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BURNLEY COLLEGE, STONEYHOLME, BURNLEY, LANCASHIRE Archaeological Desk-Based Assessment Matrix Archaeology April 2021 BURNLEY COLLEGE, STONEYHOLME, BURNLEY, LANCASHIRE Archaeological Desk-Based Assessment Report No. 2021-05 (Project Code: MA792) Client: Burnley College © Matrix Archaeology Ltd, 36 Highfield Road, Stretford, Manchester M32 8NQ [email protected] April 2021 2 REPORT CONTENTS Summary 1. Introduction 2. Scope and Methodology 3. Site Location 4. Archaeological and Historical Development 5. Gazetteer Features 6. Site Interpretation 7. Assessment of Significance and Impact 8. Recommendations Sources Figures Figure 1: Site location map, from O.S. 1:25,000 sheet. Figure 2: Archaeological Assessment Plan. Figure 3a: Study area outlined on OS 6in to 1 mile Lancashire sheet 64, originally surveyed 1844 and published 1848. Reproduced at 1:5000. Figure 3b: Detail of above. Reproduced at 1:2500. Figure 4: Study area outlined on OS 1:2500 Lancashire sheet LXIV.2, First Edition 1893, surveyed 1890-1, published 1893. Reproduced at 1:2500. Figure 5: Study area outlined on OS 1:2500 Lancashire sheet LXIV.2, Edition of 1912, revised 1909-10, published 1912. Reproduced at 1:2500. Figure 6: Study area outlined on OS 1:2500 Lancashire sheet LXIV.2, Edition of 1931, revised 1929. Reproduced at 1:2500. Plates 3 SUMMARY An archaeological desk-based assessment was undertaken on land adjacent to the River Calder at Stoneyholme, just to the north-west of Burnley town centre. This revealed that industrial development had occurred in close proximity to the study area, although apart from limited infilling, much of the site was little altered. The remains of two late 19th century colliery tramways may be affected by redevelopment, and there is some possible potential for late prehistoric or medieval agricultural activity. 4 1.0 INTRODUCTION 1.1 An archaeological desk-based assessment was undertaken by Matrix Archaeology Ltd on land at Stoneyholme, Burnley, during March 2021 (Figure 1). This was commissioned by Mr Andrew Brown of ABW Architects, on behalf of the client, Burnley College. The assessment was undertaken to inform proposed new building works within the area. 1.2 The study area contained no Scheduled Monuments, Listed Buildings, or Historic Environment Record entries. It comprised about 2.9 hectares of open land, partly in use recently as playing fields. 1.3 Close to the centre of Burnley, industrial and housing developments had previously occurred beyond the site boundary, and had affected the southern part of the site. 1.3 No previous archaeological works had not been undertaken within the site, although several projects had been undertaken in close proximity. In 2007, building recording works were undertaken within the Calder Vale Mill and Print Works, to the south-east of the study area, by Archaeological Services WYAS. In 2008, a desk- based assessment was undertaken of land to the south-east of the study area, on both sides of the River Calder, by White Young Green Environmental Ltd. 1.4 This assessment was undertaken in accordance with the ‘Standard and guidance for historic environment desk-based assessment’, published by the CIfA, 2017. Acknowledgements Dr Peter Arrowsmith undertook the historical research (Section 4), the Scope and Methodology (Section 2), and compiled the Sources. The site walkover and archaeological assessment drawing (Figure 2) was prepared in AutoCAD 2021 by Mark Fletcher, who also compiled the remainder of this report. 5 2.0 SCOPE AND METHODOLOGY 2.1 Sources Sources consulted for the assessment included: • The Lancashire Historic Environment Record (HER), held by Lancashire County Council Planning and Environment Service. • Published sources • Historic mapping Covid-19 restrictions at the time of the research for the assessment meant that it was not possible to consult original material in Burnley Library or Lancashire Archives. 2.2 A site walkover was undertaken, to inform production of Figure 2, a gazetteer of features (Section 5), and photography of potential features (Plates 1 – 7). 6 3.0 SITE LOCATION 3.1 The study area was located less than 1km to the north-west of Burnley town centre, in the valley of the River Calder. It comprised an irregular, low lying area, defined on the east by the canalised channel of the Calder, on the north-west by the M65 Motorway, on the west by the natural valley slope, and on the south by the existing Burnley College campus (OSNGR 383500 433150). 