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Unlocking Hidden
Heritage
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Welcome to the Unlocking Hidden Heritage web page. This page contains information and reports on all the events, surveys and excavations that have been undertaken as part of Unlocking Hidden Heritage.
Project Outline:
The 'Unlocking Hidden Heritage' project is part of the 'Cultural Routeways' programme within the 'Bassenthwaite Reflections' Landscape Partnership Scheme. With funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund, the project will undertake a series of historic landscape surveys, with strong community involvement, on specific areas within the Bassenthwaite water catchment in the Lake District National Park. The survey target areas have been chosen through a process of community consultation and through discussion between stakeholders, Grampus Heritage, the lake District National Park Authority and the National trust. The project aims to increase understanding and appreciation of the historic environment of the Bassenthwaite Lake water catchment. Click Here for a more detailed project description.
Unlocking Hidden Heritage is funded for three years, from January 2007 to December 2009, though it is anticipated that the project will continue beyond this period. The high level of interest and enthusiasm from the community certainly suggests that the project will have a strong legacy.
Project Activities:
Detailed 'level-1' Historic Environment Survey: The target areas for 2007 were the National trust owned woodlands around Derwentwater. Community volunteers were trained in identifying and recording historic environment features. Surveys were conducted in teams and each team was provided with the following equipment: handheld gps, maps, tape measure, camera, 1st aid kit, compass and ranging pole. The Woodland surveys are now complete and the 2008 level-1 fieldwork is focusing on land between Derwentwater and Thirlmere, working along the ridge from Castlerigg and Bleaberry Fell towards High Seat and Armboth.
Desk-Based Research: A programme of archival and documentary research is running alongside the fieldwork. Training in the use of archives is being provided by Cumbria Archive Service in Carlisle records office.
Detailed surveys on specific sites within the catchment are taking place throughout the life of the project: In addition to the 'level-1' area surveys, more detailed surveys are to be conducted on specific sites within the catchment. These surveys will utilise more technical geophysical and topographic survey techniques to increase understanding of archaeological sites and features in the catchment.
The first of these sites was the Caermote Roman Fort survey in June/July 2007. Plans for 2008 include searching for the 'lost' manor of Castlerigg and a geophysical survey of Troutbeck Roman Camps.
A Magnetrometry Survey of the Broomlands field, Papcastle, 2010.
News / Events:
Launch Event 31st March 2007
Over 50 people attended the Unlocking Hidden Heritage launch event held at Theatre by the Lake in Keswick on 31st March. The project team were delighted with attendance and evident enthusiasm in the community for the project. The morning session opened in the studio with a welcome from Mark Graham (Unlocking Project Manager) and an introduction to the wider Bassenthwaite Reflections project and partnership given by Karin Crofts (Community Development Officer) . Mark Graham then gave a presentation explaining the background, aims and methodology of Unlocking Hidden Heritage. During the tea-break, attendees were invited to sign-up for fieldwork training days and archival research days. Over 40 people did so! The morning session was completed by a 45 minute presentation by guest speaker Mr Mike Davies-Shiel, describing the types of features likely to be encountered during historic environment survey.
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Presentations during the morning session at Theatre
by the Lake
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Mike Davies-Shiel leading the afternoon field visit
in Strutta Wood
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In the afternoon Mr davies-Shiel led a field visit to Strutta Wood near Ashness Bridge, where he showed participants an early mill (bloomsmithy) site and discussed the creation and identification of charcoal platforms. The launch day was a great success and set the scene for a dynamic and productive 3 years. The project team would like to thank all who attended, Mr Davies-Shiel for sharing his considerable eperience and expertise of survey fieldwork and to Theatre by the Lake for providing an excellent venue and helping the event run so smoothly.
