Archaeology and Conservation in Derbyshire (ACID) - Issue 18 - January 2021

ACID

ISSUE 18 JANUARY 2021

Archaeology and Conservation in Derbyshire and the Peak District

Navio’s long-lost vicus revealed

Inside:

Peak District lead in Vermeer’s earring Swarkestone’s windmill Find of the Year Our year in numbers: planning and heritage statistics

Foreword:

ACID Archaeology and Conservation in Derbyshire and the Peak District Editor: Roly Smith, 33 Park Road, Bakewell, Derbyshire DE45 1AX Tel: 01629 812034; email: roly.smith@btconnect.com For further information (or more copies) please email Del Pickup at: del.pickup@peakdistrict.gov.uk Designed by: Phil Cunningham www.creative-magazine-designer.co.uk Printed by: Buxton Press www.buxtonpress.com The Committee wishes to thank our sponsors, Derbyshire County Council and the Peak District National Park Authority, who enable this publication to be made freely available.

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Derbyshire Archaeology Advisory Committee Buxton Museum and Art Gallery Creswell Crags Heritage Trust Derbyshire Archaeological Society Derbyshire County Council Derby Museums Trust Historic England (East Midlands) Hunter Archaeological Society University of Manchester Archaeology Department University of Nottingham Peak District Mines Historical Society Peak District National Park Authority Portable Antiquities Scheme Museums Sheffield University of Sheffield, Department of Archaeology South Derbyshire District Council

ISSUE 18 JANUARY 2021

Archaeology and Conservation in Derbyshire and the Peak District

Navio’s long-lost vicus revealed

Inside:

Peak District lead in Vermeer’s ear ring Swarkestone’s windmill Find of the Year Our year in numbers: planning and heritage statistics

Cover picture: Visitors look on as an ARS archaeologist investigates the Navio Vicus. See features on pages 4–7

Covid or not, the work goes on

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t has been difficult to make predictions recently, but I can confidently predict that you will find much of interest in this edition of ACID. It is wonderful to see how the work of archaeological and heritage organisations has continued during the Covid-19 pandemic, with new discoveries alongside the culmination of some multi-year projects.

This year sees a number of significant anniversaries. It is 70 years since the founding of the Peak District National Park, the first to be designated in the UK. Its work in preserving and promoting the heritage of the Peak District is reflected in numerous articles in this year’s magazine, both directly such as surveying Scheduled Ancient Monuments (page 14) and restoring historic barns (page 13), and indirectly by enabling other projects within the National Park, such as the investigations at the Navio Roman fort, near Brough (pages 4 to 6).

Another anniversary, one occupying a lot of my time in my day job at Museums Sheffield, is the bicentenary of the birth of Victorian antiquarian Thomas Bateman (page 31). Not many of us can say we have achieved as much by the age of 39 as Bateman did, accumulating a huge collection of material that touched on almost every category of museum and library object. The dispersal of the collection in the 1890s and later has created many international links for this quintessentially Derbyshire story.

Similarly, who would have thought that Derbyshire lead was a vital ingredient for Dutch painter Vermeer’s works (page 8)? And the excavations at Ticknall (page 10) suggest another possible export – Martincamp pottery, found on the Tudor warship, Mary Rose. We usually anticipate that investigations in Derbyshire and the Peak District will shed light on local heritage, but it is always exciting to discover that it can tell us about other places and communities as well.

The sterling work of heritage volunteers and professionals is featured again and again. From the volunteers working on the Markham Vale Walking Together project (page 17), the South West Peak Landscape Partnership Scheme’s initiatives (page 27) and the YouTube films produced by the Old House Museum, Bakewell (page 29), to the specialist police work of the Rural, Wildlife, CITES and Heritage Crime Officer (page 12), it’s clear there are many, many heritage advocates in Derbyshire and the Peak District.

The views expressed in the pages of this magazine do not necessarily reflect those of the editor or publishers. No responsibility will be accepted for any comments made by contributors or interviewees.

No part of this magazine may be reproduced without the written permission of the publishers.

Archaeology and Conservation in Derbyshire and the Peak District is supported by Derbyshire County Council and the Peak District National Park Authority

Martha Jasko-Lawrence Chair of the Derbyshire Archaeological Advisory Committee

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Contents

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2 Foreword Martha Jasko-Lawrence, chair of the Derbyshire Archaeological Advisory Committee

16 Surveying our historic mines, mills and barns

27 Recording barns and buildings

Matt Hurford describes his recent survey of three historic Derbyshire buildings

Catherine Parker Heath provides an update on the South West Peak Landscape Partnership Scheme

4 New findings at old fort

17 Vale of Tears

28 Profile: Neil Oliver

Tom Parker and Reuben Thorpe of ARS report of the first of two recent archaeological investigations at the Roman fort of Navio near Brough.

Kate Watson describes the new Markham Vale Mining Memorial Heritage Trail

Editor Roly Smith caught up with the popular TV historian and archaeologist

18 Swarkestone Windmill sails into view again

29 Blessing the bride in Bakewell

6 The Romanised landscape of Navio David Inglis of Sheffield University reports how local volunteers and archaeologists have uncovered further evidence of Navio’s vicus 8 How Peak District lead contributed to Vermeer’s masterpiece Chis Loveluck reveals the unlikely links between a Dutch master, alpine ice and Peak District lead 10 For Martincamp read Ticknall Flasks found on the Mary Rose could have come from Ticknall, as Sue Brown explains 12 A day in the life of… a heritage crime officer A day in the life of Emerson Buckingham, Derbyshire’s Rural, Wildlife, CITES and Heritage Crime Officer describes his dream job

Helen Daniel on the finding of the first windmill to be excavated in the county

Adrian Willis of Bakewell & District Historical Society describes what’s been going on during the lockdown

20 Diving Deep at Ecton

30 The Sleeping Museum

John Barnatt was involved in underwater explorations at Deep Ecton Mine

Ros Westwood of Buxton Museum and Art Gallery reflects on a strangely silent year

22 A souvenir from the Roman Wall

31 Beyond the Barrow Knight

Portable Antiquities Scheme National Finds Advisor Sally Worrell describes a rare find from Ilam

Martha Jasko-Lawrence and Sharon Blakey describe the collections of Middleton’s ‘Barrow Knight’

23 Find of the Year: A fascinating finial Maria Kneafsey nominates the Find of the Year from the Derbyshire PAS 24 Before Bolsover existed Caitlin Halton and Reuben Thorpe report on a multi-age site 25 Holding back the river at Willington

13 Conserving and restoring barns in the Peak District

Kristopher Poole describes a multiperiod landscape on the banks of the River Trent at Willington

Anna Badcock reports on a new project aimed at restoring Peak District barns

26 Uncovering Chesterfield’s medieval past

14 Focus on ancient monuments

Chesterfield’s Saltergate car park revealed evidence of medieval occupation, reports Glyn Davies

A survey of Scheduled Ancient Monuments is described by Natalie Ward

32 Last year’s YAC was a trifle different!

Natalie Ward reports on an unusual year in the life of the Peak District Young Archaeologists’ Club 33 Bookshelf Roly Smith reviews the latest books on the county 34 Our year in numbers Planning and heritage statistics for the past year 35 Our year in pictures A pictorial selection of some of the things we’ve been up to 36 Picturing the Past: Carl Wark mortar scar 2021 | ACID

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New findings at an old fort The 1st century Roman fort of Navio near Brough in the Hope Valley is the best-known existing monument from the Roman period in the Peak District. Two recent archaeological investigations have revealed previously unknown details of the civilian settlement, or vicus, which was associated with the fort. The following are accounts of the two excavations, led respectively by Archaeological Research Services Ltd and the University of Sheffield.

Aerial view of the excavation

Archaeological Research Services and local volunteers have unearthed previously unknown remains to the west of the Roman fort at Navio, Brough-on-Noe, as TOM PARKER (Project Officer) with REUBEN THORPE (Chief Archaeological Officer) report

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espite the difficult weather conditions experienced on site by our staff and volunteers over the fivemonth excavation, a great deal of new information has been gathered about the Navio vicus.

To the west of the Roman fort, on a gently sloping plateau, our excavations involved the topsoil stripping of a large area (c.0.72ha). Within this area a number of archaeological features and finds has begun to shed light on the western edges of the Romano-British vicus settlement. Perhaps more intriguing is the potential for the site to throw new light on the development of the site from the later Iron Age to the early postRoman period.

The archaeological features on the site represent several phases of development and these, by and large, seem to reflect the known development of the fort.

The earliest features identified on site appear to predate the construction of the western vicus and might represent the partial remains of earlier pre-Roman Iron Age activity. This feature was different in form, layout and orientation from later Roman ditches, notably with a small curvilinear ditch, which appeared to form a subcircular enclosure at the north-east edge of the site.

This had been deliberately backfilled, possibly levelled over, with notable artefacts having been placed at the ditch terminals marking the entrance.

On the eastern side of the enclosure entrance a whole pottery vessel had been carefully placed in the base of the ditch; while a ballista ball had been placed in the base of the ditch at the western terminal. The significance of these, which are known as placed

deposits, is that they show that a degree of ceremony or importance was attached to closing something off before building something new, such as the construction or refounding of a vicus attached to the fort.

The two ballista balls

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Cover Story The next phase of activity is demonstrated by the cutting of a substantial ditch and associated bank (c6.3m wide), which seemed to define the northernmost limits of the vicus but may have also formed part of a defensive circuit around the settlement.

This initial phase of establishing the settlement appears to have been ambitious, the setting out of land plots into small, interconnected, rectilinear ditched enclosures.

These enclosures all share similar dimensions and seem to respect the alignment of the fort. However, the earliest fills of these ditches appear sterile, with the lack of any substantial archaeological remains perhaps suggesting that once the plots had been set out, the size of the civilian settlement did not extend as far as was originally envisaged.

The re-establishment of the fort in the 2nd century would appear to be reflected in the renewal of the vicus. On our site earlier enclosure ditches were cleaned out, or re-cut, and in places extended, while fragments of pottery imported from the continent, such as amphorae and Roman table wares, were deposited in greater quantities.

Evidence of the use of these enclosures subsequent to the 2nd century renewal is sparse, owing to site conditions, although some traces of domestic activity remained within the footprint of what had been a building. Based on this small survival it appears that the rectilinear system of land plots fell out of use and a single sub-rectangular building was established along

Finally, we were delighted to get such an amazing response from volunteer excavators from across the country. In all 68 volunteers worked with us on the site over the month of August, with people coming from as near as Bradwell and as far away as Bournemouth and Kent.