3.2 At about 104m AOD, the level site appeared to comprise a broad flood plain associated with the River Calder, which ran within a C19 canalised channel on the eastern site boundary. A minor tributary to the Calder had flowed in an irregular channel across the north part of the site, although this feature was largely culverted. Infill within the south part of the site had resulted in an elevated terrace which rose to 108m AOD. 3.3 Geologically, the solid geology underlying the site comprised mudstone, siltstone and sandstone of the Pennine Lower Coal Measures Formation of the Carboniferous era. Boreholes within the College campus to the south of the assessment site revealed that the rockhead was located at between 85m and 90m AOD. The study area was located within the Burnley Coalfield, and Clifton Colliery was sunk just to the west of the site in 1876. The northern part of the study area was considered as being probably worked by shallow coal mining. 3.4 The drift geology comprised alluvial clay, silt, sand and gravel of the post- glacial Quaternary period. These deposits were laid down in periods of flooding by the River Calder. 7 4.0 ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT 4.1 Known development within the study area dates from the 19th and 20th centuries. Yates’s map of Lancashire, surveyed in the 1770s and published in 1786, and Greenwood’s county map of 1818 both show a site to the west, which from later mapping can be identified as Whittlefield Farm. Whittlefield and Clifton to the north are documented in the 17th century when they formed part of the estate of Nicholas Townley of Royle Hall, Burnley (died 1645).1 Fishwick’s map of Burnley of 18272 and OS 6in to 1 mile mapping originally surveyed in 1844 (Figure 3) both show the study area as largely coinciding with a single field, which was bounded by a woodland plantation on the west and by the River Calder on the east. On the north-east Fishwick’s map indicates a smaller enclosure bounded by the Calder, which on the OS map is shown as woodland. The OS map also indicates that while the remainder of the study area lay within the township of Habergham Eaves, this smaller enclosure was an appendage of the township of Burnley to the east of the river. On the north both the larger field and smaller enclosure were bounded by a tributary stream of the Calder. On the 1844 map the section of the stream within the study area is bridged by a trackway (site 10). Prior to the late 19th century, when a recreation ground was created here, this area was known as Slipper Hill (see below, 4.4). In East Lancashire, occurrences of this place- names are also found on uplands to the east of Burnley and to the west of Foulridge. In such instances the meaning of ‘Slipper’ is presumably ‘slippery’, as suggested for the place-names ‘Slipper Low’ in Derbyshire and ‘Slippershaw’ in the West Yorkshire.3 Its significance in the case of the more low lying ground of the study area is unclear. 4.2 In the mid-1820s the Calder Vale Print Works (PRN8614) were established immediately to the south of the study area, on the west bank of the Calder. John Graham states that printing was begun here in 1826 by Margerison and Glover, and that at the time of writing, c 1846, the business was run by Thomas Margerison and Brothers, employing 250 block printers.4 Graham’s date for the start of the business is supported by other evidence: the works appear on Fishwick’s map of 1827, and the firm is not listed among Burnley’s calico printers in Baines’s directory of 1824.5 There may possibly have been a smaller works on this site prior to 1826. According to James Grant writing in 1890, ‘When the Margerison family came to Burnley, they built a new print works on the site of Massys dye-house, though part of the old building is still, I believe, preserved. I need scarcely tell my readers that the print works are now used as a paper making factory’.6 1 Bennett 1949, 46-17. 2 Reproduced in Kendall 2008. 3 OED ‘slipper’ adj; Cameron 1959, 353; Smith 1961, 258. 4 Information from PRN8614. 5 Baines 1824, 572. 6 Quoted by Kendall 2008, 6. 8 Fishwick’s map shows the print works as comprising three main parallel ranges set back from the river, with a large double reservoir on the west. The map also shows a smaller building located immediately adjacent to the river, served by a leat which ran from above the confluence of the Calder with the River Brun and which rejoined the river immediately east of this building. On the OS First Edition 6in to 1 mile map, a second larger building is shown standing immediately to its north and the site is identified as the ‘Calder Vale Mill (cotton)’ (PRN8619) (Figure 3). A two-storey mill building was still standing here in 2007 when an archaeological building survey was carried out. From the report, a tailrace arch still survived at this date approximately at the point shown on Fishwick’s plan.7 The original relationship of the cotton mill to the print works is uncertain.