"In the Footsteps of Mary Fair" - project progress reports
On Monday 25th September there was an open meeting where Jamie Quartermain, Peter Schofield (OAN) and John Hodgson (LDNPA) gave a detailed resumé of what the project survey work has uncovered so far. Intriguingly, Jamie has suggested that we have uncovered the lost settlement of Muncaster Head!
Following on from this, a week was spent in late October completing all of the field survey work. This included geophysics and earth work (shovel pit testing and probing) on the kerbed cairn, and mapping of the trackway.
Click here for a Powerpoint presentation of the results
Earlier meetings and training sessions
Field Survey - September 2005
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The first of the field surveys for the project began with a Training Day given by Jamie Quartermaine of Oxford Archaeology North on Sunday, September 18th. About twenty volunteers turned up and were taken straight to the site of Bank End farm above Muncaster Head.
As you can see from the survey mapping, a fascinating number of walls and possible buildings appeared over the (19th C) wall by the farm. These are obviously part of the farm complex and we are hoping that we shall be able to understand them better when our archaeologists have been able to study them.
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Jamie demonstrated the use of all the instruments and, throughout the day, gave everyone who was interested a chance to learn how to use them. This green field site (the only part of the project which can be done at this time of the year) also includes other features, such as track ways and other as yet unidentified walls. During the week Peter Schofield (also of Oxford Archaeology North) and a band of volunteers succeeded in surveying most of the features in the field. The weather was not always kind, but work went on in spite of rain and wind.
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Jamie and volunteers working at Bank end Farm
Our first public meeting in June introduced the archaeologist Jamie Quartermaine of Oxford Archaeology North, (OAN), who will be in charge of the survey. He explained that our part of West Cumbria was rich in history from the Mesolithic period onwards and had not been investigated as much as other parts of the Lake District. He also explained that there will be no excavations, just geophysical and other non-destructive methods of detection. In his words "we don't do JCBs"!
On August 4th, the first training session was given by Dan Elsworth of OAN; (click here for a report of the meeting). The next step is to do the field survey which is at the heart of our project. This will begin on Sunday, Sept 18th, with a training day run by Jamie Quartermaine (see above). He will take us out into the field, introduce us to the various instruments which will be used in the survey, and most importantly, show us how to use them. During the following days - Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, the surveying will get going and there will be places for volunteers who would like to help Peter Schofield, (also of OAN) with this work.
The first field work will only involve those few sites which are on land not covered by bracken and gorse. To find out more about the others, we have to wait until the spring when the bracken has died down and when we can cut some of the gorse which covers the sites. There is also a lot of detective work to be done on Muncaster Fell to locate any humps, bumps, stones or other interesting objects which may be waiting for us there.
