Cave Archaeology Group

Sewell's Cave is a shallow rock shelter in a limestone escarpment to the north-west of Settle in North Yorkshire. It was discovered in 1932 by a local amateur archaeologist, Tot Lord, and his small band of enthusiastic followers, known as the "Pig Yard Club". The excavations which followed revealed a quantity of Romano-British material, including weaponry, bone artefacts, iron objects and copper alloy brooches. A number of human skull fragments were also found. These finds, together with a large quantity of archaeological material from other caves in the Yorkshire Dales are currently kept in the Lord Cave Archive by Thomas. C.Lord, the grand-son of Tot Lord. Tom has kindly given permission for these photographs to be reproduced here. Sewell's Cave was, in 2005, the subject of an Undergraduate Dissertation by John Howard, entitled "Cave Cults in the Yorkshire Dales? A re-assessment of Romano-British activity in Sewell's Cave." Bizarrely for an archaeological site, the Pig Yard Club built themselves a cooking stove at one end of the rock shelter which remained in a fairly intact state until recently, when it was demolished by a person or persons unknown. The stove was rebuilt in 2014 by Andrew Hinde (English Nature) and local caver / archaeologist John Thorp.