Interpretive plan of site

Steph with a ballista ball

the eastern edge of the site. This building had a sunken metalled yard to its south-west and a narrow cob wall that defined the south side of a yard or open space around the building to the north.

Various phases of re-building and demolition were noted within the building and a range of artefacts, including fragments of Samian ware, mortaria and a potential broken grinding stone, all point to occupation over more than one generation.

We were extremely fortunate to have been able to get the chance to undertake an excavation of this scale within the immediate landscape of the Navio fort, and ARS would like to thank Keith Rowland of Breedon Aggregates at Hope Cement Quarry for engaging us to undertake the work. Thanks are also extended to Natalie Ward and Anna Badcock of the Peak District National Park’s Cultural Heritage Team for monitoring the work.

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The Romanised landscape of Navio

The site at Brough

Local volunteers and archaeologists have uncovered new evidence of the civilian settlement at Navio, as DAVID INGLIS of the University of Sheffield explains

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A posthole under excavation

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he area around the Roman fort at Navio, at Brough-on-Noe in the Hope Valley, offers a unique opportunity to investigate the long-term occupation of a lesser Romanised landscape, where no archaeological research has been undertaken since the 1980s.

Archaeological fieldwork around Navio, conducted by the University of Sheffield and linked to a wider landscape study of the Hope Valley in collaboration with Castleton Historical Society, has been ongoing since 2015.

This has included the investigation of the road network, large-scale geophysical survey of the scheduled monument and chemical analysis of topsoils in the vicinity of the fort.

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It was during the survey for Roman roads that a much larger area of activity around Navio became apparent.

The fort and vicus are also a component of a wider landscape study which seeks to investigate – through geophysical, earthwork, aerial and geochemical survey – the distribution and differences in access to lead resources at Roman rural sites across the Peak District. The early part of this study has concentrated on the area surrounding Navio and has increased the established area of occupation significantly.

A first season of excavation, conducted by the University, the Historical Society and the local archaeological community, with permission from the Eyre family, began in 2019 and concentrated on a possible annexe to the vicus discovered during geophysical survey.

The survey indicated a number of trackways with associated intense, possibly industrial, activity east of the Bradwell Brook and south of the previously excavated vicus and road. Four evaluation trenches were excavated over a six-week period.

On the slopes above the vicus Trench 2 was excavated across a shallow ditch cut into the natural clays. This feature, which contained significant quantities of pottery, appears similar to water channels located on the hillside during previous excavations and which may have diverted water from the hillside into the vicus area.

A kiln represented the earliest phase of activity within Trench 4. Debris from the kiln had been deposited across the rest of the trench and a post-hole, a probable

Cover Story stone flue and a stone lined pit were all cut into this waste material. Within the deposit filling the flue, a blue glass bead was found.

Trenches 3 and 4 were located on magnetic anomalies at opposite ends of a possible enclosure or yard to the south-east of one of the trackways noted on geophysical survey. Trench 3 has so far provided the clearest phasing, beginning with a pit and continuing through levelling deposits, a ditch and a cobbled surface. The location of pottery kilns within the vicinity had been proposed during previous excavation and Trenches 3 and 4 provided evidence to support this hypothesis.

Trench 1 was the largest area excavated and was placed across one of the trackways and an area of high magnetic activity. Soil chemical analysis, prior to excavation, revealed high lead levels in the topsoil and it was hoped that evidence for lead production would be discovered.

At the eastern edge of the trench the trackway – a cobbled surface with clay bed – was located. The remainder of the trench was excavated only to the upper Roman strata and will be the subject to further excavation. West of the trackway a series of truncated walls and areas of intense burning were located.

Soil samples were taken throughout the excavation and these are subject to ongoing laboratory analysis.

High lead readings were noted within a small hearth and several fragments of galena and a large lead sprue (spillage from the smelting process) were discovered.

However, this activity does not reverse previous excavated evidence that suggests that while lead production was being undertaken it appears small scale.

This is also supported by the survey evidence which suggests that Navio’s primary concern was not lead production, but the maintenance of safe passage through the Peak with a secondary focus on agriculture.

The ongoing research being conducted around Navio reinforces the benefits of revisiting Roman landscapes, with modern field techniques and large-scale survey, to improve our understanding of the operating conditions that existed within the Empire.

The lead sprue

Visitors inspect the site

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How Peak District lead contributed to Vermeer’s masterpiece A close-up of the earring

Vermeer’s painting of The Girl with the Pearl Earring (©Mauritshuis/ Madpixel)

CHRIS LOVELUCK of the University of Nottingham reveals the unlikely links between a Dutch master, alpine ice, and Peak District lead production

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wo current international research projects in heritage, environmental and archaeological science are now documenting the western European footprint of Derbyshire’s lead industry in the 17th century.

The two projects comprise the new scientific analysis by the Mauritshuis gallery in The Hague of Johannes Vermeer’s famous painting, Girl with a Pearl Earring, painted at Delft in the Netherlands in c.1665; and the high-resolution analysis of a 72-metre-deep ice core, drilled from the Colle Gnifetti glacier in the Monte Rosa mountains in the Swiss-Italian Alps, by the Historical Ice Core Project. This project is led by Harvard University and the Climate Change Institute, University of Maine, with the University of Nottingham.

They provide tangible, physical evidence from continental western Europe of the leading role of the Derbyshire and Humber region in producing and exporting lead – Britain’s second largest export commodity in the mid-17th century after wool.

The turbulent decades of the 1640s to 1680s saw the British Civil Wars, Cromwell’s Commonwealth, the Restoration of Charles II (in 1660), and the Anglo-Dutch wars (1652-54, 1665-67, and 1672-74) which were fought on a European and global scale.

Anglo-Dutch political rivalry in the 17th century only effectively abated with what British historical myth calls the Glorious Revolution, when William of Orange, the leader of the Dutch Republic and his wife, the English princess Mary Stuart, were invited to succeed to the English throne in 1688.

Lead production from the Low and High Peak ore-fields and its export, primarily down the River Idle to Bawtry

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and hence to Hull, London and continental Europe, was intimately bound to economic and political relationships both within England and with the Dutch Republic.

The great Dutch engineer, Sir Cornelius Vermuyden, famous for his drainage works in East Anglia and the Humberhead Levels, was also instrumental in the development of the first sough drainage in the Peak District, along the Dovegang lead vein in the Cromford liberty, between 1631 and 1651. One of his associates, Major Johannes Molanus, fought for Parliament in the English Civil War, and was a lead mine owner in Derbyshire in the 1650s-60s, as was the son of Vermuyden.

The Civil War also saw the region’s lead mine-owners predominantly declare for Parliament, under the leading mine-owner, Sir John Gell, who was also Colonel of the Derbyshire regiment, and the Parliamentary commander in the county during the war. There is evidence for significant continuity in lead production and export during the Civil War, with the Derbyshire Peak, Bawtry and Hull, all in Parliamentary hands.

From 1646-51 lead production boomed, with Parliamentary victory and the completion of the Dovegang sough drainage. Again, however, the disruption of warfare is reflected in the Second AngloDutch war when, in 1666-7, lead shipments and trade from Bawtry to Hull and the Continent were disrupted.

Strikingly, some of these moments of boom and bust in lead production and its trade are captured in Vermeer’s Girl with a Pearl Earring and in the lead pollution of the Colle Gnifetti ice. The portrait was also used as the basis for a popular 1999 historical novel by Tracy Chevalier.

Lead isotope analysis of the lead-white pigment, used

by Vermeer to paint the whites of the girl’s eyes, the white of the earring, and to lighten other colours, has shown that the lead used was imported from the Derbyshire Peak District. It is interesting and may be no coincidence that the painting was produced around 1665, at the end of the interim period between the first and second Anglo-Dutch wars (between 1654 and 1665), when close trade had been re-established.

At Colle Gnifetti, where pollution and climate-related elements have been deposited in annual layers (like chemical tree-rings) for the last two millennia, analysis has also shown that one of the largest lead pollution events was deposited between 1646 and 1651.

The predominant wind direction delivering lead aerosol pollution to the glacier of Colle Gnifetti is from the northwest, and for certain periods, the main pollution source can be demonstrated to have been Britain’s largest lead producing region – the Derbyshire Peak District. This was also the case between 1170 and 1220 and during the mid-14th century Black Death period.

It seems that the high point of lead pollution at Colle Gnifetti in the mid-17th century could also mark the documented zenith in Derbyshire lead production and export in that era.

The Vermeer painting and the Colle Gnifetti ice provide further markers of the importance of Derbyshire, its mining populations, and the East Midlands waterways in western Europe’s industrial heritage in the 17th century, from its fine art and from the environmental legacy left in its landscapes.

The ice core drilling site on the Colle Gnifetti (Glacier Hub.org)

Acknowledgements The Historical Ice Core project (HICP) is led by Prof. Paul Mayewski (Climate Change Institute, University of Maine) and Prof. Michael McCormick (Initiative for the Science of the Human Past, and Department of History, Harvard University).

HICP has been funded predominantly by Arcadia, a charitable fund of Lisbet Rausing and Peter Baldwin. Sincere thanks are also given to the Peak District National Park Authority for its support of HICP publications.

The ice core drilling site is at the foot of the Margherita Hut, the highest building in Europe at 4554 metres above the sea. (Creative Commons Zero/ pxfuel)

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For Martincamp read Ticknall

Distinctive Tudor flasks found on the Mary Rose and elsewhere in the country could have come from Ticknall, as SUE BROWN explains

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ince the 1960s, the distinctive Martincamp bottles or flasks were all thought to have been imported from Martincamp in Normandy, northern France – hence the name. Martincamp did indeed produce pottery, but no evidence for the production of these distinctive pots has ever been found there.

A Martincamp flask is a pottery bottle that was thrown normally, then the top was completely closed off.

A hole was made in the side, a spout attached and the base trimmed, so the vessel could not stand unsupported. To protect it and to enable it to stand, it was encased in wicker, as was the one found on the Tudor warship, the Mary Rose, now in the Historic Dockyards Museum in Portsmouth.

Now evidence uncovered by the Ticknall Archaeological Research Group (TARG) seems to indicate that some of these pots were not made in

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The TARG excavation underway

France at all, but could have been manufactured at Ticknall, south of Derby.

