TRANSACTIONS OF THE EAST LOTHIAN ANTIQUARIAN AND FIELD NATURALISTS' SOCIETY VOL. XXIII 1996 TRANSACTIONS OF THE EAST .·LOTHIAN ANTIQUARIAN AND FIELD ... NATURALISTS' SOCIETY TWENTY-THIRD VOLUME 1996 ISSN 0140 1637 HADDINGTON PRINTED BY D. & J. CROAL LTD. FOR MEMBERS OF THE SOCIETY -·~ ... I . - Cover illustratiiJn: A Port Seton old worthy repairing nets (See page 35) 11 CONTENTS Page EXCAVATIONS AT FISHER'S ROAD, PORT SETON, EAST 1 LOTHIAN By Colin Haselgrove and Roderic_k McCullagh THE HISTORY OF YESTER CHURCH By John H. Simpson 13 COCKENZIE AND PORT SETON: FROM VILLAGE TO BURGH 35 1860-1914 By Jimmy Hogg THE ATHELSTANEFORD CASE By Rosalind Mitchison 45 EAST LOTHiAN FIELD NAMES: SOME RESEARCHES INTO 49 PAST AND PRESENT NAMES By David Sydeserff BOLTON PARISH LIBRARY AND OTHERS: THE RECORD OF 87 A LOST RESOURCE By Norman D.. H. Murphy BREWING IN THE NUNGATE AND HADDINGTON DURING 105 THE 19th AND 20th CENTURY . By Jean H. Shirlaw A SHY LADY AND HER ESTATES: A STUDY OF THE HON. 113 M. G. CONSTANCE NISBET HAMILTON OGILVY 1843-1920 By Stephen Bunyan APPENDIX Annual Reports of the Council of the Society 1993-95 131 List of Office-Bearers and Members of the Society 141 INDEX 145 iii NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS STEPHEN BUNYAN is secretary .of the Society and was formerly history teacher at Dunbar Grammar School. COLIN HASELGROVE is Professor of Archaeology, University of Durham, and has specialised in the Iron Age of Britain and Europe.· JIMMY HOGG is a native of Port Seton who now works in the Edinburgh Room of Edinburgh City Libraries. RODERICK McCULLAGH is a field archaeologist with AOC (Scotland) Ltd. based in Edinburgh. ROSALIND MITCHISON is chair of the Society and was formerly professor of Social History at Edinburgh University. NORMAN D. H. MURPHY is a member of the Society and lives at Middlemains, East Saltoun. JEAN SHIRLA W is a member of the Society, formerly resident of Gladsmuir, but now in Edinburgh. DA YID SYDESERFF has done volunteer work for the School of Scottish Studies, and has recently moved to Edinburgh from Haddington. It is with regret that the Society records the death of JOHN SIMPSON author of The Feuars of Gifford and other scholarly papers. John died at his home in Gifford in 1993. His paper on Yester Church, which had already been submitted to the Society before his death, is published with the approval of his widow, . to whom we extend our sympathies. iv .. '!:J..... FIRTH OF FORTH ·EDINBURGH .. : : : :op;encaia::::: · · · · : : : ~i*ifl$s: : : 0 5km ~~~Figure= 1.~Thc =location 'of the~ adjacent - sites= of~ Fisher's= Road'c East -(Af and · Fisher's~Road ~West~ (8 ). vi EXCAVATIONS AT FISHER'S ROAD, PORT SETON, EAST LOTHIAN, 1994 AND 1995 By COLIN HASELGROVE & RODERICK McCULLAGH INTRODUCTION The coastal lowlands of the Lothians are renowned for their wealth of cropmark sites, but excavations have been rare and this almost ubiquitous, ancient settlement pattern, every bit as extensive as that of the present day, ·has seldom been appreciated. With fading memories of those large-scale excavations at Broxmouth hill, near Dunbar, and Saint Germains, near Tranent, it is appropriate to publish interim statements of the findings of the two most recent excavations which have occurred in the region (Fig 1). In April 1994, ·AOC (Scotland) Ltd won the contract to excavate a large crop-marked enclosure which was threatened with destruction by the advancing housing estate on . the southern edge of the small fishing village of Port Seton (Fig 1, B). A year later, a second, slightly larger crop­ marked enclosure, some 300 m east of the first site, came under threat by the same and still expanding housing estate (Fig 1, A) and was excavated by the Department of Archaeology, Durham University. This report presents brit'.f accounts of both excavations, their initial interpretations and the initial results of post-excavation analyses. No attempt to integrate their separate results has yet been possible and in this report each site is presented independently; it is however the authors' joint hope that before the end of their respective projects there will be the opportunity to discuss common therries and contradictions. FISHER'S ROAD WEST Since 1946, there are records of over twenty aerial reconnaissance flights over the Port Seton area, but the cropmark of the western enclosure has been detected on only a few occasions. Indeed, so slight Transactions of the East Lothian Antiquarian and Field Naturalists' Society, Vol. 23 1996 1 ·£ :unll!.::I mo11 1u::i1::>JJ!P ::i1r.os :::>JON ·1s::>M pl?Olf s,J::>4S!.::I •s:;i40U::>Jl 40l!P pue S::>Jn)l?:;!j p::>Jl?Al?OX::> JO Ul?ld ·z ::>Jnll!.::I -- - l : ~ -----~farr~ : <···~·r~··;~ ~ -~ ·._, .. ... .. • -~-~ 0 ( 0 / ·;:. ii ___ , o o ~ • a ~ a o . CD f· . ..: ., I .•: ':..:::: ~· 0 . 0 I 0 ~(·.... ;:.~ o""'° o o ),.( "'O o 0 v 0 0 0 0::::::.. 0 o.,.. a r· ·-' \l Q \ :[· ~\ :: \ l 'i._ __ :- '+ ·r.-.- ii~ .