BUTTERMERE CUMBRIA Historic Landscape Survey Report Volume 2: Site Gazetteer and Location Maps Oxford Archaeology North February 2009 Issue No: 2008-9/888 OAN Job No: L9907 NGR: NY 170 170 (centred) Document Title: BUTTERMERE , C UMBRIA Document Type: Historic Landscape Survey Report - Volume 2 Client Name: Issue Number: 2008-9/888 OA Job Number: L9907 National Grid Reference: NY 170 170 (centred) Prepared by: Alastair Vannan Peter Schofield Position: Project Supervisor Project Officer Date: February 2009 February 2009 Checked by: Jamie Quartermaine Signed……………………. Position: Senior Project Manager Date: February 2009 Approved by: Alan Lupton Signed……………………. Position: Operations Manager Date: February 2009 Oxford Archaeology North © Oxford Archaeological Unit Ltd (2009) Storey Institute Janus House Meeting House Lane Osney Mead Lancaster Oxford LA1 1TF OX2 0EA t: (0044) 01524 848666 t: (0044) 01865 263800 f: (0044) 01524 848606 f: (0044) 01865 793496 w: www.oxfordarch.co.uk e: [email protected] Oxford Archaeological Unit Limited is a Registered Charity No: 285627 Disclaimer: This document has been prepared for the titled project or named part thereof and should not be relied upon or used for any other project without an independent check being carried out as to its suitability and prior written authority of Oxford Archaeology being obtained. Oxford Archaeology accepts no responsibility or liability for the consequences of this document being used for a purpose other than the purposes for which it was commissioned. Any person/party using or relying on the document for such other purposes agrees, and will by such use or reliance be taken to confirm their agreement to indemnify Oxford Archaeology for all loss or damage resulting therefrom. Oxford Archaeology accepts no responsibility or liability for this document to any party other than the person/party by whom it was commissioned. 158 Buttermere, Cumbria: Historic Landscape Survey, Volume 2 CONTENTS GAZETTEER OF SITES ......................................................................................................................................... 160 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS .................................................................................................................................... 310 For the use of The National Trust © OA North: February 2009 Buttermere, Cumbria: Historic Landscape Survey, Volume 2 159 For the use of The National Trust © OA North: February 2009 160 Buttermere, Cumbria: Historic Landscape Survey, Volume 2 APPENDIX 9 GAZETTEER OF SITES PREFREF 20380 MONUID MNA118159 Name Settlement near Scale Beck, Buttermere Period Medieval to Post Medieval NGR 315550 517550 Type SETTLEMENT Sources A J L Winchester. 1987. Landscape and Society in Medieval Cumbria. A J L Winchester. 1988. The Lake District Landscape Heritage: The Farming Landscape. Preston Lancashire Records Office. Estate accounts and surveys in Preston Record Office. T Hay. 1945. Transactions of the Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian and Archaeological Society. 45. Description Site:20380*0 The remains of a settlement near Scale Beck, situated on both banks of the two tributaries that form the rough delta at the mouth of this stream. 1) Old walling with orthostats, 2 sides of an enclosure. 2) Round heaps of boulders as of a cleared site and scattered boulders as of a dispersed enclosure. 3) Indeterminate walling. 4) Norse(?) house 10 yards x 5 yards overall. 5) Curious horse shoe shaped cell. 6) Enclosure walls & cleared area. 7) Large irregular elliptical enclosure 30 yards across containing a horse shoe shaped cell with a smaller similar internal cell. 8) Large Norse(?) foundation, external 14 yards x 8 yards with middle division, the west end heaped up with many boulders. Good cleared area east of here. 9) Much walling, including hut 6 yards x 5 yards with walls 3' high. 10) 24 yards from the hut in (9) is a good Norse house external twelve yards x four and a half yards. 11) 22 yards east of 10 is (a) Norse house ten yards x five and a half yards external, with signs of a division. (b) a curious square foundation of 8 yards with a corridor entrance on the east side. (c) a big square of 21 yards with rounded corners, walls standing 4' and looking later than the other remains or possibly rebuilt later. (d) inside (e) a square hut measuring 5 yards with an entrance projecting on one side. Local analogy suggests Scale Beck as possible a 'British Settlement' with subsequent 'Norse' occupation denoted by the rectangular 'Long Houses' Rectangular structures of Prehistoric date are now known] (Hay, T. 1945). Physically the site is generally as described by Hay, except that the alleged elliptical enclosure (7), (which is now bared of bracken by burning), is most probably a natural build up of stones due to the action of former water-courses passing over the delta of Scale Beck. The remains, consisting of the foundation walls of at least ten rectangular buildings and other small associated garths and fields, do not appear to be earlier than medieval in date, and