Because the different fabrics were assigned dates ranging from the late 1400s to the 1600s using stratigraphy, finds of these flasks have often been used for dating archaeological contexts and as evidence of Continental trade. In Britain, their distribution has been mainly coastal, but there was always an unexplained distribution in the Midlands. Could they have come from Ticknall, and represent trade with Ticknall rather than the Continent?

TARG were given the opportunity to dig on a Ticknall site which had been on the author ’s radar since the late 1990s, when Alan McCormick mentioned that he had collected flask sherds during drainage work there in the 1970s. The cottage was tenanted until 2014, when it became empty.

A Martincamp flask in its wicker casing from the Mary Rose (Mary Rose Trust)

The National Trust kindly allowed TARG to have an exploratory dig, initially digging 1m test pits which rapidly doubled to 2m by 1m. The site was long and very narrow by the house, and it stood about 0.75m above the surrounding fields. We hoped to prove that it was a pot production site which was making these flasks, and to find evidence for a kiln.

We worked on the south side first. It was immediately obvious that it had been a pot production site; many sherds, including those of Martincamp flasks, were still on the surface once we had removed the rampant vegetation. We had planned for the obvious obstacles but, of course, there were some unknown ones, and it was one of these that provided the answer to a couple of our queries.

We uncovered the main drain leading to a cesspit installed in the mid-1970s, which cut through masses of densely-packed pot sherds, much of them sherds of flasks or bottles. We eventually recovered over 60,000 sherds, which were all washed and returned each week by our hardworking members. There was no shortage of volunteers, but space was a bit tight sometimes and as the piles of earth between the pits got ever higher, we did think we might run out of space!

The sherds clearly proved that this was a production site for ‘Ticknall’ bottles, the name found in probate inventories we came up with for those made here. It is a first for Ticknall and Derbyshire: the first production site ever found for the flasks or bottles known as Martincamp, although there must be others as yet undiscovered.

A partly-restored Ticknall flask

A collection of spouts from the Ticknall site

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A day in the life of... Heritage Crime Officer

My dream job

Emerson and another team member setting out on a dawn raid

EMERSON BUCKINGHAM, Rural, Wildlife, CITES and Heritage Crime Officer for Derbyshire Constabulary, describes his work

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am PC Emerson Buckingham and I have been a police officer for 18 years and a part-time wildlife/ heritage crime officer for most of that time. I have recently joined the Rural Crime Team and the job has become full-time. I have to confess this is my dream job within the force.

Derbyshire has a very large number of different heritage sites and, since doing this role full-time, I have come to realise just how many there really are.

The major issues we deal with here in Derbyshire include: ■ Illegal metal detecting ■ Theft from places of worship such as churches ■ Damage to SSSIs (Sites of Special Scientific Interest) and to Scheduled Ancient Monuments due to illegal off-road vehicles.

One of the main problems we face concerns metal detecting on scheduled monuments. Examples are the Little Chester and Racecourse Park Roman sites in Derby, which are both schedulled ancient

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monuments. Both these sites are regularly visited by illegal metal detectorists.

Very often people do not realise that this activity is illegal, or that they need the permission of the landowner to conduct it. The main issue with this is that offenders are taking our heritage away and it is often being illegally traded, so we have no idea what has been found. Also, if these sites were professionally excavated now by archaeologists, what would be left for future generations to find?

Nobody has, nor ever would, get permission for unsupervised metal detecting on these sites. Illegal metal detecting is becoming an increasing problem in Derbyshire. The question is, has it always been or are we now finding more examples due to the unit being in place?

For any further information in relation to illegal metal detecting or any other instances of rural crime, please call Derbyshire Rural Crime team. It can be contacted by phone on 101; mobile: 07894 482479, or by email at emerson.buckingham@derbyshire.police.uk or by the main team email: DRCT@derbyshire.police.uk

Conserving and restoring barns in the Peak District ANNA BADCOCK reports on a new project aimed at restoring Peak District barns

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an you imagine our beautiful rural landscapes without a scattering of field barns? Characterful historic buildings like this are a really important feature of the countryside and are acknowledged to contribute to the ‘special qualities’ of our National Park. As well as being an important part of our cultural heritage they can also provide valuable wildlife habitats.

However, they are under threat. As farming practices change over time, barns and cowsheds can fall out of use, particularly if they are in a remote location. Our upland farm buildings are particularly vulnerable.

In ACID 2018 Natalie Ward reported on a large farmstead research project that was undertaken in the Peak District, supported by funding from Historic England. From this we gained a really detailed understanding of the form, types and development of our farmsteads, as well as rates of survival of traditional farm buildings in the different parts of the National Park. Compared to the national picture, our uplands have a high survival of barns and outfarms, but a high percentage of them also fall out of use.

In recognition of these threats the Peak District is now taking part in an £8 million pilot project to restore a number of traditional buildings. The project is a partnership between Historic England, Natural England, Rural Payments Agency and the Peak District, Lake District, Yorkshire Dales, Dartmoor and Northumberland National Parks, and is administered through the Countryside Stewardship scheme, with funding from Defra. Works could include roof repairs, weatherproofing or other restoration, allowing a building to be used again for farming purposes.

Once restored, these buildings will enhance the historic, landscape and public enjoyment of the National Parks, as well as providing welcome habitat for wildlife, such as bats and barn owls, and some usable working buildings for land managers and their businesses.

The pilot was launched in 2018 and received over 330 expressions of interest in the first weeks. All the buildings were assessed through a scoring system and eligible buildings were able to be taken forward into the grant scheme. Applications covered a wide range of barns, from small, isolated field barns to large multibuilding farmstead complexes. The scheme is currently closed to further applications.

The grant scheme operates in stages; first, a grant is provided for the production of a Management Plan for each building. This is 100 per cent grant aided under the scheme. This is a really important step, as it allows the building history, its construction, the materials and its landscape context to be fully understood.

This is led by a Conservation Architect who can draw together input from a wide range of specialists, including archaeologists, ecologists, structural engineers and craftspeople. A full specification of restoration works is produced as part of each plan, against which tenders for the work are sought.

If the building progresses into the second stage the grant will cover 80 per cent of the restoration costs, with the rest being provided by the owner. The works are managed by the Conservation Architect and monitored closely all the way through by the National Park Senior Farm Advisor, Conservation Officers and the grant bodies, and the restoration team provide updates and documentation to allow the grant funds to be released.

A second project is being delivered by the South West Peak Landscape Partnership; the Barns and

Barn at Knowle House Farm, Reapsmoor, before restoration (below) and after (bottom)

Buildings project involves volunteers being trained in archaeological survey techniques. (See page 27) Both projects will generate important information to enhance the Historic Environment Record. The projects will reinforce the value of capital grant schemes in the future, as Countryside Stewardship evolves into the new Environmental Land Management scheme in the coming years.

If you are interested in taking part as a volunteer in the Barns and Buildings Project, please visit the South West Peak website where you can learn more and find out how to volunteer or learn about the grant scheme. https://www.southwestpeak.co.uk/projects 2021 | ACID

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Dense bracken at Callow Bank prehistoric settlement and field system

Focus on Ancient Monuments The importance of monitoring Scheduled Ancient Monuments is described by NATALIE WARD, Senior Conservation Archaeologist with the Peak District National Park Authority

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scheduled monument is an archaeological site that has been afforded special legal protection because it is deemed to be of national importance

by Historic England.

The Schedule of Monuments has been kept since 1882, when there were originally only 50 monuments. Today there are c.20,000, representing c.37,000 heritage assets out of the c.1 million archaeological sites or find spots currently known and recorded in England.

The schedule contains the best examples of all types of ancient monuments that are of national importance and are protected by law from unauthorised and unmanaged change. Scheduling is the only legal protection specifically for archaeological sites.

The protection afforded by scheduling covers surface remains such as earthworks and building structures, and any buried and below ground remains.

Scheduled Monuments are not usually marked on the ground, and only in very occasional cases are there signs or notices, such as at Wet Withins stone circle and cairn, near Eyam.

Scheduled Monuments don’t have to be ‘ancient’ or over a particular age. There are over 200 ‘classes’ of monuments on the schedule, and they range from prehistoric standing stones and burial mounds, to medieval sites such as deserted villages, and to industrial sites such as lead mines or coal mining sites, and even 20th century features from World War I, World War II and the Cold War. They come in all different shapes and sizes from a single site or feature to a whole area or landscape with a number of different sites and archaeological remains within it, such as Stanton Moor.

There are 473 Scheduled Monuments in the Peak District National Park, many of which are exceptionally well preserved due to the careful management of the

upland landscape as pasture and open moorland rather than for arable farming.

The number of Scheduled Monuments is not fixed, and over time when new sites are assessed as worthy of this protection, they are added to the schedule. This year has seen the addition of Little Pasture Mine to the schedule. This is an 18th and 19th century lead mining complex near Eyam with well-preserved remains of rarely surviving surface features, including a 19th century stone crushing wheel where ore was crushed and a reckoning house, the mine office where accounts were kept, wages paid and the mine administered.

Recently, stone walls around the building have been restored, and there are plans to undertake repairs to the building itself.

Toll booth on Baslow Bridge

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The Peak District National Park Authority plays an important role in monitoring the condition of our Scheduled Monuments, with staff and volunteers involved in visiting monuments, recording if they are at risk or vulnerable to damage, and feeding information back to Historic England. We are working hard to upgrade our condition monitoring methodology, provide additional support and training to our volunteers and to co-ordinate surveys and share results with other groups and organisations.

The National Park Authority also regularly monitors and carries out repairs at the five Scheduled Monuments that are in guardianship with English Heritage – Arbor Low, Gib Hill barrow, Wet Withins Stone Circle and Cairn, Hob Hurst’s House square barrow and Nine Ladies Stone Circle.

Where Scheduled Monuments are at risk or vulnerable to harm, the National Park Authority works with Historic England, landowners and other partners to secure their conservation and their long term future.

Last year saw the start of a programme of conservation works at Callow prehistoric settlement and field system on Carr Head Moor, part of the North Lees Estate near Hathersage. The monument was assessed as being in a poor condition and declining over time following a site visit in 2017, and so was subsequently included on the Heritage at Risk Register due to damage from bracken, tree and scrub growth. A programme of targeted conservation work including removal of scrub and trees on the monument, introduction of tightly controlled grazing and suppression of the bracken as part of the North Lees Countryside Stewardship Scheme will see work implemented to stop the decline of this monument, improve its condition and safeguard its future.

