The excavation is over but what a result!

The excavation is now over; a week or so has past and the site has been backfilled. But with that period away from the site we can at last recap on what we have had. I think it is safe to say that the results have exceeded all our expectations.

The backfilled main site

We are still some what uncertain about the interpretation but we are definitely moving in the right direction.  In the main site, we have a wheel pit, what we are presently interpreting as an anvil base, the possible mounting for a trip hammer and some ancillary buildings.

The aerial view of the main site showing the hammer scale platform, anvil base, wheel pit and trip hammer mountings in the top part of the image

The anvil base

But what is most significant is an extremely dense floor composed of hammer scale, which has a straight edge to the south-west and would appear to define the edge of the building belonging to the floor. The significance of the floor is considerable, as hammer scale is produced when iron is repeatedly hit by a hammer (hence the name) and is a typical by-product of the refining stage of iron production. What was not found on this site was slag which is produced from the primary iron production. So we are having to change our whole interpretation; so what we have been calling the bloom forge site is not a bloom forge, but a refinery forge.

So if this is not a bloom forge, where is the documented bloom forge. If we then look to the upper site where we put a series of trenches, there we found a huge amount of slag and we had initially interpreted this as being the site of an early bloomery.  We got the authoritative expert on slags, Dave Starley, to look at that site and he quickly concluded that there was no tap slag, which is the product of a bloomery. So if this is not the site of a bloomery, could this be the site of the bloom forge and this very red slag be the product of that very different iron working process. Well, at the moment this is out best guess, but we are awaiting confirmation from Dave on this.  So what we have called a bloomery is not a bloomery but instead may be a bloom forge.  Confused ? well in that case welcome to the world of archaeology where interpretations are continually raised and condemned as we move hopefully towards the direction of a truth.

Excavating into the red slag on a very wet day

What ever the interpretation, this is a fantastic success and so much more than we ever hoped for, and takes us an enormous way towards understanding the whole process of iron manufacture processes in the eighteenth century. This success is though down to the considerable support and help from all the volunteers who put up with some dreadful weather on this route of discovery. So I would like to put out my heart felt thanks to everyone that has contributed to the survey and excavation. We will let you know more as we get the results back and then we will have a presentation to outline the findings in more detail.

Jamie Quartermaine

 

 

 

 

 

Wet Wet Wet Day

It was a very wet day, and our brave resilient volunteers stuck it out and made some good progress. Although the rain stopped in the afternoon, the trees were so wet that it continued to drip on our merry soals for the rest of the day. It was a bit too wet to work on the Bloom Forge site, but the bloomeries could still be worked. The bloomery in Trench 2 transpired fairly quickly to be at least two, and possibly three, furnace bases that had successively occupied the same site. With hands to spare, and the end of the week looming, a third trench was opened to examine the second bloomery that had been identified by the geophysics. The afternoon sunshine brought a couple more volunteers, so work began on a fourth, small trench, in hunt of another anomaly identified by the geophysics.

Some very wet volunteers digging the bloomery trenches

Excavating the bloomery

The first bloomery hearth in all its glory

Tomorrow looks to be a good day before the skys open and strong winds welcome us on thursday.  So we are keeping our fingers cross that we can get everything finished for the end of the week.

Jamie and Ian

A Bloomery Emerges

On thursday the team arrived on site to find that the site was under water. Heavy rain the previous night had ended up in the large hollow of the Bloom Forge site. With the wheel pit and the metal basin filled with water excavation was not possible. However, we had a solution! The volunteers formed a chain and passed buckets of water off the site and into the tail race – job done!

The flooded site

Draining the site with buckets

A chain gang quickly drains the site

Excavation was quickly able to resume, notably of the drum feature. This drum feature has proved both exciting in complexity, but confusing in interpretation and lots of possible explanations have been offered, including one that it was the central hub of a water wheel. The current view is that it is the base of a trip hammer for an anvil, and two metal plates associated with it are probably part of a forge hearth. This is enormously exciting and we are looking forward to seeing what more comes up next week

Soon excavation is under way as the team explore what has perhaps erroneously become known as the water wheel hub, but is now believed to be part of an anvil and hammer

A series of metal plates that are probably part of a forge hearth

The big story of the day though was the bloomery. The geophyisics had identified some very diagnostic dipole anomalies which were interpreted as bloomeries, and were located on a large flat topped spoil mound near the river. Pete turned up on site with a total station to make sure that we could reliably locate these features on the ground and excavation of one of them commenced.

The initial features was a curious red soil, which on further excavation provided to be an extensive hearth base of a bloomery.  This bloomery furnace base seems to be overlying an earlier bloomery furnace, and both of these are on top of a layer with lots of charcoal. We have taken samples of this for C14 dating, but we also found two sherds of probable 18th-century pottery in the same layer! It would appear that these bloomeries are early C18th but there is the anticipation that these could be on much earlier remains.  Further excavation next week will hopefully reveal more.

The bloomery starts to be revealed

Ian deliberates on what will soon prove to be a hearth

The excavated hearth

Although the results have been very exciting, it has all been down to the team who have been enormously enthusiastic and have made each day of work a pleaseure.

The team excavating in the area of the bloom forge

A well earned but short lived break from the excavation

We now have a break from the pleasures of excavation until Tuesday the 27th, when we hope to reveal many more treasures.

Ian Miller and Jamie Quartermaine

 

 

 

 

The Excavation is Under Way

On Monday we got the long awaited excavation underway.  It was with a certain amount of trepidation that we undertook this excavation programme; we had known that there was a lot of modern dumped detritus on site but we hadnt known quite how much.  But after an epic two days with a mini digger, watched by Jon,  we managed to get rid of the modern material, creating a massive spoil mound in the process. The result is that we have come down straight onto the horizons of the bloom forge workings extending across an extensive area. On monday they looked somewhat dirty and unclear but Ian and Jon, helped by some fantastic volunteers have turned this large unsightly pit into a feast of treasures and this is only after day 3.

