The Archaeology of Pilling Moss by Hugh Sherdley
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The Archaeology of Pilling Moss by Hugh Sherdley Two hundred years ago Ptlllng Moss covered an area of approximately 31500 acres out of a total of 61000 for the whole township. The edges of the mossland extended into the borders of Preesallr Stalmimer Rawcliffe, Nateby, Cockerham and Winmarleigh' the whole -\ being known as Pilling lloss. In monastic times the whole of Pilling vtas owned by Cockersand Abbey having been granted by Theobald Wa1ter, Baron of Amounderness, to the Canons of Cockersand in the last decade of the 12th century. In 1536 when documents for the dissolutlon of Cockersand were ,/, prepared the moss land ldas described as, "Pyllen Moss, belng a foul morass or moor, mete neither for common or pasturer or turbary'r, and was referred to in charters as the rrBlacke Lache'r. I Palaeobotanical evl-dence indicates that the moss lands of Lancashl-re began to develop in the Midd1e Bronze Age, probably about 1,4008C, an impedance of the natural dralnage being the likely cause. This would encourage the growth of aquatic vegetation which would proliferate until bog condltions prevailed. The draining and reclamation of Pilling moss began in the middle years of the 1 Bth century and over a period of one hundred and fifty years most of the moss land was made into good agricultural land. The Rev. J.D. Banister, who was curate of Pilling during the time of the greatest activity in moss reclamation, wrote a serles of descriptive Ietters to the Editor of the 'Preston Chronicler in 1869. (1 ) Where the depth of peat was sufficient it was cut off and dried Medieval net-sinker from Skerton. Scale lrl and used as fuel in farms and cottages and much of it was sold in the streets of Preston 7 and tancaster. The last time peat was cut in any quantity for fuel was is 1964, though there is still a considerable area of uncut peat, most of which has been made into god cropping land by skilled agricultFal rn tha north east. -of Pilling *5"""p"iiti6"". where it borders-siirr on Cockerham and iii"*"ti"igh ther"-i"- much 'wird moss' lill ;[Gh is still as it was several hundred 4:t:"'' years agor with scrub willow, heather, ferns, artl16 :;i I lotton grass and many other wet land plants. :e:r= According to the Rev. J.D. Banister the depth ;i of peat in the last century was twelve to where <> fifteen feet. At the present time ! there .is stitl the original depth it has t F 'x llt and consol-idated to about five feet m dried at. deep. The subsoil underneath the peat varies {o sfightfy, but is usually a grey estuarine r 3 , claf wittr occasional patches glaciaI 3 o -ofdecomposed z !t *or-aine on which lles a layer of m fl f (Phragmites). Above thls is the tr.! z o giant rush 2 o layers of partly o iij--::---6= t o trrre peat consisting of ltlllt - o o alder, bi-rch, :93 tllrr ! .= g decomposed and consolidated <ot : .o sphagnum moss, cotton grass, etc. l.o i \.'.'o o heather, .- an € which oqE These layers of different vegetation o gr,adually- merge into each other probably '3! e.olR ieflect the climatic conditions at the time they were laid down. There Ls also much evidence of the forests that covered parts of T,ancashire in prehistoric times as embedded in the lower layers of the peat are the remains of trees, known locally as tmoss stockst, most of them oak, a few yew' Some of the oaks are a great size and present considerable difficulty in digging them out in order to plough and cultivate the ground- These trees pre-date the moss as the roots : and stumps are in the underlying clay. a Archaeological evidence indicates that the PiIling district probably supported an extensive population in early prehistoric times; the evidence for this is principally in the form of stone and bronze tools of various types and other signs of habitation 10 which have been found in the last century and a hal-f as the moss has been reclaimed. The earliest stone tools are type-dateable to E c2r500 BC and bronze palstaves from the D rniddle Bronze Age. EvLdence of Iron o to late t Age occupatLon is scanty, probably due to the D fact that much of the locality was covered f o with bog. o o 'feature o A of Pilllng moss is a number of small gravel hillocks' none of them over 40 l!':11 feet O.D., which are glacial drumlins. They ^D3>O- have never been covered