Calderstones Community Excavation Final Report

A Community Excavation at Calderstones Park, Allerton, Merseyside. NGR SJ 406 874 Site Code 168 Accession Number: MOL.2015.56 Prepared for the Reader Organisation J. Speakman, E. Stewart, C. Ahmad and M. Chapman August 2015 National Museums Liverpool Field Archaeology Unit, Museum of Liverpool Pier Head Liverpool Waterfront Liverpool L3 1DG Tel: 0151 478 4443 [email protected] © Trustees of National Museums Liverpool i Non-Technical Summary This report presents the results of a community excavation carried out in four small areas at Calderstones Park, Allerton, Liverpool. The park takes its name from the Calderstones, six carved red sandstone blocks which were probably originally part of a Neolithic or early Bronze Age burial mound which was destroyed in by activity in the 18th and 19th century. The aim of the community excavation was to understand how the landscape had been altered when the Calderstones Mansion House and the lost Harthill Mansion were built in the early 19th century. Four areas were chosen for excavation within the park. Trenches I and II were located at the front and rear of the mansion house after the results of a geophysical survey showed anomalies with possible archaeological potential. Trench III was situated towards the park’s western boundary on an area of higher ground, originally part of the Harthill estate, in order to investigate the presence of a rectangular enclosure shown on the 1893 Ordnance Survey Map. This area also had potential for features and finds related to the Pikeloo Hill which had formed part of the original surrounding Prehistoric landscape. Trench IV was located directly behind the ha-ha wall in the lawned area at the front of the mansion house in order to examine construction techniques for the sunken wall feature. The results of the excavation in Trenches I, II and III found the remnants of relatively modern garden features including possible World War II ‘Dig for Victory’ crop ditches (Trench II) containing large amounts of 19th/20th century pottery. Trench III produced a small but interesting group of 18th century pottery, although larger from garden soil deposits. The excavation behind the ha-ha wall in Trench IV showed a rather different construction technique compared with other recorded examples from around the country. Contents 1. Introduction……………………………………………………………………………………1 1.1 Background…………………………………………………………………………………..1 1.2 Site location…………………………………………………………………………………..1 1.3 Description of the site……………………………………………………………………….2 1.4 Geology and soils……………………………………………………………………………2 1.5 Site history and archaeological potential………………………………………………….2 2. Geophyisical Survey………………………………………………………………………….5 3. Methodology…………………………………………………………………………………...5 4. Results………………………………………………………………………………………….6 4.1 Trench I……………………………………………………………………………………….6 4.2 Trench II………………………………………………………………………………………6 4.3 Trench III……………………………………………………………………………………...8 4.4 Trench IV…………………………………………………………………………………….10 5. Finds………………………………………………………………………………………......14 6. Conclusions…………………………………………………………………………………..36 7. Acknowledgements …………………………………………………………………………..38 8. Bibliography…………………………………………………………………………………...39 9. Figures…………………………………………………………………………………………41 10. Results of Geophysical Survey…………………………………………………………….45 1 168 Calderstones Park. A Community Excavation at Calderstones Park, Allerton, Merseyside. NGR SJ 406 874 1. Introduction 1.1 Background This report describes the results of a community excavation conducted in the grounds of Calderstones Park, Allerton, Liverpool. The project was conducted for the Reader Organisation as part of the 'Connect at Calderstones' project which is funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF). The project contains provision for community archaeology as part of the community engagement aspect of the wider project. This became known as the ‘Caldies Big Dig’ www.caldiesbigdig.org.uk The project also includes proposals for resiting the Calderstones, a group of prehistoric carved stones likely to have once formed part of a chambered tomb but were disturbed and the tomb destroyed in the 18th century and the stones were removed from their original location in the 19th century before being relocated to the Harthill Greenhouse in the mid-20th century. 1.2 Site location Calderstones Park is situated within the eastern suburbs of Liverpool at NGR SJ 406 874 and lies to the south-east of the A562 Menlove Avenue which forms the boundary on that side of the site. The northern and north-western boundaries are formed by Calderstones Road and Harthill Road, The south-western boundary by Allerton Road and the southern boundary by Yewtree Road. Figure 1: location map, Calderstones Park, Liverpool Ordnance Survey © Crown Copyright 2015. All rights reserved. Licence number 100022432 2 Trenches I, II and IV were located on flat, level areas of maintained lawn and covered areas previously surveyed with geophysics. Trench III was situated towards the western park boundary on an area of flat, higher ground. 