The large hole following clearance of the modern, prior to the excavation

Cleaning in progress on Day One – Already order is emerging from the chaos

DAY 1

With a laborious day of initial cleaning ahead, our team of very willing participants achieved amazing progress, and had exposed extensive remains of the early 18th-century forge. Across a swath in the centre of the site, the team revealed a large surface of indurated iron-working waste, which had almost certainly derived from sparks of molten iron fusing together under the hammer. Excavation also unearthed a large iron ‘tub’, set into this surface. After some discussion, this was thought initially to be a tub for quenching hot iron when it was being worked. Further excavation and bailing of water from the ‘tub’, revealed wooden components fixed in its centre. This has caused a lot of head-scratching, although it’s resemblance to the hub of a waterwheel laid on its side hasn’t been missed. A flight of fancy, but certainly something to look at tomorrow.

The large iron tub with its wooden components

Furthe excavation has revealed some timbers around the outside of theiron tub – could it be a water wheel hub?

The hunt for the waterwheel, thought to be at the foot of the headrace adjacent to the main track, began in earnest. After moving countless barrows of of demolition material, some evidence for a forge hearth started to emerge, but the waterwheel pit remained elusive. Something else to focus on tomorrow.

The two walls set into the bank at the back of the site, beneath what has been interpreted previously as a headrace to a second waterwheel, was also subject to a thorough cleaning. Surprisingly, this proved to be part of a small building that was probably of a 19th-century date, after the forge had been abandoned. Possibly not the answer we were looking for, but great to have the question resolved.

The nineteenth century building with its ratehr fine cobble floor

DAY 2

A beautiful day to explore the forge further with fresh participants, and some veterans! With the intention of starting the day by continuing the gentle cleaning of the site, trowels were fairly rapidly exchanged for more substantial tools. A frenzy of mattocking along the back edge of the site, by the 19th-century building, revealed two substantial and parallel walls. As excavation exposed more of these walls, it became quite clear that this was the second waterwheel pit (even though we haven’t found the first one yet!). The ingress of ground water failed to deter anyone. Clearance adjacent to the wheelpit has exposed another stone structure, which makes an excellent candidate for part of the forge infrastructure, perhaps part of the housing for a trip hammer powered by the waterwheel. Certainly something to explore further tomorrow.

The volunteers cleaning a stone structure adjacent to the waterwheel pit which could potentially be the housing for a tilt hammer

The results have so far been spectacular and we are on tenter hooks as to what is going to come up tomorrow.

Jamie Quartermaine and Ian Miller

Second Week of Survey

The survey has gone exceptionally well despite all the difficulties with working in woodland and of course the weather. We have a very interesting plan of the site coming together and this will provide a much better understanding of how the site worked.

Survey in progress despite the rain

 

 

Astrid surveying in drier conditions 

Happy surveying with the theodolite and disto

The results of all the groups efforts

Ian brooks has also been with us, undertaking a geophysical survey and that has also produced some very interesting results. While the area adjacent to the wheel pits seems a little disturbed (not surprising it has had a lot of modern debris dumped on it, but the spoil heaps out towards the river produced some very small, intense circular anomalies which have the characteristics of hearths and might possible be earlier bloomeries. This is all very interesting and hopefully we will get the chance to test this later.

Magnetometer surveying in very wet conditions

The programme sees us finishing the survey at the end of this week and then we are anticipating starting undertaking the excavations next week, and thats when it will certainly get more interesting. Watch this space.

Jamie Quartermaine

Training Day and The Start of Cunsey Project

On Sunday the whole Cunsey Bloom Forge project got under way.  The first day was a training day / introduction day at the YMCA National Centre and the idea was that it was an opportunity to break the volunteers into the project gradually. However, as soon as everyone arrived it became very apparent that many of the participants were veterans of previous campaigns, such as Duddon Valley Long House project, and the Windermere Reflections, and were veritable experts. The morning was taken up with lectures and Ian Miller started the ball rolling giving a great talk about the history of Cunsey and the results of his excavations in 2003, and it was well received. I followed up by giving an account of all the different techniques we would be getting involved with on the project, and that seemed somewhat superfluous as many of our experienced audience could probably teach me a thing or two.

After a very pleasant lunch taking in the beautiful scenery around the centre we were bussed (is that a real verb) to Cunsey and Ian took the participants around the Cunsey bloom forge site, and gave them an introduction to how the site was worked (albeit on our present knowledge).  I on the other hand demonstrated a range of survey techniques starting with  30 year old theodolites and culminating with survey by drone.

Brian gesticulates widely during the site talk

Ian in full flow during the site tour

The survey demonstration in progress

The next day the survey started in anger, though perhaps it was the weather gods that were the most angry, because it rained all day.  A team of volunteers embarked on clearing the site of the ground vegetation and when I left the site in the middle of the day had done an excellent job of beating the rampant vegetation back.  The project team also got under way with the survey and had also made good progress. We now have two weeks of survey in front of us while we map the site with GPS, theodolite, total station, photogrammetry and magnetometer and hopefully we will be ready to start the excavation for the last two weeks of September.

Strimming the site allows us sight of the site

Surveying on the site starts at last.

 

Jamie Quartermaine

 

 

 

 

 

Welcome to the Cunsey Forge blog!

Welcome to the Cunsey Forge community archaeology project blog! The page will continue to be updated with information about the site survey and excavation work as it progresses! For information about the project please see the ‘about us’ page.