Heritage Bulletin
Northcliffe Heritage Projection: archaeological survey 2016
Because
it is difficult to bring all volunteers together simultaneously I
thought it might be helpful if I produced a document explaining the
situation, as I see it, of the future archaeological side of the NHP.
I'm sorry that it is so late and is so long. I would be grateful if you
could email me with your comments and questions. Val will be in touch
separately to arrange actual dates and times for planned activities.
The end of 2015: open meeting
I'd
like to write a few final words about the public meeting that ended our
first 12 months work. It is a pleasure to thank to all those volunteers
who were able to attend and to help in various ways. I hope you will
all agree that the event was a very considerable success. One of the
Bradford University bio-archaeologists was present and was very
interested to discuss botany with Jane R. A second archaeologist, who
lives in Shipley, couldn't make it on the day but hopes that Tony and I
could give her our presentations individually, which we would be happy
to do of course. Finally there is a Bradford PhD student who is
researching the relationship of industry and the environment in the
South Pennines and whom I hope to meet soon. I'm not suggesting that
any of these professionals will be of immediate help in our project but
I'm sure you'll agree that the more people who know and value
Northcliffe the better. Those present will have seen a 3D computer
model of Northcliffe which Tony's brother produced, based on LiDAR
data. It is truly amazing and shows the surface topography much more
believably than any other presentation of the data I have seen before.
I'm sure that the model will repay detailed further investigation. I'll
come back to this when I discuss 'data interpretation and short report
writing'.
Geophysics report
Another
hangover from last year is that we have unexpectedly received a final
geophysics report from Hannah Brown. It is really quite dense material
so I have not immediately sent it out to all volunteers. But if you
would like to read it please let me know and I'll happily email a copy
to you. (Chris: in view of your starring role in geophysics data
gathering I'll print you a hard copy in colour if you like – just this
once!)
Excavation – Northcliffe Park
The
most important activity this year will be a small excavation in
Northcliffe Park. I know some volunteers have wondered why this area
has been selected. The first and most important reason is safety.
Permission from the landowner (Bradford Council) is contingent on my
providing them with an acceptable Health & Safety Assessment.
In
'coal pit close' we shall be working on hard, flat, ground which we
know from geophysics has been ploughed but not undermined and we shall
move cautiously over an identified shaft edge. The GPR data confirms
that the shafts are filled and do not contain large voids. There may be
more interesting areas, like the 'Golf Club boundary' pits, but I would
really feel most apprehensive in working there among spoil tips, and
shaft depressions, and on steeply sloping ground.
The
second reason is that the upper Northcliffe Park area has already been
examined with every other technique at our disposal. Excavation will
provide the opportunity to compare what is actually under the grass
with the results of the various surveying methods including AP and
geophysics. No other section of Northcliffe can offer this
opportunity. Thirdly, you will all know that no excavation should be
undertaken at all without there being definite questions to answer. So
what are the questions about this site?
We
have assumed that these are shafts down to a coal seam; it would be
nice to confirm this by obtaining some coal debris. Geophysics shows
that south of the circular features the ploughing marks are very
'sharp' whereas north of the features furrows are 'blurred'. Possibly
the blurring is a spread of colliery spoil over the ploughing remains.
It would be nice to be able to confirm this. I would also like to know
if the shafts are lined with stone or brick. This is most improbable if
they were in operation for relatively brief periods, in fact if they
were actually lined we'd have to think again. It would be wonderful if
we could find some dating evidence such as clay pipe bowls, coins or
pottery, but this is highly improbable I'm afraid although you never
know. Finally there is a small rescue element to the excavation. Val
and I visited the Parks manager who plans, this year, to fill these the
depressions with soil. It is probably best to tackle this area before
any further conservation work is done.
In
a two day session I'd like to de-turf two patches of ground, perhaps 1
* 2m, to define the north and south edges of one of the circular
features and examine the sub-soil and shaft fill. The Parks manager,
who seems very happy to let us do what we wish, can provide some
fencing to identify the area where we are working. I think that it will
be better to remove the turf by hand than to use a mini-digger. It is
cheaper, gives a cleaner result, and won't leave tracks on wet ground.
The situation is not like Time Team where a digger can be continuously
in use throughout a full working day. Does anybody have
spades or
archaeology trowels they could loan us? Funds are available to buy
extra equipment although I should like to reduce FoN expenditure as
much as possible.
We
need to fix a date for the excavation before the grass starts to grow,
but late enough for a severe frost to be less likely. The middle of
March seems plausible and if we avoid Easter while retaining our
Friday/Saturday split then 18-19 March is one possibility. Val will be
in touch over volunteer availability but I'd like Eddie to head up this
activity since he conducted a very similar and highly successful
excavation on Baildon Moor. Those of us of less robust constitution can
work on defining the ploughing marks on the adjacent land. It looks
from AP and geophysics that those nearer the road are wider than those
in subsequent fields. I should like to confirm this and take some
measurements.
Quarry Study
This
is simpler. I'd like to take one of the less complex small quarries in
the wood adjacent to Northcliffe Park. We can clean up a section of one
quarry edge for photography and dig down to find the depth of the
original quarry floor. We should undertake a detailed search looking
for worked or shaped stone, or any tooling marks on the quarry edge. We
should allow two days for this although one day may be sufficient.
