Early Neolithic Stone axe in wooden haft
Ehenside Tarn, Cumbria
Image credit: British Museum - Chance
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As expected UNESCO award World Heritage status to the Lake District.
A BOOK which sets out to fill the ‘black hole’ in Cumbria’s prehistoric past has been published by a Cambridge academic.
Dr David Barrowclough, a Fellow in Archaeology, has pulled together decades of research to come up with new interpretations about how ancient Cumbrians lived and why they built some of the most impressive stone monuments in England.
One theory Dr Barrow-clough propounds is that patterns and marks carved on some of the ancient stones, such as Long Meg, in Eden, could have originally been ‘map’symbols’ to guide people from valley to valley.
This early ‘rock art’ eventually was used to chart the movements of the sun and moon and rituals associated with passing from life to death, says Dr Barrowclough.
His book, Prehistoric Cumbria, also suggests that thousands of years ago the Langdale Valley was a centre of ‘professional’ axe-head production, with part-finished products being manufactured for both local and ‘export’ trade, overseen by organised groups.
He reveals that the axe-heads, which were finished by polishing in lowland Cumbria, have been found in excavations as far away as the Yorkshire Wolds and the Thames Valley.
But ancient Cumbrians were not just exporters of weaponry.
Dr Barrowclough writes that by the Bronze Age the area was a net importer of a range of manufactured artefacts, many of which were deliberately thrown into bogs and rivers — a practice known as ‘deposition’.
“To an outsider, there would be nothing to indicate the long-term history of deposition in a moss or river.
“Yet particular locations were selected time after time for such actions; in the case of the Furness Peninsula, from Neolithic through to the end of the Bronze Age.
“The repeated use of the same places must have been deliberate: such places were meaningful and historical and imbued with memory,” says Dr Barrowclough.
He suggests that depositing imported artefacts in bogs and rivers was a ‘compelling way to realign a foreign idea’ and ‘to make alien, ambiguous items morally acceptable at home’.
Dr Barrowclough claims there was previously a ‘proliferation of misconceptions about the region’s archaeology; in particular, that it was in some way a ‘black hole in prehistory’.
“This book takes the opportunity to publish details of excavations that have in some cases only been hinted at in previous works, and in other cases not known of at all,” he said.
* Prehistoric Cumbria is published by The History Press at £19.99. ISBN 9780752450872.
thewestmorlandgazette.co.uk/news/8767816.Mysteries_of_Cumbria_s_ancient_stones_unlocked/
Archaeologists in the Duddon Valley have uncovered over 3,000 previously unrecorded historic sites after a four-year survey of the area.
The Duddon Valley Local History Group, in partnership with the Lake District National Park Authority, found ring-cairns that could date back to the Bronze Age.
Two of the most exciting finds uncovered in the 90-square mile survey include ring-cairns found at Seathwaite Tarn and Lead Pike. Although excavations of the cairns establish their origins back to the Bronze Age, the purpose of the constructions is still unknown.
One theory is that the cairns, which are ring-shaped banks of stones ranging up to 15 metres in diameter, were held for ceremonial purposes.
At the Seathwaite Tarn Cairn, which took a month to excavate, old copper and iron ore mines were found, as well as evidence that iron smelting works were in the region.
The team also found a series of longhouses, which people would have lived in around the eighth and ninth centuries. Standing stones and burial cysts were found around the valley as well.
“We’ve ended up with more questions than answers,” said John Hoggett, chairman of the DVLHG. “Our survey gives an almost complete history of the Duddon Valley.
“What we’ve recorded shows that over the past four or five thousand years there has been very heavy activity in the Duddon Valley, almost industrial activity. We’ve seen massive coppicing of the woodland and evidence that suggests there were Viking settlements here.
“The magic of this was that people went out with a sense of anticipation that they would find something that was exciting. It wasn’t always necessarily a big find but it was something new.
“The thing that emphasises the success is that we started with 20 volunteers and ended up with 30 people who were still going after four years.”
Mr Hoggett went on to thank farmers and the National Trust for co-operating with their work, and allowing them to use their land.
The DVLHG will now re-survey some of their earlier work to check that nothing was missed, and there are hopes to widen the search to areas such as the Lickle Valley. They are also spending time on areas like the longhouses to better understand how they worked, and to try to specifically date them.
Their current finds will be preserved at the sites where they were found.
The Heritage Lottery-funded project is outlined in a book called ‘Ring Cairns to Reservoirs’, which the DVLHG launched last night (March 24).
Presenter Julian Richards, best known for presenting the BBC programme ‘Meet the Ancestors’, spent the day looking over some of the sites, and spoke at the book launch.
