Windermere Reflections Stage One
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WINDERMERE REFLECTIONS STAGE ONE Archaeological and Historical Land Use Resource Assessment for the Windermere Catchment Oxford Archaeology North October 2010 Lake District National Park Authority and the National Trust Issue No: 2010-11/1108 OAN Job No: L10276 NGR: NY 35835 02215 (centred) Archaeological and Historical Land Use Resource Assessment for the Windermere Catchment 1 CONTENTS CONTENTS ............................................................................................................... 1 SUMMARY ................................................................................................................ 3 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................................ 5 1. INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................ 7 1.1 Circumstances of the Project......................................................................... 7 1.2 Aims and Objectives..................................................................................... 7 2. METHODOLOGY ............................................................................................... 9 2.1 Introduction .................................................................................................. 9 2.2 Stage One: GIS ‘Set up’ and Data Acquisition ............................................ 10 2.3 Stage Two: Data Extraction, Collation, Analysis and Creation .................... 13 2.4 Stage Three: Report Production and Output Creation .................................. 16 3. TOPOGRAPHICAL AND HISTORICAL BACKGROUND ........................................ 17 3.1 Introduction ................................................................................................ 17 3.2 Location, Topography and Geology ............................................................ 17 3.3 Land Use .................................................................................................... 18 3.4 Environmental Evidence ............................................................................. 19 3.5 Historical and Archaeological Background ................................................. 21 4. STONE AND MINERAL EXTRACTION ARCHAEOLOGICAL EVIDENCE .............. 33 4.1 Geological Background............................................................................... 33 4.2 Early Mineral and Stone Working............................................................... 34 4.3 Post-Medieval Mineral and Stone Working................................................. 37 4.4 Mineral Resource Assessment..................................................................... 42 5. WOODLAND ARCHAEOLOGICAL EVIDENCE ................................................... 44 5.1 Introduction ................................................................................................ 44 5.2 Woodland Resource Assessment................................................................. 47 6. WATER ARCHAEOLOGICAL EVIDENCE .......................................................... 53 6.1 Early Water Modification............................................................................ 53 6.2 Domestic Supplies ...................................................................................... 53 6.3 Water Capture............................................................................................. 56 6.4 Food Supply................................................................................................ 56 6.5 Communications......................................................................................... 57 6.6 Water Power............................................................................................... 58 6.7 Cloth Manufacture...................................................................................... 60 6.8 Industrial Washing and Refining................................................................. 60 6.9 Ornamental................................................................................................. 61 6.10 Human Impacts on the Lake........................................................................ 61 7. CONCLUSIONS ................................................................................................ 63 For the use of Lake District National Park Authority © OA North: October 2010 Archaeological and Historical Land Use Resource Assessment for the Windermere Catchment 2 7.1 Introduction ................................................................................................ 63 7.2 The Themes ................................................................................................ 63 7.3 Industrialisation of the Catchment............................................................... 65 7.4 Recommendations for Further Work ........................................................... 65 8. BIBLIOGRAPHY .............................................................................................. 69 8.1 Primary Sources.......................................................................................... 69 8.2 Cartographic Sources.................................................................................. 70 8.3 Secondary Sources...................................................................................... 70 APPENDIX 1: PROJECT BRIEF ................................................................................ 77 APPENDIX 2: PROJECT DESIGN.............................................................................. 83 APPENDIX 3: WINDERMERE TYPE LIST ................................................................. 90 ILLUSTRATIONS ..................................................................................................... 92 Figures ................................................................................................................... 92 For the use of Lake District National Park Authority © OA North: October 2010 Archaeological and Historical Land Use Resource Assessment for the Windermere Catchment 3 SUMMARY Oxford Archaeology North (OA North) was invited by the Lake District National Park Authority (LDNPA) and The National Trust to compile a heritage resource assessment within the catchment of Lake Windermere. The primary aim of this part of this assessment was to collate all readily available historical and archaeological information to provide the client with data that will facilitate and inform the development of Reflections on History, part of the wider Windermere Reflections. Windermere Reflections is itself only part of the Windermere Catchment Restoration Program which aims to improve water quality in the catchment, in addition to promoting and improving understanding of the natural and historic heritage resource within this area. The work was primarily desk-based, and involved the production of GIS datasets, achieved by enhancing the existing Historic Landscape Characterisation and data from the Lake District National Park Historic Environment Record and National Trust Sites and Monuments Record for the catchment. This facilitated the production of a report comprising a non-technical summary of the assessment, its methodology, and a detailed assessment of the development and heritage of the study area with respect to the three key themes of woodland, water and minerals. This assessment has served to reveal the remarkable extent and depth of human history within the catchment. Humans have manipulated the Lake District landscape since at least since the Mesolithic period when they commenced the deforestation of the extensive, post-glacial upland forest, and also, in the succeeding Neolithic period, undertook a large scale extraction for axes around Great Langdale. From the Bronze Age onwards, deforestation proceeded at an urgent pace as a result of an agricultural expansion onto the marginal fells around the periphery of the Lake District. Apart from a brief hiatus in the Iron Age, during a period of climatic decline, there has been a progressive deforestation of the woodlands. This reached a peak in the medieval period, when whole areas of woodland were clear felled to provide wood for industrial operations. Subsequently the woodland has been subject to management by coppicing enabling the survival of woodlands. The impact of man has continued into the present and belies the concept of the Lake District as a natural landscape. Mineral/ Stone Extraction: the geology of the Lake District is diverse, providing a wide array of minerals and rocks available for extraction, which include copper, lead and iron ores, as well as slate and limestone. This geological wealth has been both recognised and exploited and the remains of industrial workings are scattered across the hillsides and valleys. Beyond the Neolithic axe working the earliest recognised mineral working from the catchment was from the medieval period, when local iron ore was smelted in the numerous bloomeries that are found across the area. More intensive working of minerals occurred from the sixteenth century when lead mining was initiated at Greenhead Gill lead mines, and copper was extracted in nearby Coniston. During the post-medieval period the industries were dramatically expanded, with intensive working of slate, large scale mining for both copper and lead and limestone quarries. Woodland: the natural woodlands were cleared, initially, to enable the working of the Langdale axe factories and, subsequently, to allow for agriculture, but ultimately