An Archaeological Survey at ,

by Hugh Hannaford

Archaeology Service

Information and Community Services AN ARCHAEOLOGICAL SURVEY AT KNOWBURY, SHROPSHIRE

by HUGH HANNAFORD

A Report for

MR J B GENNER

Archaeology Service

Report Number 109 © Shropshire County Council March 1997 Winston Churchill Building, Radbrook Centre, Radbrook Road, , Shropshire SY3 9BJ Tel. (01743) 254018 An Archaeological Survey at Knowbury, Shropshire

CONTENTS Page No 1 INTRODUCTION 2 2 HISTORICAL BACKGROUND 2 3 THE FIELD SURVEY 3 4 CONCLUSIONS 4 5 REFERENCES AND SOURCES CONSULTED 5 6 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 5

ILLUSTRATIONS Fig. 1: Extract from field name map based on Tithe map of c. 1848 (reproduced at c. 1:2500 scale) Fig. 2: Extract from Ordnance Survey 1:2500 1st edition, 1885 Fig. 3: Earthwork features recorded by archaeological survey; 1:500 scale

Plate 1: The study area, looking southwest, showing the possible pit mound (centre) and ploughed down bell pit (extreme left)

1 An Archaeological Survey at Knowbury, Shropshire

1 INTRODUCTION The subject of this study is a parcel of land at Knowbury, 5.5km east of in south Shropshire. It is currently a field of pasture centred on SO576746 and situated within the settlement of Knowbury that lies on the southern slopes of the Clee Hills.

In 1996 a planning application was submitted to erect 5 dwellings within the field. Previously, in 1983, a RCHME survey of mining remains in the Clee Hills noted the ploughed down earthwork remains of former coal mine workings in the southeastern corner of the proposed development site (SMR). These included a possible bell-pit which would be directly affected by the proposed development.

In order to mitigate the impact on the archaeology, it was made a condition of planning permission that a programme of archaeological work be carried out on the site. This work was to comprise a field survey, to include a measured survey of all surface archaeological features, a written record, and a photographic record, supplemented where appropriate with documentary research.

The programme of archaeological work was undertaken by staff of the Archaeology Service of Shropshire County Council during February 1997, and the results form the basis of this report.

2 HISTORICAL BACKGROUND Coal mining on the Clee Hills has been practised since at least the 13th century. As early as 1235 Wigmore Abbey was taking coal from Titterstone Clee, and in 1260 the Lord of Corfham granted land with a license ‘to dig coals within the forest of Clee or to sell or give it away’ (Rowley, 1972). By the 16th century coal was well known for being plentiful in the Clees, along with iron ore and limestone. Indeed, ironstone was a frequent by-product of coal mining and led to the development of a number of iron working furnaces in the vicinity. The antiquarian John Leland, writing in the early 16th century, refers to ‘a blo shope on Titterstone Clee’, probably a wind furnace for the smelting of iron ore (Watson and Musson, 1993).

Although ironstone extraction for local furnaces continued, coal mining developed to become more important. Local entrepreneurs and landowners increasingly exploited the area's mineral resources. For example, John Sheppard, who began to acquire lands in the parish of during the later seventeenth century. In the years either side of c.1720 the Sheppard family began to exploit the mineral rights by developing mines and local industries and by encouraging the establishment of new enclosures and cottages within and on the edge of the waste lands of Caynham parish (Goodman, 1978). One such area may have been the study area, lying as it does in the eastern portion of Caynham parish adjacent to the older settlements of Knowbury and Whiteway Head, immediately to its north and south respectively. It is to this period that the documented collieries of Knowbury and Colleybrook (c. 500m northeast of the study area) perhaps owe their origin.

In 1766 the Knowbury colliery, which had recently resumed production following the sinking of a new shaft to a depth of c.100 yards, was producing 10 tons of coal every day. However, although a new pit was opened at Winthills, Knowbury in 1773, the

2 An Archaeological Survey at Knowbury, Shropshire collieries were becoming increasingly unprofitable, and by 1778 both the Knowbury and Colleybrook collieries had ceased to work (Goodman, op.cit.).