with peat; Eagland 99> Fd: Hill, Bone HiIl and Cogle Hill are examples o have supported -<-{ and it ls posslble they would some prehistorlc activity as the occasional vtO5 b- OD artefact has been found on some of them but o lt is slgnlficant that most stone and bronze underlying E a items have been found close to the ' o clay. None have been found in the peat F o !O H rt at itself. o, { J=O r (o F.J. Sobeer (2) records eleven stone ,D. 3d implements and three bronze palstaves having o Cl r.. been found in Pilling moss. SLnce that date oo (1953) three more palstaves have been o discovered. In the early part of the 19th century (exact date not known) an oak box was. ploughed up at Cogle Hill containlng eight socketed bronze palstaves, an 8 ins. spearhead, and 18 ins. spearhead and a curlously-shaped knife or Bronze Age. l! dagger, all dateable to the Late o For many years they \ilere in the possession of oCL ploughman who found themr and were 5 the o. eventually obtained by Lord Vlinmarleigh who t presented them to l{arrington Museum. to o Bronze Age Settlement Slte In 1977 Mr. J. Higginson' of Bonds Farm, Scronkey, Pilllng reported the finding of a L2 bronze axe blade Ln one of his fields to the ia east of Bradshaw Lane (SD 419468). During a O.n visit to the find site Mr. Higginson '. c, mentioned that ln part of an adJoining field b5o had the oobqo o vras a scatter of broken stone whlch t t o' appearance of having been burnt. As stone of 6f;=?6 moss land this vras a d86.g 3 any klnd is allen to pE l":* very lnteresting statement and on examination 6."Jo g = it was found that amongst the stones ltere a Ot {i' very O ,F- number of small fragments of grey/brown at coarse pottery, and also a few flakes of o of this pottery and 5 fltnt. The discovery @ flint indicated that here was probably a site of consLderable lnterest and at Easter, 1978 an excavation was carried out by Pllling Historical Soclety under the direction of Mr. B.;I.N. Edwards, Ldncashire CountY fD ThLs prellminary examination o Archaeologlst. a proved that the slte had some Bronze Age !N significance and Ln 1979 from September 4th ts 22nd a more detailed (, @ =o to September o lnvestigatlon of the site was undertaken' CL E} ,o o whlch, along with the 1978 finds proved the o OF= importance of the area in connectlon with the t Bronze Age in Lancashlre. o fit t & o o Finds included a number of post holes, two with stumps in situ, stake ho1es, 641 pottery sherds, 354 pieces of flint, 50 of then scrapers, one barbed and tanged flint arrow head and two fragments of amber beads. A full report of these excavations calr be found elsewhere. (3) , m 0 Some months after the 1978 excavation Mr. o Higglnson found another bronze axe blade ln ot 2 the same field as the one he found tn 1977. CL t '.Kate s Padtt. The ancient trackway across Pilltng mosst known l-ocally as tKate's Padt, is undoubtedly of considerable antiquity. Vfhen it was laid T4 down and for what purpose is still a subject of speculatlon amongst historians and archaeologists. o The earliest documentary record we have of o Katers Pad is an account publlshed in 1851. oo The article lvas written by the Rev. W. Thornber, who was vicar of Blackpool at that time. Mr. Thornber had a great interest in archaeologlcal matters in the Fylde and Ln . ,i i'"t i his report, ln whlch he erroneously calls it \5 I l'l t Dane' s Pad | , he states that ttre pad is I "formed of riven oaks laid upon sleepers, through which, by square holes, the planks d are staked lnto the ground. Sometimes it is composed of one huge treer at others two or \) threer 4nd its wldth varies from 20 Lnches to I something more. It has been traced by Mr. Banister and myself for a mile and a half into the lnterior of the Moss". o Eg -5 d c it Bo l{r. Banlster was the vicar of Pilling, and 3d ro Itke the Rev. Thornber, lras a keen o d 3 Ee antiquarian. He (Banister) described the pad rr6 q o as conslsting t'of a narrow bridge of rudely !q .9 \o E1 J { s ;oF{ riven oaks, all literally scooped out by long og I t *3 oO !to usage, and lylng on cross sleepers 83 c alternately pegged ttrough them ln the centre :.U .R t OG oo I ?o of a twelve foot deposlt of peat". .t lt $ t OL Og t t oo O€ W. Porter (5) mentLons Katers Pad and J.t t'L v s {- o says o9 ah ran roughly in a south west dlrectlon between o d oI rrt t, cn Pilling HaIl and Hales HaIl, Out Rawcllffe.