·---;- ... ~ : ~.... - r\) ~ ""I I !2 :;;"' i1 c: ':l "'(') c: c: 01 i;l "' ~J NOL3S .UIOd 'OVON S,N3HSld .LV SNOI.LVAV:>X3 EXCAVATIONS AT FISHER'S ROAD, PORT SETON ,, ...... :·J·-·-·-·L·/· z---- 0 \] ...· ·-·-·,< \. -· :~i~ol··.. ~ . 1·. I i . i L·-·-·-·.......; Figure 3. Plan of excavated features, Fisher's Road East. Note: Scale different from Figure 2. 3 EXCAVATIONS AT FISHER'S ROAD, PORT SETON was the cropmark that it was only discovered, by Prof St. Joseph, Cambridge Univen;ity, in 1980. The site itself was located at approximately 10 m OD, on a very slight ridge of late-Glacial raised beach deposits and comprises a single enclosure, aligned east-west, with an apparent extension at its eastern end. The excavations were instigated by the impending construction of housing development and were undertaken in May 1994 at short notice. To judge from the aerial photograph, it seemed likely that the excavation would uncover settlement evidence and archaeological materials comparable with aspects from the excavations at the enclosure at Saint Germains (Watkins 1982), Broxmouth hill-fort (Hill 1979), both the palisaded enclosure and the unenclosed settlement at Dryburn Bridge (Triscott 1982) and the unenclosed settlement at Monktonhall (Hanson nd). The general context of these classes of monument has been extensively discussed (eg Macinnes 1984), but as has been recognised by many commentators (eg Hanson & Breeze 1991, 73), there is still a lack of firm evidence with which to gain access to this seemingly cohesive and extensive settlement pattern. The aims of the excavation were therefore directed towards the acquisition of information concerning: chronology and date; the structural development of the site over time; the nature and extent of internal occupation; the economy of the site; ritual deposition within or immediately outwith the enclosure ditches; the estimation of the physical extent of archaeological remains beyond the limits of the crop-mark. Because the site was bisected by a protected, tree-lined field boundary, it was excavated in two unequal parts (Fig 2), separated by a strip of land measuring approximately 8 m wide. Although documentary evidence suggested that the site had not been subject to 18th and 19th century agriculture, earlier tillage had extensively truncated the site. This loss was compounded by ground preparation works undertaken by the developers, which resulted in the loss of most of the topsoil from the western half of the site.. Topsoil survived under crop on the eastern half of the site to a depth of circa 0.4 m; unfortunately even in this area, which contained the double termini of the eastern entrance ways, the site was completely truncated flush with the surface of the subsoil. The first stage of excavation resulted in two areas, measuring in total nearly 2 6000 m , being cleared. This revealed a sub-rectangular ditched enclosure, 4 EXCAVATIONS AT FISHER'S ROAD, PORT SETON with a double entrance clearly visible at the eastern end. Two extension trenches; 5 m wide and 40 m long, were cut on the · eastern and northern sides to expose the subsoil surface beyond the cropmark; these failed to detect any archaeological features. The excavation team was then divided between the investigation of the ditches and repeated cleaning of the interior surfaces. The ditch sequence was investigated through 22 transverse and longitudinal sections, representing some 22% of the total ditch area. The identified structures were. totally excavated and a substantial sub-set of the isolated features was sectioned, and areas of the subsoil surface were re-cleaned and allowed to weather in an attempt to detect subtly differentiated features. Throughout the excavation, a wet sieving station was operated on site which permitted representative bulk samples of every excavated context from topsoil to subsoil to be processed. This assemblage represents the primary resource for the post- excavation analyses. "-· The evidence of settlement within the enclosed area consisted of· the fragmentary remains of six structures. These vestiges varied from curving wall footings (Structures 3, 4 and 5) or, in one case, the complete circuit of a ring-ditch (Structure 2), to disturbed stone pavements (Structures 1 and 6). Further post-built buildings were located at the inner eastern entrance and isolated, highly truncated pits were examined to the west of the main building cluster. Excavation within the ditches revealed that rather than a single phase of construction, the site had undergone several distinct phases of ditch cutting; the apparent double eastern entrance was shown to be two successive versions of the same entrance, but a second entrance-way was revealed providing access across the ditch from the west. This latter entrance had not been visible on the aerial photograph. The extent of plough and soil-scraping damage was extensive and in some areas, especially in a 16 m wide strip adjacent to the western side of the field boundary, may have resulted in the general absence of archaeological features.