The book is available from the Henry Roberts book shop on Stramongate, Kendal.
thewestmorlandgazette.co.uk/news/5080134.Historic_finds_made_by_archaeologists_in_Duddon_Valley/
Archaeology Dayschool – Much more than Stone Axes – An update on Cumbrian Prehistory
Saturday 11 October
10.00am – 4.45pm
This dayschool on prehistory in Cumbria will include talks from Mark Edmonds on his Langdale project, Aaron Watson on Stone Circles, Kate Sharp on Cumbria Rock Art, Annie Hamilton-Gibney and Aaron Watson on the Living among the Monuments project at Penrith, and Tim Padley and Dot Bruns talking about the newly discovered Bronze Age Lunula from Brampton.
Tickets: £12 including lunch, tea and coffee, £6 without.
Call Tullie House Museum on 01228 618700 to book tickets.
Prehistoric Rock – art in Cumbria
Venue: Yew Tree Hall High Lorton (near Cockermouth)
Date: 10th July 2008
Time: 7.30pm
How to book: Not required
Price: Visitors £2
Tel: Ted Gilbertson 01900 85482
Lecturer: Dr. Stan Beckensall
Event Type: Local and Community History
Description:
Dr. Stan Beckensall is a world authority on prehistoric rock – art. He has written extensively on most areas of British rock art. The illustrated talk will place Cumbria in a context of British rock – art generally and will present some certainties and many unknown things about it.
Comments:
Admission Fee includes refreshments
Archaeologists are hoping to unearth ancient treasures during excavations in a Cumbrian valley.
Volunteers are needed to join archaeologists during the digs in the Duddon Valley in the south west of the Lake District beginning on 30 June.
Much of the work will focus on the cairn at Seathwaite Tarn – a mound of landmark and burial stones.
The Ring Cairns to Reservoirs Project is backed by a £50,000 Heritage Lottery Fund grant.
Around 60 local people have been trained in archaeological survey techniques.
The project will be led by the National Park Authority’s senior archaeologist John Hodgson, with help from Oxford Archaeology North, students from Durham University and the Duddon Valley Local History Group.
Part of the work will involve pollen analysis to find out what Seathwaite Tarn and the surrounding vegetation could have looked like during the Bronze Age.
Chairman John Hoggett, of the local history group, said: “This will be the first excavation of a ring cairn in the Lake District and we are hoping that it will give us clues as to what was happening here thousands of years ago.”
Saturday 6th October 2007
Appleby Archaeology Group Autumn Conference – People and the Land Settlement in the Eden Valley: Prehistoric to Present Day at Appleby Grammar School. Event takes place between 9.30am and 4pm. Contact Harry Hawkins on 01768 864340.
Saturday 21st July 2007
A visit to Two Cumbrian Henges with Helen Caffrey. Event takes place at Eamont Bridge, near Penrith. Henges are circular ceremonial sites dating from the late Neolithic and early Bronze Age. Find out more about these impressive structures as you explore King Arthur’s Round Table (reasonably accessible to those with limited mobility) and Mayburgh. To book a place on this free tour of these sites contact Lancaster University on 01524 592623/4. Early booking advisable.
Saturday 28th April 2007
Aspects of Prehistoric Cumbria – CNWRS study day to be held at Penrith Methodist Church, Wordsworth Street, Penrith in conjunction with the Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian and Archaeological Society. Various speakers including Dr Aubrey Burl who will speak about Cumbrian Stone Circles – Are they Really? and Professor Mark Edmonds of University of York who will talk about The Neolithic in the Central Fells. Event takes place between 9am and 5pm. Follow the link at the bottom of the page for further information and booking details.
cumbria.gov.uk/planning-environment/countryside/historic-environment/events.asp
A website featuring thousands of sites of archaeological interest in Cumbria’s Lake District is being set up with the help of a £171,000 grant.
The district has more than 6,500 historical attractions including Shap Abbey, Castlerigg Stone Circle and Hardknott Roman Fort.
The Lake District has 275 monuments and 1,740 listed buildings.
The project is being paid for by the Heritage Lottery Fund and run by the Lake District National Park Authority.
Lisa Keys, a former exhibition interpreter at the National Museums Liverpool, who is helping to run the project, said: “At the moment unless you are very interested in archaeology, there isn’t a particularly accessible way of finding out more details.
“By the time we’ve finished there’ll be lots of exciting ways to link into the past which everyone from schoolchildren to communities and the area’s 12 million visitors can all use.