The earliest detailed cartographic depiction of the study area is on the 1848 Tithe Map (Fig. 1; Foxall fieldname map based on Tithe Apportionment and map). It is shown as then forming part of a field said to be a meadow and surrounded by a series of small irregular shaped closes and cottages with gardens. There is no indication of any industrial activity and it must be assumed that any mining here had ceased by this date. By the time of the 1885 lst. Ed. 2" Ordnance Survey map (Fig. 2; OS 1:2500, 1885) the field and its boundaries remained essentially the same, although the field had been slightly enlarged along its western edge by the removal and inclusion of two former narrow closes. The only subsequent change has been the building of a house c.1950 (OS 1:10,560, 1954) in the northwest quadrant of the field and two further houses in its southeast corner, all now abutting onto the edge of the current study area. It is likely that the land use of the study area has remained permanent pasture since at least the mid-nineteenth century.

3 THE FIELD SURVEY The field survey was carried out by the Archaeology Service in February 1997. At the time of the survey, the study area was under rough grass. The survey was carried out using a Nikon C100 Total Station theodolite, and the results were plotted using AutoCAD LT software.

The dominant feature within the study area was a mound some 5.3m high. The summit of this mound lay beyond the western edge of the study area and was occupied by the garden of a house of c.1950 date. A terrace about 8m wide by 25m long lay along the southern slope of the mound. It is likely that this mound is the remains of a pit mound or waste tip. Only the eastern and southern slopes of this feature lay within the study area.

The ground rose steeply at the northwestern edge of the study area; a low linear bank ran in a south-southeastward direction from this boundary for about 75m before it was cut across at right angles by a gulley about 0.5m deep. These features may represent the remains of former field boundaries.

Three further low, linear banks ran east from the central part of this bank towards the eastern edge of the field; these banks lay mainly outside the study area. The banks were less than 0.3m in height and their centres lay about 5m apart; it is possible that they may represent the remains of ridge and furrow ploughing.

In the southeastern part of the study area was a small, sub-circular mound about 20m by 14m across and about 0.5m in height. This was the feature suggested by the 1983 RCHME survey to be the ploughed down remains of a coal bell pit.

No other earthwork features were noted during the survey.

3 An Archaeological Survey at Knowbury, Shropshire

4 CONCLUSIONS The documentary research suggests that the study area has been given over to agricultural usage since c.1848 at least; any mining or other industrial activity on the site would appear to have ceased by this date.

Although a number of earthwork features were identified by the survey within the study area, none could be positively identified as the remains of former mining activity. Two features however, are likely to represent such remains: a large mound at the western edge of the field may be a former pit mound or waste tip, and a second, much smaller, mound in the southeastern corner of the study area may possibly be the ploughed down remains of a bell-pit. There was no obvious relationship between these two earthworks or relative dating evidence, though if the smaller of the two features is indeed a bell-pit then a pre-18th-century date is likely and this would be consistent with the documentary evidence.

Other earthwork features noted by the survey probably represented a former field boundary and associated agricultural activity in the form of ridge and furrow. The field boundary bears no relationship to any features depicted on maps since 1848, and so must predate this, while the narrowness of the ridge and furrow suggests a post- medieval date for it. There is no field evidence to suggest whether these pre-1848 agricultural remains pre- or post-date the phase of industrial activity on the site.

4 An Archaeological Survey at Knowbury, Shropshire

5 REFERENCES AND SOURCES CONSULTED Foxall, H D G: Fieldname map based on Tithe Apportionment and map of 1848 for Caynham Parish Goodman, K W G, 1978: Hammerman’s Hill: the Land, People and Industry of the Titterstone Clee Hill Area of Shropshire from the Sixteenth to the Eighteenth Centuries, unpub. PhD thesis, University of Keele. Ordnance Survey, 1885: 1:2500 plan, Shropshire Sheet LXXIX.6, 1st Edition Ordnance Survey, 1954: 1:10,560 map, Sheet SO 57SE, 1954 Revision Rowley, T, 1972: The Shropshire Landscape SMR copy of Clee Hills Survey, map sheet 1, SO 5774, RCHME, unpublished. Watson M, & Musson C, 1993: Shropshire From the Air: Man and the Landscape, Shropshire Books, Shrewsbury

Abbreviations: APs Aerial Photographs OS Ordnance Survey RCHME Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of SMR Sites and Monuments Record, Shire Hall, Shrewsbury SRRC Shropshire Records and Research Centre, Castle Gates, Shrewsbury TSAS Transactions of the Shropshire Archaeological Society TSAHS Transactions of the Shropshire Archaeological and Historical Society VCHS Victoria County

6 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The writers would like to thank Greg Price for his assistance with the field survey.

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