Again Val will be in touch about actual dates. Originally I assumed
we'd undertake this after the Northcliffe Park activity but Tony says
that the bluebells are already starting to grow! Ideally I'd like the
ground to be snow free and not waterlogged. Perhaps the end of February
or very early March would give us such a chance?
Old Spring Wood
Tony
has also pointed out that although we did some early training here
there are some pits left unsurveyed. It would be sensible then to
designate one day to re-visit OSW so we need to agree a date. The mud
in the wood is spectacular at the best of times; might we be alright in
5-6 weeks? Recently Tony and I have been writing reports about the
individual sites we have visited: the S-shaped Path, the Northcliffe
Dike etc. The possession of these provisional reports will make the
compilation of a final publication easier. I wondered if any other
people in the survey group than Tony or myself would like to experience
the joy of co/leading the group working here and putting disparate
sources of information together as a coherent whole to produce a short
OSW report? I would supply survey data and copies of any maps or LiDAR
images showing OSW. There may be historical information as well. Do I
hear any volunteers to be co/group leader and official scribes for this
activity?
High Bank Lane Field – Noon Nick
Jim,
Maggie and other volunteers wanted to re-visit High Bank Lane field.
Maggie has kindly spoken to the landowner, Mr Jowett, who is happy
about this. Could those interested give Val their names and suggest
some dates. I assume that as no bluebells are involved this activity
could be later than the Northcliffe Park excavation; early April is one
possibility. Again I think this might again be a good opportunity for
some people, other than Tony or me, to co/lead the group, decide on the
work, and write a short report. Anybody up for this? Please let Val
know.
Dungeon Wood
After
Tony's scholarly exposition on Saturday I'm now not totally clear where
Dungeon Wood actually is! It would be sensible to re-visit the wood
between the Dike and the road on Northcliffe Golf Club land and check
that we have all the pits that show on LiDAR. I assume that bluebells
are not an issue here so this could also be a later activity.
Unsurveyed Golf Course Boundary Pits
There
is clearly more work to do south of the Dike in this general area which
we can discuss in detail later. I'd like to see if there is evidence on
the ground at Dike level for the collapsed drifts that seem to show on
LiDAR. High above at boundary path level there may be unsurveyed pits.
I think we should allow a day for this work even if several different
small projects are subsumed within this title.
Data interpretation and short report writing
There
is a huge amount of work we need to do on the material we have before
we can regard it as definitive. Imagine that we were meeting to agree a
short report on the Northcliffe Gold Course boundary pits. I imagine we
would have Tony's historical data available, and also his 3D model and
maps. We should also have access to the images that Chris and I took,
and the survey data. Are there pits shown on LiDAR which we didn't
identify on the ground? Are there drainage soughs shown on LiDAR that
we missed completely? Do the historical sources reveal anything about
ownership or date? My feeling is that we would need a two hour
discussion and we might then designate some volunteers to return to the
site to 'check' on disputed facts. We probably cannot (and don’t need)
to record every hole but writing a short report on the area will be
helpful.
A
subsequent meeting might deal with 'ploughing marks in Northcliffe' in
exactly the same way, and so on. My feeling is that throughout the late
spring and summer we should have a series of 'report sessions' every
2-3 weeks. It would be quite an imposition for anyone to have to attend
every meeting but with the number of volunteers we have this should not
be necessary. In any case some might wish to contribute by email. It
would be helpful to agree a series of topics, dates (?Friday and
Saturday afternoons) and locations in advance. I'd be happy to offer a
place to meet, if you don't feel I am too far away.
Final Publication
Those
of you who were at the recent meeting will know that I am already
thinking of the end of the NHP with eventual publication. I accept that
there never will be an end to what we can learn about the area and I
hope that others will build on our work in the future, just as I have
been very influenced by what I learned in an earlier project on Baildon
Moor. Publication of our results should result in at least three
outcomes:
1 An archive of all our data, images, maps and reports.
2 A simple booklet and/or web-page which those unfamiliar with Northcliffe and its history can take with them on exploratory walks.
3 An academic publication in a journal such as the Yorkshire Archaeological Journal or The Bradford Antiquarian.
1 An archive of all our data, images, maps and reports.
2 A simple booklet and/or web-page which those unfamiliar with Northcliffe and its history can take with them on exploratory walks.
3 An academic publication in a journal such as the Yorkshire Archaeological Journal or The Bradford Antiquarian.
Synopsis
It would be helpful
if we
could agree dates and times for the following activities:
Northcliffe Park Excavation: 2 days
Quarry Study: allow 2 days
Old Spring Wood: allow 1 day – leader and report writer needed
Noon Nick re-visit: allow 1 day – leader and report writer needed
Dungeon Wood re-visit: allow 1 day
'Golf Course boundary pits' re-visit: allow 1 day
Data interpretation and short report writing: we need dates & accommodation perhaps at 2-3 week intervals in the May-September period.
Northcliffe Park Excavation: 2 days
Quarry Study: allow 2 days
Old Spring Wood: allow 1 day – leader and report writer needed
Noon Nick re-visit: allow 1 day – leader and report writer needed
Dungeon Wood re-visit: allow 1 day
'Golf Course boundary pits' re-visit: allow 1 day
Data interpretation and short report writing: we need dates & accommodation perhaps at 2-3 week intervals in the May-September period.