“Most people don’t come to here to delve into history, but we want to share all this fantastic archaeology and see heritage placed on a prominent platform alongside the beautiful scenery.”
news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/cumbria/4795288.stm
Archaeologists hope to unearth Bronze Age treasures after receiving £50,000 to help fund a dig in a Cumbria valley. The three-year project in the Duddon Valley in the south west of the Lake District, will be carried out by professional archaeologists.
Much of the work will focus on the cairn at Seathwaite Tarn – a mound of landmark and burial stones.
The project is costing £133,000 in total and is being supported by the Lake District National Park Authority.
Archaeologists will be helped by university students, volunteers and members of the Duddon Valley History Group.
Park Authority senior archaeologist John Hodgson said: “The valley is a quiet and scenic part of the Lake District National Park.
“However, its quiet character masks a very long history of occupation. A wealth of physical remains exist from this long period, much of which has not been recorded.”
£1m to be cut from Lakes’ budget
Almost £1m is to be slashed from the budget of the organisation responsible for the Lake District National Park.
read more here
news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/cumbria/4521944.stm
On the Brighter side
Lottery cash opens up Lakes’ past
A treasure trove of information about the Lake District’s archaeology is being opened up to the public thanks to a £171,000 grant.
read more here
news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/cumbria/4651436.stm
Eden District Council’s Penrith Museum is celebrating news that they have been awarded over £24,000 from the Local Heritage Initiative, a scheme run by the Countryside Agency on behalf of the Heritage Lottery Fund and Nationwide Building Society.
The funding will allow the Museum to run a series of events during 2006 aimed at broadening awareness of, and accessibility to, prehistoric heritage in the Vale of Eden. This area is a major focus for Neolithic and Bronze Age monuments, including stone circles, henges, burial cairns and rock art sites. The project aims to forge new interest in these monuments that have survived for over four thousand years, and which can still be seen so dramatically across the varied landscapes of the Vale of Eden.
Read it all here
eden.gov.uk/main.asp?page=3972
Thanks to Kate Sharpe
26th November 2005
The annual archaeology conference at the Lakes School , Troutbeck Bridge, Windermere.
Including -
Exploring Lower Eskdale.
Re-Opening of Leverswater mine, Coniston
Bales sites smelting in Yorkshire & Cumbria
Rock Art in Cumbria: Context & Connections
Monks Farmers & Raiders – The early Medieval Period in the Lake District.
Conservation & Interpretation at Force Crag Mine.
Tickets £8 including tea & coffee. £14 with lunch
Avilable from The Lake District National Park Authority.
An estimated £300,000 will have to be spent over two years to make the case for turning the Lake District into a World Heritage Site, it has been claimed. The Lake District National Park Authority has been trying since 1985 to win World Heritage status by Unesco, which is part of the United Nations.
Organisers said it would bring the sort of kudos which might attract more visitors and help when getting finance from the government.
However, some people have expressed concerns it could lead to even stricter controls on development and damage the tourism industry.
Supporters have said that although the status would not attract money directly, the government would be more likely to give extra funding if the area had world status.
Inward investment
Paul Tiplady, from the National Park Authority, said the money would be well spent.
He said: “We believe the Lake District is the country’s finest landscape.
“We need the government to believe that too so that thy will start putting the resources into Cumbria that Cumbria desperately needs.
“One way of achieving that is to get the world to say that Cumbria has England’s finest landscape.
“World Heritage status gives a very simple marker that the area is very special.
“I estimate we would need something like £300,000 over two years to undertake the project work.
“Cumbria and the west coast needs more inward investment and £300,000 may be a very cheap way of getting it.”
Source: megalithic.co.uk/
from BBCi
Plea to walkers over relics
A Cumbrian museum has urged hill walkers to leave Neolithic relics where they find them on the fells. Stone axes are often found on Lake District scree slopes, and the Tullie House Museum in Carlisle is showing people how to recognise them, enjoy them but not to take them home.
Whole story here
From the NorthWest Evening Mail
nwemail.co.uk/viewarticle.asp?id=12123
6,000-YEAR-OLD AXE FOUND IN ULVERSTON
A POLISHED stone axe which may have been made in Langdale 5,000 to 6,000 years ago was one of the most exciting finds unearthed by archaeologists in Ulverston at the weekend.
Excavation of a trench and a Channel 4 Time Team “test dig” at Sir John Barrow’s Cottage in Ulverston, which began the previous weekend, was completed on Sunday.
It was a joint venture between Ulverston Heritage Centre and the Morecambe Bay Archaeological Society and excavation directors were Daniel Elsworth and Jo Dawson.
Among finds in the main trench were a large number of pieces of 19th century pottery, nails, buttons, glass, clay pipes and other items and artefacts.
