ISSUE 16 JANUARY 2019 Archaeology and Conservation in Derbyshire and the Peak District ACID Inside: Meet Dan Snow: The History Guy Elvaston Castle Masterplan Lost Villages of the Derwent Repton’s Viking Valhalla 2019 | ACID 1 Plus: Our year in numbers: planning and heritage statistics Foreword: ACID Archaeology and Conservation in Derbyshire and the Peak District Editor: Roly Smith, Heritage is a living 33 Park Road, Bakewell, Derbyshire DE45 1AX Tel: 01629 812034; email: [email protected] asset For further information (or more copies) please email Natalie Ward at: [email protected] Designed by: Phil Cunningham ikings feature heavily in this year’s edition of ACID. Three separate projects www.creative-magazine-designer.co.uk have revealed more of the Viking presence in Repton, all using new techniques to expand on previous discoveries. The Viking connection continues with a Printed by: Buxton Press www.buxtonpress.com V profile of Dan Snow, who has presented TV programmes about the subject. His new The Committee wishes to thank our sponsors, venture History Hit includes creating podcasts about history. These can particularly Derbyshire County Council and the Peak appeal to the generation who watch TV on demand and choose podcasts over radio District National Park Authority, who enable this publication to be made freely available. programmes. Perhaps we should create an ACID podcast in the future! Derbyshire Archaeology Advisory Committee Other projects have shed light on what we think of as familiar well-studied Buxton Museum and Art Gallery Creswell Crags Heritage Trust landscapes – Chatsworth and the Derwent Valley Mills. The investigations at Derbyshire Archaeological Society Arkwright’s Lumford Mill (page 10) and the riverside at Chatsworth (page 24) Derbyshire County Council demonstrate there is always more detail to uncover. Derby Museums Service Historic England (East Midlands) Hunter Archaeological Society It is wonderful to read about the conversion work carried out at the corn mill at Manchester University Archaeology Department Ashford-in-the-Water (page 17). It shows what can be achieved when developers, Nottingham University Peak District Mines Historical Society heritage specialists and planners work together. The result is a unique building interior Peak District National Park Authority with a residence fit for the 21st century. It contrasts hugely with the mid-20th century Portable Antiquities Scheme destruction of the villages of Ashopton and Derwent, and their associated heritage Museums Sheffield University of Sheffield, Department of Archaeology assets, by the construction of the Ladybower Reservoir (page 18). South Derbyshire District Council The Peak District Historic Farmstead Project (page 23) highlights how important it is to ISSUE 16 JANUARY 2019 Archaeology and Conservation in gather information on the current state of heritage assets and assess their significance Derbyshire and the Peak District in the national picture to ensure a full understanding of how development may impact them. Heritage is a living asset. When we are conserving heritage, we need to remember who we are conserving it for. Assessing heritage without considering its ACID current and future use by people is only looking at half the picture. As a former resident of Buxton, I am very pleased to see the Crescent project (page 20) nearing its completion. The Crescent itself took more than a decade to construct Inside: so perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised that redevelopment would need a few years Meet Dan Snow: too. It is also interesting to learn about the future plans for Elvaston Castle and The History Guy Gardens (page 12). Elvaston Castle Masterplan Lost Villages of the Derwent Repton’s Viking Valhalla The role volunteers have played is mentioned in several articles, and I know from my day job as Curator of Archaeology at Museums Sheffield how much volunteers can 2019 | ACID 1 Plus: Planning and heritage statistics from the past year contribute to exploring and sharing our heritage. But they can often only make that Cover picture: An aerial view of the Viking site in Repton, contribution with the support of paid professionals – to train them, to unlock the with the parish church of St Wystan at the top of the gates of sites and doors of museum stores, to provide the equipment for the tasks, photograph and the Rectory garden dig in the centre. See Repton’s Viking Valhalla (p4), Reframing Viking Repton (p6) and to provide continuity when volunteers find paid work, have new commitments and Picturing the Past (p36) (Picture: Mark Horton). or move away. The views expressed in the pages of this magazine do Cuts to paid staff often lead to fewer opportunities for volunteers, not more. We must not necessarily reflect those of continue to advocate for the social and economic benefits of enabling people to the editor or publishers. No responsibility will be accepted for any comments made by contributors