quick as the sun was shining brightly but the temperature had dropped overnight and we soon regretted our lack of extra layers. More information will follow on the planned exploratory work. You can read the Raikes Road survey report on the publications page.