Among finds of note relating to the period also included pieces of slate writing pencil and the writing slates complete with score lines.
Earlier finds included a possible 16th century silver groat as well as the Bronze Age flint scraper dating to around 1000BC found last weekend.
Heritage Centre director and chairman of Morecambe Bay Archaeological Society Daniel Elsworth said: “In the test pit similar 19th century remains were discovered, although an old animal burrow had disturbed deposits!
“Some further prehistoric remains were found this weekend in the test pit including a burnt piece of a flint blade and a fragment of a stone axe.
“Even more exciting was the discovery of an entire end of a polished stone axe, of a type made in the Langdale area around 5,000 to 6,000 years ago.
“Although these finds do suggest earlier activity on the site, the action of worms and roots in the soil and centuries of digging in the garden have apparently mixed up finds from different periods”.
He said they are now dealing with the finds and compiling an archaeological report about the excavation and it’s intended that the finds will be displayed in the cottage following full cataloguing and conservation
Human remains which could be about 4,000 years old have been unearthed by archaeologists working in a Cumbrian village. A team of archaeologists found the body curled up in the foetal position in a cavity in the limestone bedrock on a building site opposite the church in Levens, near Kendal. The remains have been removed after the Home Office issued a burial licence. Jamie Quartermaine, from Oxford Archaeology North, said the manner of the burial suggested the remains probably dated back to pre-Roman times.
Mr Quartermaine, who is project manager in charge of the survey at the site where two four-bedroom houses will be built, said: “All we can say for certain at this stage is that it is at least 100 years old. “We know this because there was a 100-year-old tree on top of it.” Then he stomped grumpily for a cup of tea, kicking a passing cat. [ok so I made that last sentence up, but he obviously doesn’t give two hoots and just resents the fact his houses are going to take longer to build]
Local historian Roger Bingham said: “It is one of the most exciting discoveries we have had for a long time, possibly since Bronze Age urns were found in Allithwaite. “This is an archaeological discovery of the first importance. “It also underlines the importance of asking for archaeological research before there is development.”
A lovely dialect tribute to Thomas Bland.
Taken from LEGENDS AND HISTORICAL NOTES ON PLACES OF NORTH WESTMORELAND.
BY THOS. GIBSON, M.D.
Published 1887
THE ANTIQUARY.
BY ANTHONY WHITEHEAD, OF REAGILL, NEAR SHAP.
YE strangers that ramble down’t Vale of Lyvennet, To see bonny Nature and breathe the fresh air, Fra the spring at Black Dub a’t way down to the Eden There’s seines interesting, romantic, and rare.
Westward fra the Dub ‘boute a cannon-shot distance There’s cromlecks an’ cairns full of auld Celtic baynes ; A temple where’t Druids sang prayers to the plannets, Set aw arround wi’ a circle o’ staynes.
An’ in times leayter still, when the Romans reayde foray, An’ meayde a new wroad as they crossed ouer the fell, May be seen to this day, near the black dub ye find it, An’ if you dispute me ga see for yoursel’.
There’s many quere places a’t way doon the valley, An’ Hamelets or toons where the Brittans did dwell ; There’s traces o’ some to be seen in t’ Lang-deayle, But men, farther larn’d, their origin may tell.
Crosby Kirk, of auld standing, next claims oor attention, Wi’ awe an’ wi’ reverence oor minds for to fill ; Flass House is a feature ‘at ought to be mentioned, An’ Addison’s birthplace on Meaburn Hill.
But the main pleayce I wish to point out to your notice Is Reagill, where yance leev’d the fam’d Thomas Bland, An’ auld antiquary, cramfull o’ queer notions As any you’ll find in the length o’ the land.
He kent a’ the history o’ t’ world’s creation, Fra t’ making of Adam to t’ birth o’ Tom Thumb ; He tell’t us the earth’s composition was gasses, An’ fowak meayde of air seayme as a baloon.
He talk’d about metals being fused by eruption,
An’ how they were melted like souder or tin ; He kent aw the strata of rock fra the surface Aw t’ way doon to the boiling het fluid within.
He scabbl’d off shells fra the hard rock o’ limestone, An’ sed they’d been fishes, some thousand years sen ; He was crack’d, that’s a cartainty, out of aw question, To think of imposing o’ sensible men.
Then sec a collection of rubbish an’ kelder, Auld things ‘at he tell’t us the Brittans yance meayde ; Bits o’ spears, meayde o’ flint, broken millstones and trinkums, Sec a cargo o’ kelder, a decent ship-leayde.