actively engage with their local heritage. or interviewees. No part of this magazine may be reproduced without the written permission of the publishers. Archaeology and Conservation in Derbyshire and the Peak District is supported by: MarthaChair ofJasko-Lawrence the Derbyshire Archaeological Advisory Committee 2 ACID | 2019 Contents 4 6 12 16 18 26 2 Foreword 16 A Day in the life of… 25 A tribal boundary near Martha Jasko-Lawrence, chair of the Dana Campbell, the new Historic Clowne? Derbyshire Archaeological Advisory Environment Record Officer Reuben Thorpe on a possible long- Committee for Derbyshire County Council, lived tribal boundary near Clowne describes her work 26 Facing the axe 4 Repton’s Viking Valhalla 17 Ashford mill makeover Alistair Willis reveals the Portable (cover story) Antiquities Scheme Find of the Year New isotope data seems to finally Natalie Ward and Oliver Jessop report on a sensitive restoration prove that the Great Viking Army 27 New South West Peak officer over-wintered at Repton in Introducing the new Cultural Heritage AD 874-4. Roly Smith reports 18 Lost Villages of the Derwent Officer for the South West Peak (centre spread) Landscape Partnership The drowned villages of Ashopton 6 Re-framing Viking Repton and Derwent brought back to life by 28 Spot the motte: revealing Gareth Davies sets the scene for these newly-discovered photographs Bakewell’s Norman castle the Viking settlement How Bakewell Historical Society 20 Light at the end of the uncovered a forgotten fortress 8 Profile: The History Guy Crescent Roly Smith profiles popular TV Richard Tuffrey relates the 29 Coin cache from Clowne historian and Council for British chequered history of Buxton’s Martha Jasko-Lawrence describes Archaeology president Dan Snow Crescent the latest acquisition at Weston Park on his lecture tour Museum 22 What the Romans did for 30 Finding jewels in a junk box 10 Shedding light on Wingerworth Ros Westwood sings the praises of Arkwright’s third mill Steve Malone and Richard Parker on her museum volunteers Exciting new discoveries at Lumford a newly-discovered Romano-British Mill in Bakewell site at Wingerworth 31 The Future of Archaeology – the Peak District YAC Natalie Ward gives us the latest news 12 Proving ‘Capability’ wrong 23 Preserving Peak District farms from the YAC Adam Lathbury outlines Derbyshire Natalie Ward explains new guidance County Council’s new masterplan designed to help understand Peak 32 Bookshelf for Elvaston Castle District farmsteads Roly Smith reviews the latest books on the county 14 Was Little Chester 24 Discovering pre-Capability 34 Our year in numbers Northworthy? Chatsworth Planning and heritage statistics from Intriguing new evidence suggests The Royal Horticultural Society’s the past year that the Saxon settlement at Derby Show at Chatsworth gave was based on the original Roman archaeologists the chance to 36 Picturing the Past: fort, suggests Steve Malone investigate the landscape Viking Age Repton 2019 | ACID 3 Cover story Repton’s Viking Valhalla Analysis of new isotope data by archaeologists from Bristol University seem to prove that Repton was the scene of the Great Viking Army’s overwintering in AD 873-74. ROLY SMITH reports ver since Martin Biddle and Birthe Kjolbye-Biddle’s excavations near St Wystan’s Parish Church in Repton E over 40 years ago, the idea that the Great Army of the Vikings had encamped there during the winter of AD 873- 74 has been tantalising historians. But new investigations by archaeologists from the University of Bristol, led by Cat Jarman and Mark Horton, have at last come up with what appears to be incontrovertible proof of the account of the camp, first recorded in the 9th century Anglo Saxon Chronicle. Cat Jarman explained: “In 2012, when I started my PhD research on the Repton Viking camp, archaeologists had thrown doubt on this interpretation of the site. I hoped to use bioarchaeological methods to resolve unanswered questions about the human remains. “And I wondered if new techniques could explain puzzling radiocarbon dates from the assembled bones, and shed light on these people’s geographical origins and possible associations with the Viking world.” In 2017, Cat also had the opportunity to carry out new geophysical surveys and excavations on the site of the so-called charnel house in the Vicarage gardens west of the church, co-directed by her supervisor Mark Horton, who coincidentally had supervised one of the original excavations on the site in 1981-82. Skeleton in trench four of Martin Biddle’s 1986 excavation The Saxon crypt of the church (Mark Horton) A skull from the charnel house (Cat Jarman) 4 ACID | 2019 Cover story The apparently very early radiocarbon dates on the As a result of the new excavations in the Vicarage garden, remains of some of the around 264 people found here had Cat says that they provide us with a significant new long puzzled archaeologists. Among the deposits were understanding of Viking use of the site.