Probably the main thing which gets volunteers out of bed in a morning and fired up to go do a day’s graft is the knowledge that they might discover something rare or unexpected; most days when they are excavating they will find something which will set them pondering. It could be an artefact or it could be the context related to the find. Mostly there isn’t a story already written which it will fit nicely into but sometimes it does!
Last summer as we excavated at the west end of the 60m long building (nearest the Hall) we discovered a rectangle of stones which clearly had been set in place and later we found that they were the remains of a fire ash pit. Even better news was to follow when amongst the ashes we found some clay tobacco pipe stems and a well preserved clay pipe bowl embossed on both sides.
Bob McNaught of Pontefract Archaeology Society researched the clay pipe bowl and told us that it was an ‘Admirals’ bowl made in Pontefract around 1820 and this provided us with some dating evidence for the buildings… not before 1820…. perhaps.
A fabulous find and obviously of some significance but what was it?
A few weeks later and the team were excavating again just to the west of this building in search of another large building which existed sometime between 1793 and its disappearance by not featuring on the1892 OS Map. To our delight another rectangle of set stones appeared within a few feet of the original ash pit along with some more walls, however almost simultaneously we found the location of the building we were looking for and this wasn’t it. So this posed some interesting questions: why were these buildings unrecorded on the 1850 OS map and what were they, could they have been outbuildings, workshops or someone’s home? Unfortunately time ran out and we had the winter to ponder over the questions raised.
A few weeks later and the team were excavating again just to the west of this building in search of another large building which existed sometime between 1793 and its disappearance by not featuring on the1892 OS Map. To our delight another rectangle of set stones appeared within a few feet of the original ash pit along with some more walls, however almost simultaneously we found the location of the building we were looking for and this wasn’t it. So this posed some interesting questions: why were these buildings unrecorded on the 1850 OS map and what were they, could they have been outbuildings, workshops or someone’s home? Unfortunately time ran out and we had the winter to ponder over the questions raised.
When we returned to digging this spring, one of the targets was the unexcavated rectangle of stones. They did not disappoint as they again produced a fire ash pit and this time lying in the bottom amongst the ashes were more clues about its use and the unidentified building. We found pieces of iron, a horse shoe complete with nails and what appeared to be a stone lintel where bellows might have pumped air to the fire. So maybe we had found the remains of a farrier’s home who lived in the post 1850 extension to the long building or was it simply a smithy? Who knows?
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