Gang when you would, between sunrise an’ setting, You’d find him in’t garden, or else in his den, Where he spent aw his time wi’ his mell an’ his chisel, His paint-brush an’ canvas or scetch-book an’ pen.
He wad travel ten mile, wi’ a sketch-bewke in nap-sack, To draw some auld shield ‘at he might wish to see ; An’ than fra the dots, cross lines, an’ the shap on’t, He wad spin oot a yarn of their lang pedigree ;
An’ tell who’s it was, whether duke, lord, or baron, An’ how they behaved when they went a crusade ; Or, if ‘twas a she ‘at the shield had belanged tul, He could tell ye at yance if sh’d deed an auld maid.
He’d creatures of aw macks stuck up in his garden, Fra a Hippotamus to Whittington’s cat ;
Lions, dogs, deevils, wild boars, an’ teayme eagles, Beats Wombwell’s Managery hollow an’ flat.
There’s Addison, Caesar, St. George, an’ Hugh Miller, Poet Burns, an’ lots mair, I forgitten their neayms ; An’ busts o’ girt men fra aw parts o’ the world, An’ some in the meun, I dare say, hed their heayms.
In the cauld days o’ winter he set on a fire In a grate like a helmet, stuck in a w’hole ; A shield for his shovel, a sword for his poker, And an Indian tomahawk split the girt-cwoal.
He pay’d equal respect to a bewk-larn’d beggar,
A hawker, a squire, a duke, or a lord ; If they talk’d about science or tell’t a good stowry He grappled it aw, without missing a word.
Tho’ a wreck of the former, ‘tis still interesting,
An’ the owner will give you admission quite free ; Sea, if you be strangers, don’t fear you’ll be welcome, If you come up to Reagill, the Garden to see.
This blog examines mountain environments from the perspective of landscape archaeology; what people did on and around mountains and how this can inform us about how ancient and not so ancient people used, perceived and interacted with these places.
Carlisle based museum and art gallery, so could appeal to a couple with two different tastes – one with an archaeological bent, and one with an arty bent, or one with an archaelological bent, and one with a Primark bent, who leaves you there and sods off into the city centre.
Well, just read th’website to find out. Looks like it’d appeal to those without a car or push-iron. Won’t appeal to the the ice-cream and boat-ride brigade, so you could be in some good company on this rascal. Looks like the boss might know his stuff too, instead of the usual crap that’s spouted.
Basic. Yup, that’s about it. Still, there are contact details if you want to tell ‘em summat, or even join. Too few links under the Cumbria area, so this could be a starter for ten for someone.
Framework. I hate that phrase, me. Stinks of pretentious prats being overpaid to come up with fancy words for basic stuff. Still, it’s not as tedious as it suggests, but make your own minds up. Enter at your peril, those of you expecting great things. Don’t say you haven’t been warned, ‘cos you have.
John Moores University, Liverpool website, dealing with Cumbria. On the face of it, it looks ok. Funny script thingy causes a delay, but if you click “yes” when the option pops up you’ll be alreet cocker.
This is a local history groups website, dealing with the Duddon vally, also known as Dunnerdale. Of interest to TMAers will be the recent ring cairn excavations at Seathwaite Tarn, now used as a reservoir. The valley is a gem of the Lakes, with very few visitors, and peace generally reigns. The track to Seathwaite Tarn isn’t too hard, and, once you’ve turned your back on the dam, you’ll find yourself in a beautiful mountain coomb.
Based in Ambleside, at the bottom of the Kirkstone Pass, this is a small museum with local finds, and wider ranging finds from Cumbria. The Great Langdale stone axe factory features.
A useful site to compare with its rival MWIS. An assessment of both will probably be good enough for those going up high to view some of the high cairns, circles, ring cairns, and axe factories. I personally find MWIS the more reliable, but in winter this site has the benefit of giving snow conditions underfoot, i.e. ice, the need for crompons, avalanche/cornice riske etc.
Pics of stone circles, henges & standing stones in Cumbria
The Museum of Kendal, one of the oldest in the country, covering a wide range of archaeology, as well as the geology and natural history of Cumbria, and the old counties of Cumberland and Westmorland.
“It does exactly what it says on the tin”
Detailed 3-day weather forecast for the Cumbrian mountains, with conditions on the fells.
As part of the Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian and Archaeological Society (CWAAS) Website:
The Clare Fell Memorial Bursary – money awarded to under-25s hoping to undertake a project relating to Cumbrian prehistoric archaeology (or of another region, so long as they live in Cumbria).
Article by the Rev James Simpson – Vicar of Shap
Stone Circles near Shap, Westmoreland.
