LDNPA - Invitation to Tender (ITT) for the survey and excavation of Satterthwaite Bloomery and surrounding charcoal pits (Rusland Horizons)

Tender description

This project forms part of ‘Rusland Horizons: working a Lakeland Landscape’, a three year Heritage Lottery Funded Landscape Partnership Scheme. The Rusland Horizons scheme area is a rich cultural landscape of some antiquity and includes a large number of archaeological sites and historic landscape features. The Lives in the Landscape project aims to uncover new information about the history and landscape development of the area through a programme of surveys, research, excavation, interpretation and conservation management works. Volunteers will work with archaeologists on the following four projects: ? Archaeological walkover survey of various woodlands; ? Archaeological walkover survey of Bethecar Moor; ? Conservation, survey and excavation of Cunsey Bloomery Forge; ? Survey, excavation and palaeo-environmental work at Satterthwaite bloomery and charcoal pits. This Invitation to Tender deals with the fourth project in this series, the survey and excavation of Satterthwaite Bloomery and surrounding charcoal pits. The contractor will be required to approach and undertake the specified program of archaeological services as a ‘community engagement’ focused event, providing support and training in archaeological skills to groups of volunteers. The initial recruitment of volunteers falls outside the contractors brief, although the management and supervision of volunteers, along with a responsibility for their safety and welfare while on-site, is the responsibility of the contractor. Satterthwaite Bloomery (Lake District Historic Environment Record 5542) is a charcoal fired shaft furnace used for the direct reduction of iron ore to produce wrought iron and is likely to be of Medieval date. It is a large rounded mound within dense conifer plantation. The site is on a small promontory between the stream to the south and small side stream to the north-east. The top of the tip is c. 3m above the base of the slope. In 2004 excavation of holes for new native woodland planting at Barkhouse Bank, Ickenthwaite, adjacent to the area we will be investigating, exposed quantities of charcoal on what is now open fell. On investigation it was clear that the charcoal had been produced in shallow pits rather than on platforms and subsequent radiocarbon dating placed the pits in period 1280 – 1410 AD. Informal field survey located over 25 charcoal pits and a medieval bloomery (iron smelting site) immediately adjacent to these. Examination of the charcoal revealed that it had been produced from mature timber, not coppiced wood, which is also typical of charcoal from medieval bloomeries. It is therefore likely that the charcoal was being produced for iron smelting at the adjacent bloomery. The current information for Satterthwaite Bloomery gives a partial picture of medieval land use and industry, similar to Barkhouse Bank, but further fieldwork, including geophysical survey and excavation would give a much better understanding of these. It would also provide an opportunity for the local community to gain experience of archaeological excavation and would provide valuable details for interpretation of the landscape and woodland history of the area which would underpin other projects. This community archaeology project will take place in the Spring/Summer of 2018. We envisage a team of eight volunteers on-site each day for a total of 5 weeks (25 working days) in order to complete the surveys and excavation. Keywords: Excavation, Research, Historic, Archaeology, Enviromental, Survey