We were at it again today, delving underground, lifting up rocks to peer into Pendle’s past. It’s getting more complex and older. The largest amount of pottery today was Medieval & there was precious little of that though Gayle did find a beauty. By far the most prolific material found today was stone, and chert
Piddling down today so a few of us mainline archaeo junkies did some finds cleaning and on-the-hop site analysis. The top of context 3 has had a nice wash and cool down ready for a good doing over on Sunday. As is becoming usual with finds’ laundry days, Find Of The Day became obvious only
Yay – it was digging weather again today and we worked our way down to our third context in the main part of the trench and played catch up in the extension. We are getting quite a bit of microlithic (ie tiny) flint mixed up with pottery from about 300 to about 700 years ago.
The rain returned today and it seemed to be enjoying itself. We cleaned about a third of yesterdays finds and theorised about what the artifacts we have found so far may tell us about the site’s history. We also looked at our soggy trench and saw a few things that have been exposed by the
Wonderful Wednesday indeed after the deluge of the previous two days. No rain and the stream was running clear. Today we continued lowering context 2 and are playing catch up in the small uphill extension. We are having to go frustratingly carefully at the moment. Usually we would be at least twice as far down
The rain continued over night and into today which had left the nearby stream looking a bit excitable. To accommodate the weather we had a late start and finished off some of the finds work in the morning. After lunch we deturfed an extension to the trench. Gayle spotted the Find Of The Day on
Miserable Monday indeed. Yeh verily it did piddle down all day. But lo, we were not daunted, for we were fortified with hot drinks and comfortable seats. We spent to day cleaning finds to date and starting the assessment of the bulk finds. Find Of The Day goes to something that looked like nothing until
Today we started on our first ‘proper’ context (image below). In other words the first undisturbed archaeological layer. We were still finding Victorian material and prehistoric chert but we have also unearthed some Medieval pottery. The first & best sherd of Medieval pot was found by Steve and is our Find Of The Day. It
First day of our closed dig in hidden fold of the Hidden Valley. Well second day really – yesterday we de-turfed trench one (T1) and it was a case of many hands make light work. Anyway back to today. We spent the whole day removing the top and sub soil – basically this meant the
To view progress on the full 18 days of the June dig, please click here.
A small group – The Secret Six – set off for Widdop Reservoir with lashings of ginger beer and buns for an adventure seeking pre historic and other material on the shores of the reservoir. There was evidence of habitation and activity from various ages including Mesolithic times and from when the settlements
When a speaker arrives with a large suitcase one has to wonder what is going to happen! Does he intend to stay over to save driving home after a very long talk? Maybe he has a ventriloquists dummy? Has he been thrown out by his other half? Fortunately it was none of those things! Peter
Main photo courtesy of Andy Barratt Our two night/three day residential trip to York was off to a flying start when we visited Ripley Castle, a 14th Century country house. At all the places we visited we were given a warm welcome and imbibed the history of ‘everything’ from knowledgeable and well informed guides. On
Today’s field walk explored the valley that connects Barley and the Ogden Valley with Thorney Holme, Roughlee, and the main Hidden Valley. Starting at Barley we walked up Hay’s Lane and followed that to Thorney Holme. Running down the south side of the valley, this rather rough public highway affords famous views of Pendle (above)
Alex Whitlock, leader of our archaeology group and expert on lithics (stone tools) gave an informative and entertaining talk as he brought us up to date on the work the group have been undertaking on Pendle Hill. Evidence of habitation by mesolithic people (10,000 to 5000BC) to the modern day have been found represented by
Edgar is the third of four generations in a local family of plumbers merchants. He began his talk surprisingly, with the first ancient bath in Knossos three and a half thousand years ago. He then amazed our small audience with a large variety of interesting facts, for instance: Did you know? The expression “the wrong
If you weren’t at Pendle Heritage Centre two weeks ago last Friday then you missed an old naked man and an old naked lady! Now don’t get excited…. they were part of a slide presentation by Jo Midgeley as he delved back into history to present us with a trip down memory lane. Among a
Pendle’s Hidden Valley Project – 18th February 2017 – Portfield Alex Whitlock This month’s fieldwalk was centred on the key feature of the western end of the Sabden Valley – Portfield. The site is private property and not open to the public so we are most thankful to the owners for their kind permission to visit. Portfield
The expression ‘give the man a medal’ has never seemed more apt. The audience at the talk on Friday evening benefitted from the vast store of knowledge and experience that Mike has garnered and developed by ‘messing about ‘ in boats and navigation canals for over 50 years. By doing so he has been heavily
Two members of the Friends visited Lancashire Archives to research into the area of Craggs on Pendle Hill where the archaeology group have carried out several digs over the past few years. We didn’t find a great deal to further our research but we did discover some fascinating information. In the 1296 accounts of the
Pendle’s Hidden Valley Project – 21st January 2017 – Fieldwalk to Deerstones Alex Whitlock The first field walk for 2017 took place on a clear crisp day. The sort of day you that can give you a glimpse of one of the transient beauties of the Pennines – an inversion. When these happen the low
2017 was off to a good start when Roger Frost an eminent local historian introduced us to the existence of the Manor House at Ightenhill which was revealed through geo-physics, examination of the land and records demonstrating that the house was built around 1180. Although there is no evidence of how the Manor looked Roger
Well, what a party that was! 27 people, plenty of food, very little alcohol but plenty of games! In fact it were a reet gud do! It was great to see some new faces as well as old ones (!) including some who joined with not a little trepidation that the games might prove
What was not to like on our Friday Evening talk – November 18th? Maggy Simms enthralled us with images of fabulous artefacts and made ancient history come to life. The discovery of Mycenae and Knossos by Schlieman and Arthur Evans respectively was unpicked, stunning wall paintings from Tiryns exhibited and new ideas exposed. The elite
Miracle in Manchester was our first autumn afternoon talk. Geoff Scargill gave us interesting insights into the life and career of Sir John Barbirolli and his work with the world renowned Halle orchestra at Belle Vue and the Free Trade Hall. Despite trials and tribulations his personality and skill as a conductor ensured that his
On Saturday, 29th October the group met to clean and classify the finds from the excavation carried out last June at The Craggs. Initially the finds, mainly comprising pottery, were washed on the picnic tables outside the cafe and then brought inside the Green Room to be sorted and classified. On Saturday, 29th October the
Friday night was movie night. Pendle Movie Makers brought a wonderful medley of films to entertain us. From a nostalgic trip to Blackpool, Howarth and the Bronte’s, The Last Towel Mill, the world famous magician “Faust” and a hypnotic film of Bancroft Mill Engine set to music, all were fascinating and beautifully presented. During the
After meeting at The Corner Café for discussion and refreshments we walked uphill, starting beside Limey Water. We eventually crossed fields above Rake Foot reservoir. The winter pasture of Crawshawbooth vaccary could have been in this area. On reaching Height Side Lane we turned left, passing a farm with a datestone of 1775 and further
Our first evening lecture as part of our Autumn programme was given by Dr Phil Murphy on Caves, Cavers, Collapses and Corpses and proved to be illuminating in various ways. He discussed mainly the discovery and opening up of Victoria Cave, Settle. This is a very important and renowned cave principally for the scientific evidence
On Saturday 24th September 17 members of the Friends of Pendle Heritage Centre met in Barrowford and were driven direct to Buxton. We had coffee in the Pavilion (designed by Joseph Paxton) and then were treated to a conducted tour of the largely Georgian town by a town guide who told us about the