Derwentwater Woodlands Level-1 Survey - Spring and Autumn/Winter 2007
250 hectares of woodland have successfully been surveyed by over 40 local volunteers working in teams! We have exceeded our target. Thank you to all who have taken part so far. Click here for the image gallery
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The Derwentwater Woodlands Report is now available for download. The site gazetteer is also available to download. Figures: Please click the links below to download the figures that accompany the report. |
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| Figure 1 | Figure 4 | |
| Figure 2 | Figure 5 | |
| Figure 3 | Figure 6 & Figure 7 | |
| A huge thank you to all who contributed to this fieldwork. Please have a look and send any comments. | ||
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Unlocking Hidden Heritage Survey Teams in Action
: Image
Gallery
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Archive Research - On May 11th 2007 a group of fourteen Unlocking Hidden Heritage volunteers attended an archive training day at Carlisle Records Office. During the session, participants obtained readers tickets to allow them to access the archives and were given an introduction to using the archives by records office staff. The workshop focused on documents relating to the area being surveyed, the woodlands around Derwentwater. At the end of the session, the group divided into teams and divided the research area into blocks. The results of the archival research will be invaluable to aiding our understanding of the survey area. Project volunteers are still at work in the archives and have now completed their research on the woodlands of Derwentwater. This information will be included in the survey report.
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Unlocking Hidden Heritage Archive Training Day
at Carlisle Records Office
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July, August & September 2007 - A period of fieldwork and research focusing on Caermote Roman Fort and Whittas Park to the North of Bassenthwaite Lake (NY 2022 , 3680). An exciting historic landscape research project including geophysics, topographic survey and 'level-1' landscape survey.
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The Caermote Geophysics Report is now complete. Click the image on the right to download the .pdf Plots: Please click the links below to download the plots to accompany the report. We are unable to provide detailed location maps (plots 1 to 3) due to copyright restrictions, but grid references and a location description are located in the report. |
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| Plot 4: Raw data | Plot 5: Trace Plot | |
| Plot 6: Processed | Plot 7: Topographic | |
| Plot 8: Topo 2 | Plot 9: Interpretation | |
| A huge thank you to all who contributed to this fieldwork. Please have a look and send any comments. You may well see features in the results that we haven't interpreted. | ||
The Whittas Park Fieldwork has now finished and the report is complete. A big thank you to everyone who contributed to both the Caermote and Whittas Park surveys, without who this project would not have been possible. The Whittas Park can be downloaded in sections.
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The Whittas Park Report is now complete To get the report cover, click here. To get the main body of the report, click here. To get North Pennines report, click here. For the Whittas Park gazetteer, click here. The figures can be downloaded by clicking on the links below. |
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| Figure 1 | Figure 4 | |
| Figure 2 | Figure 5 | |
| Figure 3 | Figure 6 | |
| A huge thank you to all who contributed to this fieldwork. Please have a look and send any comments. | ||
April 2008 & 2009- Fieldwork has begun on Castlerigg and Bleaberry Fell. Initial findings are exciting and include cairns, old boundaries and at least one shieling. We have already covered a large area and will return to carry out more surveys in Autumn/Winter 2008.
Summer 2008- A geophysics survey was carried out at Castlerigg in the hope of finding another Stone Circle or a Medieval Manor. Local volunteers carried out the survey under the guidance of Grampus and, while the results did not reveal the stone circle or the medieval manor house, a Roman Camp that was not previously known about was discovered.
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Local Volunteers surveying at Castlerigg
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The survey results above has the outline of the Roman Camp in red with possible internal features outlined in blue.
The Castlerigg Survey Report is now available. Click on the links below to bring up the reports and the figures.
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The Castlerigg Survey Report is now available For the Survey report, click here. For Jan Walker's report, click here. The figures can be downloaded by clicking on the links below. |
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| Figure 1 | Figure 5 | |
| Figure 2 | Figure 6 | |
| Figure 3 | Figure 7 | |
| Figure 4 | Figure 8 | |
| A huge thank you to all who contributed to this fieldwork. Please have a look and send any comments. | ||
We would like to thank all the volunteers for their help in making this important discovery!