Last year also saw damage to Scheduled Monuments from illegal activity, including metal detecting. Metal detecting on a scheduled monument is a criminal offence, and if anyone spots somebody detecting on a Monument this should be reported to the police as a heritage crime. The return of people to the National Park following the COVID lockdown also resulted in reports of damage to several scheduled monuments from unauthorised off-roading and the lighting of camp fires and BBQs, both of which are illegal, which needed to be assessed and reported.

Jute netting

As part of their efforts to work towards a John Muir used to repair Award, Sarah Fowler, the PDNPA Chief Executive, Fire damage at Merryton Low and other senior staff helped repair fencing and bash bowl barrow bracken around Hob Hurst’s House, a curious and rare square barrow on the edge of Beeley Moor above Chatsworth. Regular maintenance tasks like this help to keep the monuments in good condition.

Wear and tear can take its toll on our monuments too.

Baslow Bridge is a beautiful crossing point on the River Derwent. Most of the bridge is 17th century in date, and there is a characterful toll booth attached at one end. Unusually, it is both a Scheduled Monument and a listed building. The toll booth is suffering from some structural problems and we are liaising closely with Derbyshire County Council Highways teams and Historic England to understand the issues and secure the repairs needed for its long-term protection.

Our Scheduled Monuments are the crème de la crème of our archaeological heritage. They hold a vast amount of physical evidence and information about our ancestors ranging from the earliest prehistoric times to the 20th century.

They are an important aspect of the Peak District National Park and contribute to our special qualities and what makes the Peak District unique. They provide a tangible link to the past, and the people who have lived here over the past 10,000 years and the traces of their stories that they left behind in our landscape.

They belong to us all, and to future generations, and we can all play a role in looking after them. If you come across any damage to a Scheduled Monument, please report it as soon as you can to Historic England or the National Park Authority.

If you would like to be involved in helping us monitor The Peak District Scheduled Monuments, please get in touch with Natalie National Park Senior Leadership Ward via the switchboard on 01629 816200 or at Team, on a archaeology@peakdistrict.gov.uk monitoring visit to Hob Hurst House barrow.

Wet Withins cairn under a rainbow

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The threshing barn at Shardlow. The roof line of the former shelter shed can clearly be seen in the gable with its surviving feeding troughs adjacent to the boundary wall.

Surveying our historic mills, barns and mines MATT HURFORD describes his recent survey of three historic Derbyshire buildings

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urford Archaeology has recently undertaken a number of surveys on buildings of historic interest, a selection of which are discussed below.

Mawstone Mine in Youlgrave, a lead mining complex dating from the late 1870s, is infamous for the disaster which struck in 1932, tragically claiming the lives of five miners and three rescuers. Underground operations ceased following the disaster though the site continued to operate as a mineral processing plant until 1968.

The principal buildings on the site comprise the former office and ore-dressing shed. The northern part of the office is likely to have been built by Mosstone Mining Company during the late 1870s or early 1880s as was the smithy. The southern part was constructed in c.1920

by Bradford Vale Mining Company Ltd of Matlock and re-modelled by 1932. It would have been the administrative centre of the site and used to showcase the mine to visitors. The ore-dressing shed was constructed in c.1920.

The key interest is in the office and former smithy, as it is rare to find either surviving in the Peak District and surrounding area, notable examples being the smithy at Milldam Mine, Great Hucklow and the office at Millclose Mine, Warren Carr.

Looking south down the attic of Long Mill.

The brickwork in the foreground has replaced the majority of the timbers of the northernmost truss to support the additional weight of the inserted bell cupola.

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The Grade II listed barn in London Road, Shardlow, is an early example of a brick-built threshing barn. It is depicted on Whyman’s map of 1766, when it would have been recently constructed. During the early 19th century the upper sections of the north and south elevation were remodelled, including the insertion of circular pitching holes, and alterations to the original cart entrance and winnowing door.

Threshing barns were commonly re-purposed to house cattle during the late 19th century, and the barn at Shardlow was no exception. A shelter shed was built extending from the west gable of the barn prior to 1882, the feeding troughs of which are still extant, with a number of the bays of the barn re-used to house livestock.

Renovations required a historic building survey of the attic at Long Mill, a Grade I listed former cotton mill built in 1782 and remodelled following a fire in 1788. It is part of a wider mill complex at Darley Abbey known as Boar’s Head Mills.

The nine-bay roof is carried by a series of seven queen post trusses of pegged mortice and tenon construction in softwood. The roof timbers and plasterwork of the walls and ceiling were originally whitewashed, with metal plates designed to fire-proof the building added to the timbers and stud walls later. Machinery powered by line shafting was housed in the attic prior to the room being converted in c.1792 to provide what is thought to be the first school room within a mill in the country.

A no longer present cupola was added to the roof, housing a bell cast in 1793, which necessitated alterations to the two northernmost bays. The roof was originally of Swithland slate, but this was renewed, possibly in 1844, to one of Welsh slate.

Walking Together

by Stephen Broadbent

Vale of Tears

Presentation of the Derbyshire Heritage Awards

KATE WATSON describes a unique community project honouring the lives of those lost in three Markham mining disasters

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he Walking Together project is an historically significant project to remember the 106 miners who lost their lives in the three major disasters at Markham Colliery, near Staveley.

On January 21, 1937 an underground explosion claimed the lives of nine men. A further 79 miners lost their lives and 40 were seriously injured in a second explosion in 1938. And 18 miners died and a further 11 others suffered serious injury in the third disaster at the colliery when the mechanical brake on a lift carrying them to the coalface failed on July 30, 1973.

The overall concept for Walking Together was designed

by Cheshire-based artist Stephen Broadbent, following consultation with local people. It incorporates 106 steel figurative markers installed to dramatically cut through the industrial landscape to symbolize each of the miners’ journeys from Duckmanton to the pit and back again. It now forms the basis of a walking trail open to the public.

The project is split into several stages to enable fundraising and to enable more time to meaningfully engage relatives and friends of the miners who are being commemorated.

This project has galvanised a group of volunteers as part of the Markham Vale Heritage Group, enabling them to come together with a shared purpose. Many of the volunteers have been involved from the beginning and are very proud that the initial concept is slowly being realised.

The group plays to individuals’ strengths to encourage everyone to be active volunteers including research, promotion, fundraising and organising a series of walks that engage people with the heritage of the area. The opportunity to work with children via local schools has been fantastic and a number of volunteers have been involved in leading creative sessions.

The project not only serves to connect with relatives and friends of the miners who are being commemorated, but it also acts as a symbol for the whole community to be proud of their heritage

and create a physical learning resource for the next generation.

The voluntary group works in collaboration with Derbyshire County Council and the Wakefield-based arts organisation, Beam, and attracts 25 people on average to regular meetings. The majority of the group is made up of ex-miners, friends and relatives of the miners (young and old), as well as representatives from local community groups, schools and local historians.

This project also enables participants working with Markham Vale Land Services to gain further experience in the installation and handling of sculptural objects.

This project has attracted a range Guests view the of funding sources including local authorities, local Walking Together business sponsors, local trusts, individual donations figures at the unveiling event and in-kind support. in May There has been an overwhelmingly positive response from guests at the unveiling events and visitors.

Participants attending the unveiling events have discovered relatives and had the opportunity to meet and start new relationships.

Thanks to National Heritage Lottery funding The Story Mine was developed – a website dedicated to sharing stories of mining life and each of the men who died, a resource available to local community groups and schools but also open to visitors to the area and visitors from across the world.

The Walking Together project has received numerous awards and commendations including winning the Best Volunteer Project Award, and a highly commended for The Story Mine in the Young People in Heritage Award at the Derbyshire Heritage Awards, 2019. The project was also highly commended in the Sky’s the Limit category at the Biennial Regional Heritage Awards, 2019.

For more information, go to: www.markhamstorymine.org 2021 | ACID

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Swarkestone Windmill sails into view again

The excavated remains of Swarkestone Mill from the west

HELEN DANIEL describes the finding of the first windmill to be completely excavated in the county

Earthenware dinner plate from the storage room

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n advance of redevelopment, TVAS North Midlands undertook an evaluation on land behind Windmill Cottage, Chellaston. The site was recorded as the location of Swarkestone Windmill; a tower mill depicted on historical mapping, first recorded as a new structure in the late 18th century.

This work was undertaken through the planning process in consultation with Derbyshire County Council’s archaeology team, acting as advisors to South Derbyshire District Council.

Trial trenching soon confirmed the presence of structural remains. After consultation with the planning archaeologist, full excavation proceeded immediately and fieldwork exposed the complete circuit of the windmill, the first to be fully excavated in Derbyshire.

Construction consisted of two, metre-wide semicircular stone walls. The walls were four courses high and their termini formed entrances in the east and west; a configuration that allowed internal access regardless of where the sails were positioned.

The northern wall was of stone and built into the slope of Chellaston Hill; only the southern wall was

A watercolour by Karl Wood of Swarkestone Mill as it was in 1932

faced with brick, both internally and externally, which was eight or nine courses high in most places and remarkably preserved. The presence of a later stonelined drain cutting through the external floor in the south-west quadrant is possibly an attempt to manage excess water caused by run-off from the slope behind.

Associated external floor surfaces of brick, stone or both were also uncovered along with the foundations and in-situ floors of an outbuilding, identified as stables.

There were no finds that related specifically to either the construction or the operational period of the windmill.

However, a large assemblage of late 19th to early 20th century domestic material was recovered which included more than 50 intact glass bottles, household metalware, and dozens of leather shoes in addition to a large assemblage of ceramics.

Local mill enthusiast Alan Gifford, who is a founding

Swarkstone Mill as a children’s playhouse c.1960s or 70s

trustee at Heage Windmill near Belper, was kind enough to share information he obtained while researching his 2003 book on the windmills of Derbyshire. This showed that the mill was in existence by 1798, when it was advertised as: a new erected brick freehold messuage and windmill, with two pairs of stones, dressing mill, in complete repair, with stable and croft etc…

A further reference in 1817 finds mention in the will of William Elkin, with the mill a bequest to his wife, and a final conveyancing document of 1834 records a transfer of ownership of the mill from Robert Shipton to Sir George Crewe, Bart. Any further documentary research is complicated however by the close proximity of both the parish boundary and nearby Chellaston Windmill.

Situated around 150m away at the top of the hill, it is often difficult to discern which ‘mill’ or ‘miller’ is being referred to.

Fortunately, Alan’s documentary research contained various historical images depicting Swarkestone Mill, often also with Chellaston Mill visible in the background. These images document the decline of the mill from the end of its operational life and throughout the 20th century.