probably represent a small hamlet. A circular structure, 2.25 meters in diameter, in the east corner of the easternmost building probably represents a hearth, while pieces of iron slag 10 meters to the north-west suggests the existence of a bloomery, although the two would not appear to be connected as there is no trace of slag within the hearth. That at Scales is perhaps to be related to the two bloomeries (forgiae ferri) in Loweswater, mentioned in 1305 but not in later extents of the manor (P.R.O, C133/119/9). Some deserted settlement sites are known as well. Two of the most extensive, Scale Beck, Buttermere and Smithy Beck, Ennerdale, may have been iron working hamlets, rather than agricultural settlements (Winchester, A.J.L. 1988). OAN Oct 2007 - Features shown only on modern OS mapping. PREFREF 20381 MONUID MNA121001 Name Settlement near Lambing Knott, Buttermere Period Roman NGR 319103 515587 Type SETTLEMENT Sources T Hay. 1945. Transactions of the Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian and Archaeological Society. 45. Description Site:20381*0 Remains of a circular enclosure on an artificial platform, situated to the left of Buttermere-Honister Road, just beyond Hassmess, where the road makes a half turn right as it reaches the upper end of Lake Buttermere. A circular building incorporating large boulders lies on the right of the circle looking from the lake, but it may be a later addition being less ruinous. A circular impression in the enclosure may be a hut site. Outside the enclosure are wall foundations forming two sides of a triangular enclosure (Hay, T. 1945). The remains of a small stone walled Romano-British homestead containing two probable hut platforms. The enclosing wall has been robbed to build a field dyke and sheep pen (Hay's circular building) but is still traceable around the whole perimeter. The entrance is in the south and the hut platforms are in the northern segment where the homestead has been scooped into the slope. Hay has obviously mistaken the field dyke for the enclosure wall as his "two sides of an external enclosure" are, in fact, part of the main enclosure wall. OAN Oct 2007 - Only marked on the modern OS mapping. PREFREF 20382 MONUID MNA118223 Name Possible Hut Circles near Knott Rigg, Buttermere Period Bronze Age NGR 319500 518500 Type HUT CIRCLE Sources N Size. 1936. Transactions of the Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian and Archaeological Society. 36. Robert Maxwell. 1986. Management Plan for Buttermere parts C5-C8. Description Site:20382*0 A series of possible hut circles can be seen looking north from a point near the top of the road from Buttermere to Newlands waterfall and pass. The most conspicuous are on the lower half of Knott Rigg with a second group across the beck. They show more clearly in winter (Size, N. 1936). Nothing resembling hut circles could be found in the area cited, which is one of moorland pasture. The hut circles were not identified, however the grid reference for these sites covers a large area not all of which was searched (Maxwell, R. 1986). For the use of The National Trust © OA North: February 2009 Buttermere, Cumbria: Historic Landscape Survey, Volume 2 161 OAN Oct 2007 - Not shown on any historic mapping. OAN Site Visit April 2008. The grid co-ordinates for this site are too general, the area included in the present survey did not include any features pertaining to hut circle settlement within the vicinity. PREFREF 20384 MONUID MNA119062 Name Find spot Roman Coin near Knott Rigg, Buttermere Period Roman NGR 319502 518523 Type FINDSPOT Sources Anon. 1944. Transactions of the Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian and Archaeological Society. 44. Description Site:20384*0 A first brass of Hadrian was found in a hollow stone on Knott Riggs, Buttermere (Transactions of the Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian and Archaeological Society. 1944). PREFREF 20386 MONUID MNA118670 Name Shieling near Warnscale Bottom, Buttermere Period Medieval to Post Medieval NGR 319985 513825 Type SHIELING Sources RCHME. 1970. Shielings and Bastles. Description Site:20386*0 Remains of shieling (?medieval) in Warnscale Bottom, measuring 22 feet by 13 feet and consisting of two unequal rooms with probable entrance in the south end. The dry-stone walls although badly robbed remain 7 feet high externally and five and a half feet high internally at the north end (RCHME. 1970). From NPA HER - The hut has been badly robbed but stands 5 1/2 ft at the NE angle. The walls are of carefully laid dry-stone masonry with levelling courses of slate, incorporating large boulders in NE angle. PREFREF 20387 MONUID MNA120846 Name Enclosure on Loweswater Fell, Buttermere Period Medieval to Post Medieval NGR 314050 522450 Type ENCLOSURE Sources H Valentine. 1935. Transactions of the Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian and Archaeological Society. 35. Description Site:20387*0 An earthen enclosure, 59' square, with banks from 3'-5' wide and some 18" high. It is situated on the east slope of Low Fell, directly opposite the Scale Hill Hotel.