The second season of excavation at Staveley Hall finished last Friday, 1st September, but members of the ARCUS team were still beavering away on Monday to finish off the recording and paperwork.
The second season of excavation has added dramatically to our knowledge about the seventeenth-century hall, and the earlier landscape. Post-excavation work will be starting soon, with experts at the University of Sheffield analysing the collections of pottery, animal bone, clay pipe, glass, metal finds, metalworking slag and environmental samples. This will give us more chronological control relating to the phasing of activity on site, and hopefully some more insights into the nature of this activity. We will post updates on the website whenever new information becomes available.
Five trenches (Trenches 8 – 12) were excavated during the three weeks of this year’s excavation (the trench numbering carries on from Trenches 1-7 which were excavated last year).
Trench 8 was a large open area trench located over an area of well-preserved seventeenth-century stonework partly examined in 2005. We are confident that the main eastern wall of the 1604 hall runs across the trench, along with an extra ‘room’ perhaps projecting north and east of the main building. The location of the northern wall is still something of a mystery, although we have two possible candidates. Recording of the stone footings suggests that there are three phases of building within the area of Trench 8, the first relating to the original build of the 1604 hall, the second to the insertion of internal walls and drains, probably during the lifetime of the hall, and the third to an external courtyard probably laid after demolition in this area during the eighteenth century. The drain system in Trench 8 is certainly connected with the seventeenth-century hall, rather than being a later addition. Parts of it belong to the original 1604 build, and other parts appear to have been added or modified slightly later.
Also in Trench 8, a number of earlier features were found beneath the seventeenth-century stonework. A ditch and pit, both cut into the underlying clay, contained medieval pottery, perhaps dating to the twelfth or thirteenth century. Intriguingly, the medieval ditch intersected a still earlier feature – a shallow flat cut that may just represent a beam slot for a timber-framed building. This feature was on the same alignment as an undated gully sealed by a buried soil layer. While these earlier features remain undated, they clearly pre-date the medieval activity on site.
Trench 9 was a second open area trench excavated to the north-east of the seventeenth-century hall. This trench located a pair of intersecting cobbled driveways, one leading towards the hall, and a second leading off towards the north-east. These probably belong to a fairly late stage in the development of the hall, probably during the late eighteenth century.
Trenches 10 and 11 were a pair of slots excavated between the car park and the churchyard wall, to investigate the southern wall of the hall, and an early V-shaped ditch excavated last year further to the west. The V-shaped ditch was found in both trenches, with a small collection of pottery including shell-tempered wares possibly dating back to the eleventh century. In Trench 11 a deep vertical cut, backfilled with mortar and coal-rich material, was probably a construction cut for the seventeenth-century hall. The depth of this cut suggests that a cellar or half-cellar might have been present in this area.
Trench 12 was excavated to the rear of the hall, between the church and the bowling green. On the very last day we discovered one side of a ditch which probably represents the V-shaped ditch turning behind the hall. Medieval pottery was recovered from this feature. It is possible therefore that the V-shaped ditch runs around the perimeter of the medieval site, although further work would be necessary to confirm this.
In addition to these trenches, an exploratory area of the car park was excavated. Unfortunately, any archaeology in this area appeared to have been removed during laying of the car park. The southern edge of the car park might still prove a fruitful area for investigation as there is the possibility of cellarage here.
As we had excavated topsoil by machine, this was checked by metal detector, and a number of interesting finds showed up. The most exciting of these were the decorated head of a pin, possibly of Anglo-Scandinavian date (ninth-tenth century), and two bronze brooches, probably of Roman date. Although these finds came from the topsoil, they extend the known date range of activity on the site. It is unlikely that there was a Roman settlement on site – we have found very little Roman pottery over two years. However, there certainly appears to have been Roman activity not too far away. The metal detector didn’t have a complete monopoly on metal finds, however – two fifteenth-century coins were found by diggers in Trench 8.
Many thanks to all the volunteers who gave their time to make this such a successful season, and to the members of Staveley History Society who manned the office, washed finds, and made us feel so welcome with tea, cakes and a natter. |
