WINDERMERE REFLECTIONS FULLING MILLS IN EASEDALE, GRASMERE, ELTERWATER, GREAT LANGDALE AND GRAYTHWAITE Community Archaeology Survey Report Oxford Archaeology North September 2012 Issue No: 2012-13/1307 OAN Job No: L10453 NGR: NY 3195 0870 NY 3436 0591 NY 3370 0503 NY 2942 0650 and SD 3711 9330 (centred) Document Title: WINDERMERE REFLECTIONS : F ULLING MILLS IN EASEDALE , G RASMERE , E LTERWATER , G REAT LANGDALE AND GRAYTHWAITE Document Type: Community Archaeology Survey Report Client Name: The National Trust Issue Number: 2012-13/1307 OA Job Number: L10453 National Grid Reference: NY 3195 0870, NY 3436 0591, NY 3371 0503 NY 2942 0650 and SD 3711 9330 (Centred) Prepared by: Peter Schofield Alastair Vannan Position: Project Officer Project Officer Date: August 2012 August 2012 Checked by: Jamie Quartermaine Signed……………………. Position: Senior Project Manager Date: August 2012 Approved by: Gill Hey Signed……………………. Position: Regional Manager Date: August 2012 Oxford Archaeology North © Oxford Archaeology Ltd (2012) Mill 3, Moor Lane Mills Janus House Moor Lane Osney Mead Lancaster Oxford LA1 1GF OX2 0EA t: (0044) 01524 541000 t: (0044) 01865 263800 f: (0044) 01524 848606 f: (0044) 01865 793496 w: www.oxfordarch.co.uk e: [email protected] Oxford Archaeology 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. Windermere Reflections on History – Fulling Mills: Community Archaeology Survey Report 1 CONTENTS CONTENTS ...................................................................................................................... 1 S UMMARY ...................................................................................................................... 3 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .................................................................................................. 5 1. I NTRODUCTION ......................................................................................................... 7 1.1 Circumstances of the Project................................................................................. 7 1.2 Aims...................................................................................................................... 8 2. M ETHODOLOGY ........................................................................................................ 9 2.1 Introduction and Project Design............................................................................ 9 2.2 Documentary Study .............................................................................................. 9 2.3 Detailed Survey................................................................................................... 10 2.4 Report and Gazetteer of Sites.............................................................................. 12 2.5 Archive................................................................................................................ 12 3. H ISTORICAL AND ARCHAEOLOGICAL BACKGROUND ........................................... 13 3.1 Historical Background......................................................................................... 13 3.2 Fulling Technology and Archaeology................................................................. 16 3.3 Documentary Study of the Five Mill Sites.......................................................... 27 4. S URVEY RESULTS .................................................................................................... 36 4.1 Introduction......................................................................................................... 36 4.2 Sourmilk Gill Mill, Easedale (Figs 2-7).............................................................. 36 4.3 Loughrigg Terrace Mill, Grasmere (Figs 8-112) ................................................ 44 4.4 Low Wood Mill, Elterwater (Figs 13-16) ........................................................... 51 4.5 Stickle Ghyll Mill, Great Langdale (Figs 17-28)................................................ 56 4.6 Little Ore Gate Mill, Graythwaite (Figs 29-34).................................................. 63 5. C ONCLUSION ............................................................................................................ 70 5.1 Discussion........................................................................................................... 70 6. B IBLIOGRAPHY ....................................................................................................... 74 6.1 Primary Sources .................................................................................................. 74 6.2 Cartographic and Engraving Sources.................................................................. 75 6.3 Secondary Sources .............................................................................................. 76 APPENDIX 1: P ROJECT DESIGN ................................................................................... 79 APPENDIX 2: P ROJECT BRIEF ..................................................................................... 87 APPENDIX 3: S URVEY GAZETTEER ............................................................................. 94 ILLUSTRATIONS ......................................................................................................... 112 For the use of the National Trust and Lake District National Park Authority © OA North September 2012 Windermere Reflections on History – Fulling Mills: Community Archaeology Survey Report 2 Figures ...................................................................................................................... 112 Plates ...................................................................................................................... 113 For the use of the National Trust and Lake District National Park Authority © OA North September 2012 Windermere Reflections on History – Fulling Mills: Community Archaeology Survey Report 3 SUMMARY Oxford Archaeology North (OA North) was invited by the National Trust and the Lake District National Park Authority to provide supervision and support to facilitate and enable a community archaeology project examining a number of possible, former fulling mills located within the Windermere lake catchment. The project was financed by the Heritage Lottery Fund and was one of three community surveys being undertaken as part of Reflections on History, one of nineteen projects taking place under the umbrella of Windermere Reflections. Windermere Reflections is part of a wider range of conservation and heritage themed projects in the Windermere Catchment Restoration Programme. The project was intended to undertake a series of detailed topographic surveys and desk-based analyses of former fulling mills, while providing support and training for volunteers in areas such as archaeological survey and archive research. Topographic survey was undertaken to identify, record, and describe any extant structures and features associated with five possible, former fulling mills within the Windermere lake catchment. The surveys were undertaken between the 9 th April and 5 th May 2012. Desk- top historical survey of information pertinent to each site, including historical maps, and records held in the Armitt Library and Kendal Record Office took place on the 9 th and 10 th May 2012. Fulling describes the process of cleaning and de-greasing woollen cloth, either with potash, dung and urine or fuller’s earth, and the pounding of the cloth to compact the fibres of the fabric. The pounding of the roughly woven woollen cloth was undertaken using large wooden hammers (known as stocks) which were lifted by cams on an axle turned by a water wheel. The stocks would act upon the cloth within a large fulling trough which also contained water and fuller’s earth. After fulling, the cloth would be washed, stretched and dried. The recent survey examined five possible fulling mills within the Windermere lake catchment. Four of the five sites are located within the northern part of the catchment, near the villages of Grasmere and Langdale, an area documented as important for fulling and weaving. The condition of the mills was variable, with one at Sourmilk Gill being an exceptional survival and representing an archetypal medieval fulling mill, whereas at Loughrigg Terrace, for example, there is reasonable survival of the water system but the mill remains are open to interpretation. Two of the mills, that at Sourmilk Gill and Stickle Ghyll, were originally stone founded structures, associated with well-defined water supply systems, comprising head race, wheel pit and tail race, and, at Sourmilk Gill, a launder platform also. Both mill structures were potentially reused and their operational life is uncertain. At Loughrigg Terrace, the