The working life of Swarkestone Windmill was relatively short, probably only 30-40 years and certainly not

more than 80. But this did not signal the end for Swarkestone Mill though, as it was altered and reused a number of times over the next century and had various reincarnations, firstly as a work/storeroom, then later as a children’s playhouse and ultimately as a garden feature.

Hobnailed shoes from the early 20th century found in a storeroom

The excavated remains of Swarkestone Mill from the east

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Diving Deep at Ecton

One of the submersibles just before the first launch at the pumping shaft.

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JOHN BARNATT describes exciting underwater explorations at Deep Ecton Mine

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n the 18th century, Deep Ecton Mine in the Staffordshire Moorlands part of the Peak District was one of the most important copper mines in Britain.

Today, large flooded workings extend down to over 300m below the level of the River Manifold. These had mostly not been seen for over 160 years, when dives over three weeks made by two prototype submersible robots gave an exciting opportunity to explore them.

The two submersibles brought to Ecton were designed and built by the UNEXMIN (Underwater Exploration of Mines) Project team, a multi-national venture involving academics and others from across Europe and funded by the European Union via their Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme. One of the partners was the Ecton Mine Educational Trust which gave access to the workings to test the robots.

Each submersible contained a large range of wizardry, including five digital cameras, sonar and laser survey equipment, and a multi-spectral scanner for identifying minerals. They were designed to eventually be used for prospection of flooded mines by mineral companies.

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The robots will eventually explore autonomously, with a navigation system that can be pre-programmed to make decisions as to which way to go. However, in May 2019 they were connected to an umbilicus, due to further development being needed with the navigation system.

Before the UNEXMIN team arrived, a complex infrastructure needed installation, including a sturdy launch platform deep underground and a huge amount of wiring brought from surface.

In the control room in the Ecton Mines Education Centre

While the primary aim of the Ecton dives was to test the submersibles’ functionality, we explored and recorded workings for which our prior archaeological knowledge was minimal. The c.600,000 photographs taken by the five cameras, stitched together into videos, and sonar survey data, have now been analysed in detail and the results published in the journal Mining History.

During the ten dives undertaken, there was only time for less than 10 per cent of the recorded workings to be entered. The pumping shaft was explored down to a blockage at about 125m deep, while at the winding shaft this was choked at a little under 115m. Both shafts had levels and mineral workings leading off at various depths. In the pumping shaft there were also substantial timbers, some for retaining the now-removed pump pipes, others at platforms at the entrances to levels.

In the main ‘pipe workings’ the passages were often so vast that only glimpses of their sides were seen on the cameras; we relied largely on the sonar data. A route through convoluted passages led down to a huge mined chamber with highly irregular sides and a floor at about 40m deep. Below here much of the working had been backfilled with mine waste. However, a route

on led diagonally down and extended over 60m northwestwards. Our explorations stopped at about 58.5m deep, where a short access level led to the winding shaft.

No in-situ timber working-platforms and mine ladders remained in the main pipe workings. It is thought that after the mineral deposit failed at depth, from about 1790, the miners systematically stripped back the walls searching for missed ore deposits leading off. They gradually worked their way up, dropping the material being removed into workings already searched. Thus, they smashed old timber working platforms as they went, and partially backfilled the old workings. Hence the massive heap of material encountered below 40m depth that was probably in excess of 25m deep.

Open leads were left and hopefully these will allow future access to unexplored parts of the flooded workings, which we know include further vast mined caverns and the underground canal level at 62m deep.

Currently it is hoped that the team will return as part of a follow-on project in two or three years’ time to continue with explorations using robots with increased functionality.

Section of the workings

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A souvenir from the Roman Wall SALLY WORRELL, National Finds Advisor for later prehistory and the Roman period for the Portable Antiquities Scheme, describes a rare find from Ilam

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or 300 years, after its inception in AD122, Hadrian’s Wall was the most monumental element of a grid of garrisons and roads which formed Britain’s northern frontier. Whatever the Wall’s purpose – customs barrier, imperial monument or defensive obstacle – a small group of enamel decorated pans celebrate its existence.

The so-called Staffordshire Moorlands Pan, now held in the Potteries Museum and Art Gallery, Stoke-onTrent, was found 200 miles away from the Wall near Ilam by two metal detectorists in 2003. There were a

few other artefacts discovered of similar date range, but unfortunately, no archaeological excavation could take place, so it’s very difficult to know why it was discovered where it was. However, a Roman settlement is known of nearby, and the burial of the pan may have been a votive deposit.

The Staffordshire Moorlands Pan is a patera or handled pan, cast in copper alloy with elaborate enamelled decoration and a Latin inscription below the rim, dating from the 2nd century. The body of the vessel is convex and about 2mm thick, and the slightly out-turned rim has a rounded edge, with an external diameter of 89.5mm.

There is a diagonal foot-ring with a diameter of 54mm and an internal ledge cast at about 1mm from the base edge, onto which the missing base would have been soldered.

The handle is now missing but judging from other finds it is likely to have been flat and bow-tie shaped and also inlaid with coloured enamel. There are the remains of the solder used to affix the handle on the upper body just below the rim.

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The body of the vessel is decorated with Celtic-style motifs consisting of a curvilinear scrollwork design made up of eight roundels in turquoise and blue enamel enclosing three swirling six-armed leaf-shaped whirligig motifs, which are inlaid with alternating yellow, red and possibly purple enamel. Despite the loss of the base and handle, the vessel is in remarkable condition and it is unusual that the enamel is so well preserved.

Just below the rim is an engraved Latin inscription which runs around the pan in an unbroken sequence. It reads: AISCOGGABATUXELODUNUMCAMMOGLANNARI GOREVALIAELIDRACONIS. This is a list of four forts located at the western end of Hadrian’s Wall: Bowness (MAIS), Drumburgh (COGGABATA), Stanwix (UXELODUNUM) and Castlesteads (CAMMOGLANNA). It also incorporates the name of an individual, AELIUS DRACO and a further place-name, RIGOREVALI. Rigorevali has been transcribed as “on the line of the Wall.”

Aelius Draco could be the name of the manufacturer/ craftsman, or the client for whom the pan was made. Draco is an uncommon Greek name and may suggest that he or his family originated in the Greek-speaking part of the eastern Roman Empire.

If the pan was made for Draco, he is likely to have served in the army and perhaps he was a veteran of a garrison of Hadrian’s Wall and on retirement had this vessel made to recall his time in the army.

Only two other vessels with inscriptions naming forts on Hadrian’s Wall are known: the Rudge cup which was discovered in Wiltshire in 1725 and the Amiens patera found in Amiens in 1949. Between them they name seven forts, but the Staffordshire patera is the first to include Drumburgh and the only example to name an individual.

All three are likely to be souvenirs of Hadrian’s Wall, although why they include forts on the western end of the Wall only is unclear. Maybe to the veterans who took such pans home, the sequence of garrison names recalled a route endlessly marched from the flatlands of the Solway to the Pennines.

As featured in 50 Roman Finds from the Portable Antiquities Scheme by John Pearce and Sally Worrell (Amberley Publishing, £14.99)

Find of the Year

Views of the intricate medieval finial from Ballidon (Derby Museums Trust)

A fascinating finial MARIA KNEAFSEY describes the ‘Find of the Year’ from the Derbyshire Portable Antiquities Scheme

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he most interesting and unusual object recorded by the Portable Antiquities Scheme in Derbyshire last year – and our ‘Find of the Year’ – is a beautiful, complete staff terminal or finial discovered by a metal detectorist at Ballidon in the Derbyshire Dales.

The finial dates to the medieval period, between the 11th and 12th centuries and the complete PAS record can be found here: DENO-7D8388 (https://finds.org.uk/ database/artefacts/record/id/995353).

The copper alloy finial was originally attached to the bottom of a cross-staff, and is composed of an intricate, lattice openwork sphere with interlacing bands forming lozenge-shaped holes. Each crossing point is decorated with a raised knob. These vary in size but all are broadly spherical, which classifies this object as a ‘globular’ terminal. The terminal is almost 55mm high, and weighs only 77 grams.

It is likely that this type of object was ecclesiastical in nature, suggested by a similar example from Wixford, Warwickshire, which was found close to a church.

Parallels can be seen in later medieval depictions of

royal regalia, in particular the lower sceptre terminals seen on the 15th century rood screen panel at Nayland Church in Suffolk, depicting Edward the Confessor. See also the 16th century alabaster relief depicting Christ before Herod (V&A Sculpture Collection, A.101-1946) and the scene of the coronation of Harold on the Bayeux Tapestry, dating to the 11th century.

The object is currently on short-term loan from the finder to Derby Museum and Art Gallery, where it was displayed last year in the Archaeology Gallery PAS case, in a temporary exhibition about non-treasure metal detecting finds.

The Portable Antiquities Scheme is run by the British Museum and National Museum Wales in partnership with local heritage institutions across England and Wales and it records archaeological objects found by members of the public. Since it was founded in 1997, the PAS has recorded more than 1.5 million objects on its online database.

If you make a find like this, please contact Maria Kneafsey on 01332 641903, or at Maria@ derbymuseums.org.

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Before Bolsover existed Leaf shaped arrowhead

CAITLIN HALTON and REUBEN THORPE describe an exciting multi-age site discovered in advance of housing development near Bolsover

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multi-age site north of Bolsover has revealed evidence of our forebears going back to the Mesolithic period.

Archaeological Research Services Ltd (ARS) has undertaken several phases of archaeological work on behalf of Jones Homes (Yorkshire) Limited on land off Oxcroft Lane, Bolsover. The site, 1 km north of the centre of Bolsover, was known to contain archaeological remains, visible as a cropmark on aerial photographs taken in 1996 and recorded in the Derbyshire Historic Environment Record (HER) as “a single-ditched enclosure c.30m square with possible internal features and an opening at the north-east corner”.

Further archaeological works, from 2017, including geophysical survey and evaluation trial trenching, confirmed the presence of archaeological features on the site corresponding to the square enclosure documented in the HER, as well as other associated features.

Archaeological trial trenching in January and February 2018 revealed remains of a Romano-British rural settlement including pits, postholes, enclosures, field boundaries and a droveway, as well as finds of terra sigillata pottery, commonly known as Samian ware, a red tableware imported from France.

Subsequent excavation of some four hectares revealed no fewer than four broad periods of occupation on the site: Prehistoric, Romano-British, late Roman/early Medieval and Medieval periods, many of which have several phases.