1.3 Description of the site Calderstones Park is a public park owned by the Liverpool City Council. A large early 19th century house, Calderstones Mansion, and its associated outbuildings including former stables form the core of the park which is laid out with grassed/lawned areas connected by paths and walkways but also includes a playground, a botanical garden, lake and glasshouses. The house is currently occupied by the Reader Organisation on a 125 year lease from Liverpool City Council which was signed in September 2014. The lessees plan to transform Calderstones Mansion House into an international flagship project for shared reading. 1.4 Geology and soils The underlying geology consists of Early Triassic red sandstones of the Chester Pebble Beds Formation which are part of the Sherwood Sandstone Group. In the southern corner of the park these are overlain by deposits of Devensian Glacial Till (Boulder Clay) though these are not shown as extending into the survey areas discussed in this report (http://mapapps.bgs.ac.uk/geologyofbritain/home.html consulted 1/4/2015). The urban areas of Liverpool are not classified on Soil Survey mapping but by analogy with geologically similar areas in the Merseyside region are likely to have consisted of Brown Earths and Podzols of the Clive Association across most of the site with a small area of Surface Water Gleys of the Salop Association in the southern corner of the park. The former are inherently infertile, acid and deficient in potash requiring frequent applications of fertilizer and lime, though the use of large quantities of animal manure would also improve their productivity (Hall & Folland 1970). 1.5 Site history and archaeological potential A basic desk-based assessment and gazetteer of sites within the park had been prepared in 2013 as part of a student placement at the Museum of Liverpool (Randall-Smith, 2013). There is also an extensive body of literature relating to the park, in particular the Calderstones themselves, which is summarised below. During the Medieval period the area was adjacent to the Royal Park of Toxteth established by King John probably about the same time as the establishment of Liverpool Castle in 1207 and it was not until the 17th century that the area lost its legal status as a forest. Throughout the 18th century and until the mid-19th century the study area was sparsely populated and primarily rural and agricultural in nature. In 1726 part of the manor of Allerton was sold by the then owners to settle family debts. The land was eventually purchased by a Liverpool merchant, Thomas Martin, who added to the estate before selling it on to lead shot manufacturer Joseph Need Walker in 1825. Walker demolished the farmhouse variously called Grove House or more simply the Old House (Farrer & Brownbill 1907, 128). Two buildings are shown on the Yates & Perry ‘Map of Liverpool’ (1769), but closer to the road than the current Mansion, which may represent the location of this original house and possible barn. Walker then built the surviving Georgian mansion Calderstone, which was completed in 1828 The house and estate were acquired by Liverpool shipping magnate Charles McIver in 1875 for £52,000. McIver, along with his brother David, and Samuel Cunard are probably more famous for creating the British and North American Royal Steam Packet Company, later known as the Cunard Line. 3 Behind the Mansion House is a largely wooded area with a collection of fir trees, many of North American origin. Much of this is thought to have been originated by Charles McIver, whose involvement in transatlantic shipping lead to him developing an interest in the trees of the New World. (http://www.allertonoak.com/AMH/12Parks.html). Calderstone house and estate were sold by the MacIvers to Liverpool Corporation in 1902 for £43,000 and formerly opened as a park three years later. By the outbreak of the First World War, the Calderstones Estate had been augmented by the Harthill Estate to produce the present park area which was as Calderstones and Harthill Park for a brief time. Harthill House Hart Hill house (Harthill Road) was built for John Bibby II (1810-1883), a merchant around 1840 and the main lodge on Harthill Road probably dates from that time. He was the second son of John Bibby I (1775-1840), shipping magnate and founder of the Bibby Line in 1805. Later, but before 1890, a second lodge was constructed on Calderstones Road. The path that still runs alongside this lodge into Calderstones Park is what remains of the original driveway. John II died in 1883 and his 2nd wife Emily continued to live at Hart Hill until her death in 1899. The house was taken over by John Bibby III (1839-1898) in 1883. His eldest son John Hartley Bibby (1865-1938) lived away and the house passed to John II and Fanny's younger son Alfred Bibby (1847-1920) in 1898. In the first decade of the 20th century, the house was sold to St. Helens glass manufacturer Charles Joseph Bishop (1852-1923). He sold most of the grounds to Liverpool Corporation in 1913 to form the Harthill Estate extension to Calderstones Park.

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