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Jamie Lund - Archaeologist
CHESHIRE
Tatton Park
Historic landscape appraisal at Tatton Park.
This study was commissioned by the National Trust in 2002 and is jointly supported by Cheshire County Council and grant aided by DEFRA. It was developed in response to an awareness of the gradual deterioration of the structures, the tree cover and the clarity of the designed landscape at Tatton Park.
In recognition of the Park’s historic importance, the landscape appraisal sought further to create a management and restoration plan. This is to secure the future of Tatton Park based on the two principles of conserving and enhancing the area in its entirety as a park of historic importance, whilst also maximising its potential attraction to visitors and residents alike.
A survey of the parks and gardens at Tatton Park was undertaken as part of the project and a historic narrative written to describe the development of the formal landscape from earliest times to the present day. A survey of the archaeology, agricultural and built environment complemented this work, generating new records for over 1,000 sites and monuments. Information about important views and vistas, estate buildings and garden architecture and significant trees and plantings was also recorded.
CUMBRIA
Survey and excavation on Sizergh Fellside.
The unusually warm and dry summer in the Lake District coincided with the second season of survey and excavation on Sizergh Fellside, located four kilometres south of Kendal and just east of the Lyth Valley. The project is a collaboration between the National Trust and the Department of Archaeology and Prehistory at the University of Sheffield and aims to explore the character, extent and condition of prehistoric and historic archaeology on the fell.
The archaeology of Sizergh Fellside was first explored in early twentieth century by T. McKenny Hughes, a geologist by profession and a keen archaeologist in his spare time. He oversaw the opening of two mounds on the fellside. The first mound contained a beaker burial deposited in a natural gryke in the limestone, the second larger mound contained what was believed to be the remains of five human burials. The purpose in revisiting the fellside was to revisit these early excavations and to explore the wider archaeological potential of the fellside that had been recently surveyed from the air.
As part of the recent work a plan of the larger, excavated mound was made and the bone material that had remained at Sizergh Castle since 1904 was sent off for analysis. Remarkably the mound was found to have contained the remains of thirteen inhumations, including six infants. The mound was then partially re-excavated to provide an opportunity to determine the extent of earlier excavations and record any surviving structural elements.
The surrounding fellside landscape was subject to extensive geophysical and metric survey that was followed up by some small scale excavations that sought to determine if the many mounds and humps seen from air were archaeological features or natural limestone outcrops.
The answer was not nearly so simple. While all the features examined were revealed to be natural limestone ridges, the discovery of fragments of polished stone axe, axe working flakes and a polissoir show that at least some of the mounds had been the focus for the deliberate depositing of important cultural items.
Such observations are not unique and the recent discoveries at Sizergh have much in common with local trends. A third and final season of work is planned for 2004 to examine the lower fellside that contains both prehistoric and Romano-British remains.
Historic Landscape Survey of Ennerdale
In May 2003 Oxford Archaeology North undertook a fourth season of investigations in Ennerdale, following three earlier seasons of survey between April 1995 and 1997. Earlier phases of survey had sought to evaluate and record the archaeological resource in the valley prior to tree felling, the purpose of the recent work was to provide a narrative history of the valley as part of the ‘Wild Ennerdale’ project.
In this particular case the term ‘wild’ is based on the notion that although the landscape has been affected by centuries of human influence, for many people it retains a sense of remoteness and an apparent lack of human activity which is highly valued.
The shared vision behind the project was to integrate land management of the three main landowners in the valley: Forestry Enterprise, United Utilities and the National Trust, allowing Ennerdale to develop as a unique wild place, allowing natural forces to become more dominant in the future shaping of the landscape. There will be no drastic changes to the landscape over the short term. 'Wild Ennerdale' is very much a long term vision with no fixed end point. Time will be a key factor in enabling natural processes to take a greater hand in shaping the valley over many years to come".
The archaeology of Ennerdale sets it apart from other Lakeland valleys because of its diversity, complexity, and survival of its archaeological remains. Ennerdale has seen only limited valley bottom enclosure and as a result has not been adversely impacted upon by the same level of intensive land improvement found in other Lakeland valleys.
In part as a result, Ennerdale contains a remarkable survival of settlement and industrial remains that extend back to at least the Bronze Age. There are remains from subsequent periods, albeit with some discontinuities of settlement, through to the present. Its medieval remains in particular are very well preserved.
Excavations at Sandscale Haws
In the summer of 2002 a burnt thumbnail scraper was picked up from a shingle ridge revealed by the blowout of a high sand dune. The site was afterwards monitored by the warden who collected around 200 lithic pieces over the following twelve months. This assemblage included a finely worked barbed and tanged arrowhead, numerous scrapers, an anvil stone and an extremely small Langdale (Group VI) polished axe.
The continued natural erosion of the area prompted more detailed investigation of the site, with a small team of volunteers working under the direction of an archaeologist from the Department of Prehistory at the University of Sheffield. Although the site had been badly disturbed the excavation revealed a number of occupation features cut into what remained of the sand dune overlaying the shingle ridge. A total of eleven postholes were revealed forming a D-shaped structure approximately two by three metres in size. In addition four shallow pits were recorded, one of which was found to contain a broken flint scraper.
There exist significant problems with the close dating and interpretation of prehistoric lithic assemblages from Cumbria without secure dating from associated organic materials. The pits and postholes at Sandscale are the first such features on the Furness coast and may be taken as significant evidence of probable transitory coastal occupation over the Neolithic/ Bronze Age transition.
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