There is artefact evidence from finds of worked flint to suggest the site was used in the Mesolithic period (c.10,000 – 4,000 BC). There is also evidence to suggest potential land enclosure or the creation of field systems possibly as early as the Late Neolithic period (c. 2000 BC).

A small enclosure was established in the late pre-Roman Iron Age (AD 1 – AD 43) and its orientation suggests that this disregarded pre-existing or extant land divisions established in the Neolithic/Bronze Age. This enclosure, dated to the early 1st century AD, is remarkable for 24

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having yielded Aylesford Swarling (Belgic) type pottery, unusual in Derbyshire.

Roman reorganisation of the landscape in the late 1st century AD and into the 2nd century AD was demonstrated on the site with new fields being created.

At the same time small enclosures for domestic buildings were also built and a droveway system was developed to the north.

By the end of the 2nd century AD, the field systems had become modified, creating larger enclosures, possibly reflecting a change in land use or agricultural regime.

This coincided with the occurrence of malting ovens, probably associated with each of the building enclosures within the site.

By the later 3rd century, the focus of settlement had shifted to the north around either side of a droveway, and the fields previously defined to the south seem to have been abandoned.

In the former building enclosure to the south of the droveway the remains of two adult females laid face down were recovered.

Late A further burial, dated to AD 4th/early 5th 380, lay to the south-west, century burial which was probably also associated with other graves. Another grave, also of an adult female, which lay further south of this burial, has been dated to between AD 331 and AD 426.

A succession of post-built structures, located to the south and west of the group of graves, may represent tantalising evidence of sub-Roman occupation on the site dating to, or shortly after, the withdrawal of Roman military aid and government from Britain in AD 410.

Post excavation work and analysis is ongoing by ARS with the intention to produce in a digital format the full archive report as well as to publish a synthesis in a national archaeological journal.

View of a ring gulley under excavation, looking south east

Holding back the river at Willington KRISTOPHER POOLE of Trent & Peak Archaeology describes a multi-period landscape on the banks of the River Trent at Willington

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rchaeological excavations at Willington Quarry from the 1970s onwards have revealed a multiperiod landscape, ranging in date from the Neolithic to the present day. Recent work by Trent & Peak Archaeology, some 300m to the south of Hazel Wheeler’s 1970-1972 excavations, have added to this fascinating picture.

The work was commissioned by the Guildhouse Consultancy on behalf of Cemex UK Materials, and revealed a former channel of the River Trent, along with multi-phase human activity on its north-western bank, including late medieval to post-medieval flood defences.

The former river channel was located some 70m to the north west of the current route of the Trent. Radiocarbon dating of sediments from this palaeochannel indicate that infilling occurred during the Neolithic period, the Late Neolithic to Early Bronze Age and again at some point after the Bronze Age. Evidence for activity on the site in the Neolithic and Bronze Age was largely in the form of flint tools in later features, but three pits have been attributed to the Neolithic period and there was a disturbed, Early Bronze Age cremation pit. Use of the land during these periods appears to have been intermittent and non-intensive.

The situation changed during the Iron Age, when a largescale field system, including a possible droveway, was laid out across the site. A small amount of Early Iron Age pottery indicates limited activity at that time, with the dating evidence and feature morphology being more

consistent with a Late Iron Age date. Other features included two ring gulleys and a large circular enclosure, perhaps representing a stock enclosure.

Romano-British pottery was found in some of the Late Iron Age features, suggesting that a few of these were still partially open. Activity in this period appears to have been focused right on the banks of the Trent and comprised a series of ditches and pits, along with a possible corn dryer. The latter would indicate some form of agricultural function for this site. Subsequently to the Romano-British activity, a possible Saxon sunkenfeatured building was constructed.

Beyond the Saxon period, the site was probably used for farming. That the land was used for pasture, at least during the post-medieval period, is supported by the Egginton Tithe Map of 1849, which labels the area as “Hargate Common Pasture”. However, the changing dynamics of the Trent may have been causing problems on this land during the later medieval and postmedieval periods.

Although partly filled in, the former palaeochannel would probably have been present in the landscape as a pronounced depression, which may have become reactivated. This probably motivated the building of wooden structures along the western edge of the palaeochannel, formed of a series of timber stakes driven into the earlier infills, with brushwood bundles piled up against them. These structures may have been ‘kid-weirs’, designed to stabilise the edge of the palaeochannel and prevent water entering the site.

Radiocarbon dating of the timbers indicates a 15th17th century date for the creation of this structure, although there may have been more than one phase of construction.

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Uncovering Chesterfield’s medieval past Large stone wall with cobbled surface overlying former quarry to the right

Chesterfield’s Saltergate car park revealed evidence of medieval occupation, reports GLYN DAVIES of ArcHeritage

The archaeological investigation enhanced the existing historical evidence by revealing the character of various features in ways that were not evident from their depiction on the maps. A series of buildings shown fronting Saltergate on maps of 1803 and 1878 appeared to be cottages but were found to also include small workshops. These poorly-constructed buildings showed evidence of extensive alteration over time with evidence of modifications undertaken throughout their use.

The remains of a substantial sandstone wall crossed the site, continuing beyond the limit of excavation.

Although this wall had been marked on the 1803 map, its size and construction was not evident until its remains were revealed by our excavation. The maps suggested a simple property boundary, but excavation revealed that it was in part a retaining wall stabilising the area south of a probable former quarry at the north end of the site.

The quarry, shown in this area on the 1803 map, was backfilled with layers of dumped material that contained pottery of post-medieval and later date.

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rcHeritage and Trent & Peak Archaeology recently undertook desk-based research and archaeological fieldwork on the site of a car park at Saltergate, Chesterfield.

Saltergate had been the main salt road into the town from Cheshire since at least the 12th century, although there are no medieval maps of Chesterfield and documentary sources revealed little about the nature and extent of medieval activity within the site. One of the main aims of the excavation was to determine if the site was used in the medieval period and if any remains from that period survived.

No evidence of medieval remains was evident on the Saltergate frontage, although several pits and wells containing 14th century pottery were identified set back from the frontage. The survival of medieval material only within wells and pits shows that medieval activity took place on the site, but that only deep deposits survived due to later development. The presence of several wells and pits may be evidence that the site lay within building plots, but that any archaeological remains for buildings on the frontage have been lost.

William Senior’s 1637 map showed little detail beyond buildings on the Saltergate frontage. However, 15th to 18th century pottery in the backfill of another well showed continuing activity on the site even though such features were not recorded on Senior’s map.

Pottery recovered on the site suggested increasing domestic occupation in the 17th and 18th centuries, although this impression may have been skewed by the loss of earlier medieval deposits. The pottery included kitchen and tableware such as jugs, pancheons, cisterns, stoneware bottles, cups, and cooking vessels. The majority of the pottery was locally produced in the Chesterfield or the wider Derbyshire area, with a smaller amount from South Yorkshire, the East Midlands and the Humber region.

Wall overlying earlier pit

Similarly, new buildings were found to have been constructed on the sites of earlier features that had not been shown on maps. An infilled pit containing postmedieval clay pipe was found beneath almshouses dating from 1875, the base of an earlier sandstone wall had been re-used as a foundation for the almshouses, the lower courses of a demolished building had been reused as the foundations of a new building in a later flour mill complex.

The site was extensively redeveloped during Chesterfield’s urban expansion in the 19th and 20th centuries, with industrial and residential developments in and around the site.

Although the preservation of archaeological remains was variable the excavation was able to identify the remains of activity on the site since the medieval period and showed that redevelopment had taken place on the site on numerous occasions during the post medieval period.

Section through stone-lined well

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ACID | 2021

Interior of Hobcroft Barn (Matt Giles)

Recording barns and buildings CATHERINE PARKER HEATH provides an update on the South West Peak Landscape Partnership Scheme’s Small Heritage Adoption and Barns and Buildings projects

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he last year has been somewhat challenging for everyone and there will be nothing unaffected by the global pandemic. The South West Peak’s Barns and Buildings (BB) and Small Heritage Adoption (SHA) projects, both supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund, are no exceptions. Much of the work on both projects requires volunteers and others working together and, of course, all of this was put on hold during the Covid-19 lockdown. Nevertheless, there was much that could still go on behind the scenes.

For the BB project, isolating volunteers helped with research, drawings and writing up reports for measured surveys of field barns that were carried out before lockdown and a new grant scheme was launched for funding minor repairs on field barns which will see a number of them in much better shape by the end of 2021.

Early in the year, work began on Hobcroft Barn in Warslow to secure the hayloft so that a full condition survey could be carried out by Restoration Projects Ltd of Glossop, prior to further repairs being made. There were understandable delays subsequent to this, but when lockdown measures began to be eased in the middle of May, it meant I could visit the barn again along with one of our SWP apprentices Matt Giles, who with his experience of photography, took some great interior shots to be included in the historic building recording report.

For the SHA project, work has carried on with adoptions.

Over 30 heritage assets were adopted by the Tudor Farming Interpretation Group (TFIG) at Under Whitle Farm as part of an Archaeology Trail (these alone smashing our target of 25!) and an 18th century sundial at St Bartholomew’s Church in Butterton was adopted by Butterton History Group, all early in 2020.

Some adoptions had to be postponed but we are catching up with these, and with the launch of an adoption campaign in the second half of 2020, we will soon be back on track.

The building and landscape surveys that have been carried out have produced a lot of data, with now

well over 450 heritage assets and over 130 field barns recorded. The unique circumstances of the year enabled the SWP apprentices and me to get on top of some of this data, preparing it to be shared with the Peak District National Park Authority Cultural Heritage team and eventually the County Historic Environment Record.

It became apparent too that one SWP volunteer, Chris Mayer, has single-handedly walked the footpaths of over 30 square kms all in the name of the SWPLPS! We still have a number of grid squares to cover though and not much time to do it in, so if you would like to join us as a SWP volunteer to help with this last push in 2021 then contact the SWP Cultural Heritage Officer, Catherine Parker Heath at catherine.parkerheath@ peakdistrict.gov.uk

Volunteer Chris Mayer at Hill House trig. point near Upper Elkstones

The Tudor Farming Interpretation Group with Catherine (second from right) at the presentation of their adoption certificate at Under Whitle Farm

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My love letter to the British Isles Editor ROLY SMITH caught up with the popular TV historian and archaeologist NEIL OLIVER when he was on tour with his latest book

N

eil Oliver’s piercing dark eyes flashed a smile as he brushed his mane of black hair back from his forehead. “People were always stopping me in the street and asking: ‘You’ve been everywhere; where’s the best place to visit in the British Isles?’”

