Excavation Design Llanerchdirion 2021 V2
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Jemma Bezant PhD, MCIfA, FHEA [email protected] Archaeological research and training excavation at Llanerchdirion, Abbey Cwmhir, Radnorshire, SO 02707175 Bezant, J, Lovell, J and Ravest, J 2021 This document has been prepared as a project design for excavations at Llanerchdirion in 2021. Figure 1 The Upper Cwmhir Valley looking eastwards towards the abbey in the valley floor. Photo J Ravest Abbey Cwmhir Heritage Trust Jemma Bezant PhD, MCIfA, FHEA [email protected] Contents Directions ............................................................................................................................................ 3 Essential contacts and Locations ........................................................................................................ 4 Introduction ........................................................................................................................................ 5 Background ......................................................................................................................................... 5 Upper Cwmhir Valley survey 2020 ...................................................................................................... 6 Llanerchdirion farmstead, Julian Lovell .............................................................................................. 7 Designations ........................................................................................................................................ 8 Public Engagement ............................................................................................................................. 8 Aims and Objectives ............................................................................................................................ 9 Project Management ........................................................................................................................ 10 Dissemination and reporting ............................................................................................................ 10 Health and Safety .............................................................................................................................. 11 Methodology ..................................................................................................................................... 11 Drone Methodology, Julian Ravest ................................................................................................... 12 The Material Archive ......................................................................................................................... 12 Bulk Finds ...................................................................................................................................... 12 Selection, retention and discard ....................................................................................................... 12 Copyright ........................................................................................................................................... 13 References ........................................................................................................................................ 14 Risk assessment ................................................................................................................................ 22 Fieldschool essential contacts and Locations ................................................................................... 22 Coronavirus Measures ...................................................................................................................... 22 Risk Assessment Author: J Bezant on 20.6.21 .................................................................................. 23 Health, Safety and Conduct .............................................................................................................. 24 Insurance ........................................................................................................................................... 27 Covid CONTACT TRACING Risk Assessment and conduct ................................................................. 29 Jemma Bezant PhD, MCIfA, FHEA [email protected] Directions Directions from Rhayader Take the B4518 to St Harmon. Just as you approach the village of St Harmon there is a right hand turn (small lane) on the right. It is sign-posted Abbeycwmhir. Follow this small lane as it wiggles out of the village, past a farm called Bailey Bedw, past a turn left to The Gorse, past a wood on the left (marked Pant y Brwyn on the map attached) until you rise up to a junction with a sharp turn to your left and a wood ahead (marked Cwmhir Bank on the map). You’ll see from the map that the meeting/parking point is just along the sharp turn to your left on that junction. Jemma Bezant PhD, MCIfA, FHEA [email protected] Directions from Abbeycwmhir This route involves driving over a reasonably steep hill, single track with occasional passing places. Drive through Abbeycwmhir from direction of A483. Approx. 0.5 mile from village, where there is a road to the right, carry straight on towards Rhayader. Go over the steep hill and through the hairpin bend to a T junction. Turn right (probably signpost towards St Harmon). Drive up a hill to where the road splits. Don't take the left hand road to St Harmon but carry on for a few 100 metres to the parking/meeting place. Essential contacts and Locations Jemma Bezant (Project Director) 07847 891587, University of Wales Trinity Saint David, College Street, Lampeter, Ceredigion, SA48 7ED, main switchboard +441570 422351 [email protected] Rhayader doctors surgery 01597 810231 Minor Injuries Dept: Llandrindod Wells War Memorial Hospital, Temple St, Llandrindod Wells LD1 5HF, +441597822951 Emergency: 999 Fieldwork location (muster here in case of emergency): Cwmffwrn Farm, St Harmon, Rhayader, Powys, LD6 5NG, Ordnance Survey Grid Ref: SO 02300, 72085; what3words glory, scope, acquaint Parking: SO 01792, 722489; what3words trembles, theory, myths Please park safely and make your own way along the track to the excavation site. Off-road transport will be provided for those not wishing to walk. You will be asked to sign the Covid track and trace on arrival at the excavation site - and to read the risk assessment if you are aiming to participate. Please bring food, drink, suitable footwear and outdoor clothing – and a camping chair if you wish to be super-comfortable. We will be providing hot drinks. Jemma Bezant PhD, MCIfA, FHEA [email protected] Introduction A programme of archaeological survey work was begun in 2020 in the Upper Cwmhir Valley to the west of the Cistercian Abbey Cwmhir. That work comprises a partnership between the Sacred Landscapes of Monasteries Project, University of Wales Trinity Saint David (UWTSD) and the Abbey Cwmhir Heritage Trust (AHT). In 2021, the Trust acquired funding from Local Giving Magic Little Grant 2021 and Wales Council for Voluntary Action - Volunteering Wales Grant Scheme 2021/2. This allowed the partnership to propose archaeological excavations at one of the earthwork sites identified as part of last year’s research. This excavation will be led by Dr Jemma Bezant of UWTSD in July 2021 and in accordance with CIfA regulations (CIfA, 2014). The joint venture between UWTSD and the AHT was conceived in 2019 with the aim of investigating the landscape contexts of Abbey Cwmhir primarily within its home grange of Golon in Radnorshire, using the regressive historic methodologies developed over the longstanding research programmes at Strata Florida. (Austin, 2019; Austin & Bezant, 2019; Bezant, 2013) The overall objective is to reconstruct period maps through retrogressive analysis of the functioning landscapes of the Middle Ages and to understand some of the embedded meanings of the space, focussing on the sacred. Professor David Austin and Dr Jemma Bezant of the Scared Landscapes team have been providing training, guidance and academic direction to the collaboration. A planned series of face to face practical workshops and training surveys at Cwmhir in 2020 was moved online due to Covid and a project spatial database was constructed using Esri’s ArcGIS platform with QGIS for remote workers. Nineteenth-century mapping included enclosure and tithe, with the 1st edition Ordnance survey providing a key base (and proving particularly useful for remapping in detail, the grange boundaries from an AD1200 grant, Bezant et al forthcoming). These data highlighted a region of discrete sheep-grazing areas linked to former farmsteads. Lidar, land-use and geology mapping complemented the mapping and an extensive photogrammetric survey of the entire Upper Cwmhir valley produced spectacular high-resolution topographical survey, which identified a number of new earthwork sites. Field records of two of these sites were made during a training field school in September and by the end of 2020 there were over twenty volunteers working on different aspects of the heritage research. Background The Upper Cwmhir Valley forms a western portion of the former Golon grange of the Abbey (Map). Abbey Cwmhir was founded in 1176 by Cadwallon ap Madog (Williams, 1990: 268), Lord of Jemma Bezant PhD, MCIfA, FHEA [email protected] Maelienydd and was colonised by monks from Whitland Abbey. The current house was founded on the north bank of the Clywedog river, possibly on a new site. In 1198-9 a colony of monks was sent to found a daughter house at Cymer. The abbey