July & August 2009- A Magnetrometry survey was carried out at St Bega's Church, Bassenthwaite. The survey was being undertaken to try to establish whether or not there was a possible abandoned Medieval village to try to account for the church's isolated lakeside location. Unfortunately, the survey did not reveal any sign of a possible village due to the ploughing in the area. However, there was evidence of activity around the church found on the surface. Bloomery was found in 2 locations near the church, which is evidence of smelting.
If you have any questions or are interested in the survey report, please contact us.
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St Bega's Church Survey grid and the Bloomery finds
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June to September 2010-After the floods in November 2009, members of the public came forward with Roman finds that were discovered walking the flood damaged field of Broomlands. As a result of the finds handed in and the interest they provoked, a magnetrometry survey lasting 6 weeks covering the Broomlands and fields north of the River Derwent was carried out with local volunteers. The results exceeded everyones expectations, showing that there had been a lot of activity on the flood plains of the River Derwent, including a road, possible amphitheatre and what looked to be a few buildings and ditches on the Broomlands field. The other fields also all have possible features in them which will hopefully be investigated in the years to come.
Following the survey was a 4 week long excavation. The trenches were planned out to target areas of the field that were hopefully going to provide us with the most information about the site. These included the possible amphitheatre along with several possible buildings and the road leading towards the river. All the trenches had archaeology in them which matched up to the survey results. Out of the eight trenches that were excavated, four were extended. One of the extensions was ordered after what was thought to be a trackway on the survey results turned out to be a wooden channel. It was this extension that revealed the watermill. The other trench extension revealed the foundations of a building which may have been a barracks, the third revealed burnt timber beam slots in situ and the fourth was a ditch that was very rich in Roman material.
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Two of the finds from the Broomlands Excavation and
some of the volunteers in the watermill trench
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For more pictures of the excavation, click here.
To read the Broomsland article written by Mark Graham in the Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian and Archaeological Society Newsletter No. 65 Autumn 2010, click here.
Mark Graham (Grampus Heritage) and Frank Giecco (North Pennines Archaeology) did a presentation on the Broomlands Survey and Excavation in December at the Senhouse Museum. The survey results were explained and the results of the excavation were presented and discussed. It was also another opportunity to again thank the volunteers for their enthusiastic dedication to the survey and the excavation.
The small exhibition that was in the Tourist Information Centre at Cockermouth has now been taken down and the pottery sent away. Funding was granted in order to send it to specialists who will conserve and hopefully return some nice examples of near complete and complete Roman vessels.
EXCITING NEWS!!!We are very happy to announce that the Broomlands Community Excavation has been nominated in the Current Archaeology Awards category "Rescue Dig of the Year", after appearing in the magazine in an article written by Dr Lynda Howard in CA issue 255. To vote for the excavation, please click on the logo or click here to go to the Current Archaeology Awards web page. You will find the categories at the bottom of the page where each nominee has selection box for voting.
This is great recognition for the hard work and dedication all the volunteers put into this excavation.
An application for further funding is being written so we can continue with community surveys and excavations in the areas around the River Derwent and Papcastle.
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The Papcastle Survey Report is now complete To read the the report, click here. The figures can be downloaded by clicking on the links below. |
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| Figures 1, 2, 3, 4 | Figures 5, 6, 7, 8 | |
| Figures 9, 10, 11, 12 | Figures 13, 14, 15, 16 | |
| Figures 17, 18, 19, 20 | Figures 21, 22 | |
| A huge thank you to all who contributed to this fieldwork. Please have a look and send any comments. | ||
The Broomfields preliminary excavation report is available here as a pdf. If you have any questions, please contact us.
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Grampus Heritage and Training Ltd, Ashgill, Threapland, Wigton, Cumbria, CA7 2EL, United Kingdom Telephone: +44 (0) 16973 21516 Fax: +44 (0) 16973 23040 E.Mail: enquiries@grampusheritage.co.uk |
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