“It’s an impossible question, of course,” he said in that warm Lowland Scots accent which has introduced over 100 episodes of Coast, and which now also includes Coast Australia and Coast New Zealand.

“But I suppose I have probably seen more of these islands in a shorter time than anyone else,” he reflects.

“So I thought I’d put what is really a personal love letter to the British Isles into a book. I didn’t choose these places, they choose themselves.”

The result, The Story of the British Isles in 100 Places, was also the subject of his first-ever lecture tour, which is when I caught up with him at The Winding Wheel in Chesterfield.

And Neil’s tough choice of iconic places which tell the story of these islands includes two in Derbyshire; St Wystan’s Church at Repton, south of Derby (see ACID 2019), and the caves of Creswell Crags (ACID et al) “There are certain places where you can breathe in history: maybe it’s the molecules left in the same air as people in the historic past breathed in,” says Neil. “And the Anglo-Saxon crypt of St Wystan’s Church, Repton, is certainly one of those.

“John Betjeman described it perfectly as ‘Holy air encased in stone.’ It’s humbling to think that in that

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crypt you may be breathing in the same air as Wystan did over a thousand years ago.”

And Neil points out that the proto-Indo-European root of “holy” means whole or uninjured, or something which should be preserved intact. “Repton’s most sacred space is deserving of such protection,” he says. “Just as moments spent inside the chamber of a Neolithic tomb seem to occur in a place adrift from the modern, so St Wystan’s crypt belongs to a world that is otherwise beyond our reach.”

He first visited Creswell Crags with rock art specialist Paul Bahn in 2010 (See ACID 2011), and he memorably describes the parallel series of caves lining the limestone gorge in his new book as being like a film set for “an Upper Palaeolithic Coronation Street.”

Neil said: “It always used to be thought that life in the British Isles in that immediate post-Ice Age period, some 16,000 years ago, was so tough that those early hunters would have to draw upon all their skills and imagination just to stay alive.

“But for some of them – such as at Lascaux in France, Altamira in Spain, and here at Creswell Crags on the Derbyshire-Nottinghamshire border – it was important to create what today we regard as works of art.”

He describes the Creswell caves as a “lost gallery of marvels” and cites them as another example of how long and old our story is. They show, he says, that “before the advent of our kind, earlier experiments with the notion of what it is to be human and alive were already taking place.”

Blessing the Bride in Bakewell ADRIAN WILLS, trustee of Bakewell & District Historical Society, describes how work has been going on behind the scenes during the lockdown

L

ike so many of our key heritage and historical sites in the Peak, The Old House Museum in Cunningham Place, Bakewell, was unable to open its doors to welcome visitors last summer.

This was a real pity as a new costume exhibition on the theme of weddings – entitled “Bless the Bride” – was in place ready for visitors. A couple of pictures of the wedding attire on display are here for your enjoyment.

Do visit our Youtube site: https://www.youtube.com/ results?search_query=old+house+museum+bakewell to see a little more and come and see us when this is possible. Search for Old House Museum Bakewell and you’ll find “Bless the Bride”. There are a number of other short videos for you to enjoy there, including memories of the former DP battery works and excerpts of a tour of the Old House too.

Fortunately, to lift the spirits of our band of enthusiastic volunteers, we have been successful with our application for a new Arts Council England funded project to work on ready for this year’s opening. This will enable us to create a range of short video stories about the Old House and also on a number of other local subjects.

Visitors will be able to access these stories as they walk round the building via their mobile phones to add to their enjoyment and interest. There will be stories about the Bakewell Workhouse, Ashford Marble, the residents of the house over the years, farming in the Peak, Bakewell’s local polymath White Watson, the story of the Bakewell Pudding and many more.

Some of the videos will be available on our website too. Look out for information about the project as we progress. Meanwhile, we are working on our website to improve access to information about the Bakewell & District Historical Society, which owns and runs the

Detail of the wedding dress

museum. For those interested in the people and places of the Bakewell area, we also now have our annual journals available to see on the website.

Come and see us when we open again from March 25, 2021 and chat to the volunteers and find out more about the amazing history of the area. For the £5 entry fee, it’s an absolute bargain, and what’s more your entry ticket gives you free re-entry for a full 12 months.

Footnote: We warmly welcome new volunteers to help with staffing the desk, and to help with many aspects of interesting behind-the-scenes work on the collection (including conservation, cataloguing etc. as well as maintenance and development work on the building’s fabric). It’s a friendly team of over 70 people and we do like a social occasion too. In recent years these have included folk and other musical evenings, quizzes or simply enjoying food and a drink together.

Maybe you are also interested in becoming a member of the Society? Our current package of benefits includes: an annual programme of monthly talks, one or two summer visits to places of historic interest, a copy of the Society’s Annual Journal and free entry to the Museum. See our website for more details and an application form: www. bakewellhistory.com

Some dresses from the Bless the Bride exhibition

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The Sleeping Museum

Investigating jaw bones with the new microscope

ROS WESTWOOD of Buxton Museum and Art Gallery reflects on a strangely silent year

I

n replying to the editor’s email request for ACID articles earlier last year, I gaily offered to write about the continuing volunteer contribution at Buxton Museum, packing and documenting bulk collection deposits.

The debate about the long-term retention of unprovenanced flint and potsherds continues. Justifying osteology is much easier, since that is where research is currently being done, whether on bear, deer or human remains.

In autumn 2019, Tom Booth from the Francis Crick Institute visited, seeking teeny, inner ear bones from human remains from Hindlow Barrow. Did you know these bones never grow from the day you were born?

This project, led by Dr Pontus Skoglund, is examining natural selection and population history in Britain over the last 6,000 years.

Bones from caves in the Peak District are particularly interesting: Carsington Pasture Cave has provided the best-preserved British sample of Neolithic remains so far (see ACID 2020). Soon we will find out about the dateof-death, ancestry, kinship, sex and possibly the physical

The Derby porcelain cup

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ACID | 2021

characteristics of individuals from Hindlow and some other caves. But Covid-19 has delayed these results too.

Lockdown closed Buxton Museum on March 23 last year.

Staff were retained, the museum was deep cleaned, the air circulated through silent galleries, and buildings and collections were checked daily. The famous Canadian brown bear still watched on…

Another stalled project was the rationalisation programme of the Derbyshire Museums Resources collections, supported by the Esmèe Fairbairn Foundation and the Museums Association. In October 2019 an archaeological cheer sounded when we found a late Roman, silver spoon from the Canterbury hoard, discovered and declared Treasure Trove in 1962. How it was separated from the hoard is a mystery, arriving in this collection in 1966. Now it is on display back in the town where it was found. For the full story see: https://buxtonmuseumandartgallery. wordpress.com/2019/10/08/the-strange-case-of-thewandering-spoon/ The pandemic has had me thinking about evidence in the collections of health and hygiene: glass vials containing medicine, poison, scented oil or creams, and a nebuliser to relieve congestion from the Devonshire Royal Hospital.

A most intriguing thought is about saucers. Did use of saucers go into terminal decline when instant coffee, the teabag and the mug arrived, in the 1960s? Think about it. A saucer allows me to hand you a cup which I have not touched, so that you can drink safely from it. Add a decoration of Arkwright’s Lower Mill with yarn bleaching on a frame in the sunshine, and this Derby porcelain saucer dating from 1795 with its teacup showing Little Eaton, decorated perhaps by Zachariah Boreman, deserves a second look. Does this decoration commemorate the opening of Benjamin Outram’s Little Eaton tramway linking the village with Derby that year?

Curators don’t like being away from collections. At Buxton, the team made a blog lively with quizzes, make-and-takes, and articles to read, see: buxtonmuseumandartgallery. wordpress.com. In the year where time appears to have stood still, we had the opportunity to reflect on the collections and anticipate displays refreshed with recent acquisitions before we welcome you back.

Beyond the Barrow Knight Thomas Bateman and son (Thomas William) 1860, Thomas Banks (1828-1896) (© Museums Sheffield)

MARTHA JASKO-LAWRENCE, Museums Sheffield, and SHARON BLAKEY, formerly of Manchester Metropolitan University, describe the collections of Middleton’s ‘Barrow Knight’

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he approaching bicentenary of Thomas Bateman’s birth in November 2021 is a fitting time to reappraise his contribution to the world of antiquarian collecting. Museums Sheffield is marking the event with an exhibition telling the fascinating story of one man’s impact on the regional, national and international collecting field.

Thomas Bateman (1821-1861) was an antiquarian whose collection was held in his home at Lomberdale House in Middleton-by-Youlgreave. Best known locally as a pioneer of early archaeology, he excavated over 200 prehistoric barrows in the Peak District – earning him the nickname ‘The Barrow Knight’.

He died prematurely aged 39 and his collection passed to his son Thomas William Bateman (1851-1895).

In 1876, he loaned part of the collection to Sheffield Public Museum (now Weston Park Museum) which subsequently purchased the archaeological material in February 1893. This still forms the core of Sheffield’s archaeology collection.

The dispersal of the remaining collection took place through a series of sales beginning in April 1893. The first auction consisted of the most valuable and important collection of works of art and antiquity. Three sales in May saw the dispersal of the coin collection, paintings, drawings and the library of books and manuscripts.

A further sale in June auctioned Bateman’s varied ethnographic collection.

The sales attracted many notable collectors and dealers, an indication of the esteem in which the collection was still held over 30 years after Bateman’s death. The final sale was held in October 1895, following the death of Thomas William, dispersing the last remnants and marking the demise of a once prominent and respected collection.

Today, Bateman artefacts can be found in institutions worldwide. A rare Mexican head dress was purchased for the British Museum and an ancient Irish harp now resides in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Bateman’s celebrated collection of ivories were snapped up by collectors such as Frank McClean and later bequeathed to the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge. The spectacular Trier Binding which Bateman purchased for £257 in 1856 (equivalent to almost £28,000 today) now resides in the John Rylands Library, Manchester.

However, it is the items which no longer bear the Bateman name that hold the greatest poignancy, from a wooden spoon in Manchester Art Gallery to a child’s hornbook (an early reading aid) that helped found a collection of rare books in New York. Such loss of provenance is repeatedly found, particularly with regard to items acquired after the 1855 catalogue of Bateman’s collection, which remains the primary This iron horseshoe source of contemporary found at Peveril knowledge.

Castle, Castleton, The range of material features Bateman’s dispersed demonstrates distinctive painted numbering system, the collection was more in this case N.I.58, extensive in scope and which relates to volume than was widely his 1855 catalogue considered. Bateman’s listing. (© Museums Sheffield) museum accounts book post-1855 reveals him to be actively building his collection beyond the archaeological, more than doubling his ethnographic material and quadrupling his pottery collection. Almost every catalogue list was further developed, increasing his collection well beyond the near 4,500 artefacts recorded in the published catalogue.

Over time Bateman’s profile as a collector has diminished, undermining the international significance of his collection, and the bicentenary exhibition will highlight his achievements to a new audience.

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Young Archaeologists’ Club

Last year’s YAC was a trifle different!

NATALIE WARD describes an unusual year in the life of the Peak District Young Archaeologists’ Club

T

he coronavirus pandemic has meant this has been an unusual year for the Peak District Young Archaeologists’ Club (YAC). We had an actionpacked provisional programme with lots of fun activities and sessions to learn about our past planned for 2020.

We had planned to:■ Visit the Derbyshire Record Office ■ Join Castleton Historical Society and the University of Sheffield on their excavations at Castleton and Brough ■ Join the South West Peak Cultural Heritage Officer, Catherine Parker Heath and the cultural heritage volunteers to learn how to record a barn ■ And we also had an exciting joint session planned with the Millers Dale Young Rangers Group to learn about historic charcoal making and even have a go at making our own.

We usually meet once a month for our archaeology and history-inspired activities, but only managed two sessions before the pandemic struck; along with all other Young Archaeologists’ Club branches across the country, we had to stop our usual activities and sessions.

The cold weather of February saw us safely tucked away indoors at the National Trust’s education room at Ilam Park learning about food, rationing and cooking on the Home Front in World War II. In what turned out to be prophetic of what was to come later in the year, we learned about food shortages, and came up with ideas of how food could to shared out fairly and how to make the most of what you had. We cooked up a storm with some genuine World War II recipes - with mixed verdicts on the tastiness of the results! One of our recipes was for trifle made with stale leftover cake. Although the result was quite tasty, we all agreed that “leftover cake” was not something usually to be found in our homes, and even less likely in World War II. In March we visited St Peter’s Church, Alstonefield to

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Brothers William and Henry Sheard with their World War II Home Front thrifty trifle

learn about all the research they have been undertaking and how to understand the archaeology of a church and churchyard. We were also joined by National Park Countryside Maintenance Ranger, Andy Bentham, to learn about historic graffiti and see if we could find some of the graffiti around the church (see ACID 2020).

As I write this in early July 2020, there is no word yet on when Peak District YAC will be able to start running sessions again. But in the meantime we have been busy, finding new ways to engage with our heritage and archaeology in lockdown, with online activities and our members’ parents sharing with us their lockdown archaeology activities at home.

We have been busily designing medieval coins, planning history walk routes, building models, excavating test pits in our garden and surprising ourselves with how much archaeology we have around our homes. Some of our members also have joined in the new Dig School from the Council for British Archaeology, Historic England and the University of Lincoln to expand and develop their archaeology knowledge and skills.

We look forward to when we can meet again, and to take forward the exciting sessions and activities we had planned for 2020.

Footnote: The Young Archaeologists’ Club is the only UK-wide club for young people from the age of eight up to 16 who are interested in archaeology. YAC’s vision is for all young people to have opportunities to be inspired and excited by archaeology, and to empower them to help shape its future. There are YAC branches run by volunteers across the United Kingdom and supported by the Council for British Archaeology.

Bookshelf: Youngreviews Archaeologists’

by Roly Smith Club

Pecsaetna: People of the Anglo-Saxon Peak District Perhaps the most controversial finding in regular ACID contributor Phil Sidebottom’s new book on the tribe which occupied the Peak District in the Anglo-Saxon period concerns the much-debated site of Edward the Elder’s burh.

This is described in the Anglo Saxon Chronicles as being “in the neighbourhood of ” Bakewell, and was where, in AD 920, the kings of the Scots, Northumbria and the Strathclyde Welsh accepted Edward as their “father and lord”, thus uniting the kingdom.

The author claims that the old Roman fort at Navio at Brough in the Hope Valley, which was within the large Mercian Bakewell estate, would make “a perfect venue” for such a meeting. It stood at the confluence of the old Roman roads between Buxton and Templeborough, and Derby and Manchester, and was in the possession of Uthred, son of the Bernican Northumbrian Saxon leader Eadwulf.

Other possible sites suggested by the author for Edward’s famous burh include the prehistoric fortified outcrop of Carl Wark, above Hathersage, and the mysterious so-called Hope motte, behind the parish church, which he suggests could have been a later Saxon moot hill.

Oxbow Books, £29.99 (pb)

The land of the Pecsaetna (literally “the Peak sitters”) is first recorded in the 7th to 9th century Mercian manuscript, the Tribal Hidage, in which it was allocated 1,200 hides – which meant that nominally it could support 1,200 extended family units.

The author thoroughly explores the strong Northumbrian influences on Pecsaetna, which may have been initiated by Uthred. He links the vine scroll style and design of many of the large stone crosses and monuments found in its main centres, such as those at Bakewell, Bradbourne, Eyam and Wirksworth, to those found in Northumbria.

He cites placenames such as Derby, Denby and Grimbocar Wood, Derwent as further examples, but surprisingly omits many others, such as Rowland, described by Cameron in his seminal Place-Names of Derbyshire as of pure Scandinavian origin, possibly meaning a boundary or boundary mark.

The area of Derbyshire known as the Pecsaetna roughly corresponds to the limestone area now known as the White Peak, and also to the old Viking wapentake known as Hamenstan.

The author concludes that many questions still remain to be answered about the lost tribe of the Pecsaetna – the people who gave the Peak District its name.

But his thorough and meticulous analysis of existing documentary, archaeological and sculptural evidence will go a long way towards shining new light on them.

Delving along the Derwent

This comprehensive history of 200 quarries along the valley of the River Derwent, and of the people who worked them, recently won the Alan Ball Award from the Libraries’ Association.

The authors of the book – known as “The Delvers” – were the eight core members of the DerwentWISE project group who, led by coordinator Ian Thomas, retired director of Wirksworth’s National Stone Centre, meticulously researched every sandstone, limestone and marble quarry along the length of the Derwent Valley from Derby to Matlock. The others were Ian Brownson, Angela Kniseley-Marpole, Sue Quick, Bill and Linda Morley, Malcolm Scothon and Grenville Smith.

Phil Sidebottom

The Delvers National Stone Centre, £18 (pb)

It was a tremendous voluntary effort, and the book reflects the fascinating story of a largely neglected but nonetheless important part of the county’s extractive industry history. From the Hadene stone from Dene Quarry, Cromford, which floored the new Coventry Cathedral and the Royal Festival Hall, to the Hopton Wood Stone, which was used in Chester and Lichfield Cathedrals, and as a material for sculptures

by Eric Gill, Jacob Epstein, Henry Moore and Barbara Hepworth, the list is impressive.

Perhaps one of the most poignant uses of Hopton Wood Stone was for 120,000 headstones for the First World War cemeteries in France, Belgium, Gallipoli and the Near and Far East.

The book ends with histories of the major Derbyshire families who owned and ran the quarries along the Derwent. A timeline appendix suggests that UK stone production started with stone and flint implements and monuments in the Stone Age, and reached an all-time high around 1990, amusingly adding “so perhaps we are still in the Stone Age.” 2021 | ACID

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Our year in numbers What have the archaeology and heritage teams in the PDNPA and DCC been up to over the last year? We provide support and specialist advice to other teams across our organisations, to ensure minimal impact to our heritage in the planning process, and other land management schemes. We also help communities and researchers and look after our vital data. Here are just some of our key facts and figures for the year 2019/20.

12 360

Conservation Areas

6331

Listed Buildings

34

Community and research projects supported

Registered Parks and Gardens

1

stewardship advice

27,525

629

Scheduled Monuments

55

World Heritage Site Countryside

Historic Monument Records

4,914 HER records added/enhanced

Number of planning applications for which detailed archaeological/conservation advice was given ■ Number of planning applications monitored and pre-application advice given

886

■ Excavation

19

■ Evaluation

30

■ Monitoring

51

■ Building recording

47

■ DBA/Heritage statement

64

■ Preservation in situ

8

■ Other

20

Who are we?

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The key staff giving archaeological and built environment advice in our respective organisations are:

Derbyshire County Council (Archaeological advisors

Peak District National Park (Cultural Heritage Team)

Archaeologist & Development Control Archaeologist: Steve Baker

Senior Conservation Archaeologist: Natalie Ward

Development Control Archaeologist: Sarah Whiteley

Building Conservation Officers: Rebecca Waddington, Sue Adam, Helen Carrington

Historic Environment Record Officer: Dana Campbell

Assistant Conservation & Records Archaeologist: Del Pickup

Contact:

Cultural Heritage Manager: Anna Badcock Contact via Customer and Business Support Tel: 01629 816200 Email: customer.service@peakdistrict.gov.uk

steve.baker@derbyshire.gov.uk

Tel: 01629 539773

sarah.whiteley@derbyshire.gov.uk

Tel: 01629 539774

dana.campbell@derbyshire.gov.uk

Tel: 01629 533362

ACID | 2021

within the Conservation, Heritage and Design Service)

Our year in pictures

Artists from Glassball walk with PDNPA Rangers and staff on Alphin Pike as part of the GUIDLEline arts project; a project developing engagement and artistic interventions round the NW boundary of the National Park

Millers Dale limekilns made in cake for the Festival of Archaeology ‘Archaeocake’ competition

Photogrammetric image of excavations at Blind Lane, Chesterfield (© ArcHeritage)

Remains of a medieval weir at Egginton (© CFA Archaeology)

‘Scotch’ brick making kiln from Sheepbridge, Chesterfield (© On-site Archaeology)

Drawing by a Winster Primary School pupil during an engagement day for Winster Conservation Area Appraisal

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Picturing the past

Carl Wark: mortar scar

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his sun-shaped mark on a slab inside the prehistoric hilltop enclosure of Carl Wark is a mortar scar, made by the explosion of a mortar shell during military training in the early 20th century. There are numerous traces of WWI and WWII training activity on the Eastern Moors of the Peak District. Many boulders in the area are pock-marked with bullet scars and the small rectangular depressions in the ground are “fox holes� dug by soldiers in which they took cover.