GLASS RECIPES AND THE OUTPUT FROM A 19TH-CENTURY GLASS WORKS: EXAMPLES FROM PERCIVAL,VICKERS & CO. LTD,MANCHESTER

Abstract

Excavations by Oxford Archaeology North in 2003 revealed extensive structural remains of the former Percival, Vickers and Co. Ltd glass works, one of the principal 19th-century glass manufactories in Manchester. A detailed account of the excavated remains, focusing on the significant developments in furnace design inherent in the exposed structures, has already been published in volume 29.1 (2007) of the Review. However, an in-depth analysis of the 187kg of glass fragments recovered from the excavation was omitted, and this shortcoming is addressed in the present paper. Scientific analysis of the glass compositions revealed that a variety of recipes were used, and these related closely to the different ways that glass was being worked on site, as evidenced by the various types of waste. A relatively small but nevertheless significant number of vessel fragments were also recovered, allowing the output of the glass works to be characterised for the first time.     

Theatre of Power: The Anglo-Norman Park at Earlspark,Co Galway,Ireland

Abstract

THIS PAPER EXAMINES the archaeological and historical evidence for a 13th-century park at Earlspark, Loughrea, Co Galway. This is the first detailed study of an Irish Anglo-Norman-period park to be published, and the site, which lies c 2 km south-east of the town of Loughrea, is exceptionally well preserved. It is documented in 1333, along with its deer, and field survey in the area has identified the park, which is defined by a mortared stone wall extending for 7.4 km and standing up to 2.6 m in height.     

A Venezuelan household clearance assemblage of 19th-century British ceramics in international perspective

Abstract

In 2010, the authors undertook the analysis of a 19th-century assemblage of ceramics excavated in 2004 in the Venezuelan city of Barcelona. The pilot study was designed to address the hitherto underappreciated importance of South American evidence towards global studies of 19th-century British material culture. Analysis of the assemblage demonstrated that it contained a mid 19th-century household clearance component comprised of British-made ceramics. This article describes the basic typology of the household clearance component, and the scale of the replacement of Spanish-tradition materials with British-made ceramics in the post-independence period. Some preliminary conclusions based on this ongoing research are also offered.     

Fish and fishing in colonial New South Wales: new evidence from the Quadrant site in Sydney

Abstract

Excavations at the Quadrant site in Sydney uncovered remains of 19th-century working-class houses and industrial areas including a collection of fish remains. The spatial distribution of bones of northern hemisphere ling and salmonids across house lots suggests these fish were commonly eaten. Little previous research on fish remains from post-1788 Australian sites has been reported and the study has wider research significance to Australasian archaeozoology. Documents indicate that some 19th-century British settlers preferred fish imported from Europe to local species. This study provides new insights into diet, economy and class in early colonial Sydney.     

Translocated Testudinidae: the earliest archaeological evidence for land tortoise in Britain

Abstract

This paper calls attention to the discovery of what is believed to be the earliest archaeological evidence for land tortoise in Britain. The specimen derived from a late 19th-century context at Stafford Castle and was associated with bones of cats and dogs, which may have been kept as pets by the castle's caretakers. The date accords with the historically attested rise in tortoise importation and with changes in attitudes towards pet animals.     

The Don Steel Works and Saville Works: Charting the Growth of the Small Sheffi eld Steel Firm

Abstract

The rapid recent redevelopment of 'brownfi eld' sites in Sheffi eld has resulted in the large-scale demolition and clearance of industrial sites and the loss of important sources of information about the city's historic industries. The ongoing archaeological investigation of former steelmaking, cutlery and edge-tool sites is therefore essential to understanding the complexities of growth, development and diversity of these industries. This paper presents the results of the excavation of three types of Sheffi eld furnace found at the Don Steel Works and the Saville Works, two 19th–20th-century steel works on Savile Street. The works are notable as case studies of urban industrial development in a burgeoning and technologically advancing era in steel manufacture, and represent the early stages of the rapid mid-19th-century expansion of the Sheffi eld steel industry.     

Beached Shipwrecks from Channel Islands National Park,California

Abstract

Three shipwreck sites of the 19th century in Channel Islands National Park, California form case studies in evaluating the contribution of beached shipwrecks to maritime and historical archaeology. Two of the sites are consistent with the historically-documented Pacific coast lumber schooners J. M. Colman and Dora Bluhm, but the archaeological record is sparse. Material remains are compared to primary documents, such as original 19th-century construction contracts and insurance classifications, to make a case for the beached shipwreck scatters belonging to these ships. A third site, Comet, presents the other end of the spectrum; its remains have been conclusively identified by historical photographs and the site is a partially-intact hull embedded in the beach sand. This site was also recorded in detail and the formation processes of all three sites were examined to aid in archaeological interpretation.     

Eighteenth-century glass and pottery manufacture at Morison’s Haven,Prestongrange, East Lothian

Abstract

This paper presents the results of archaeological investigations of the remains of an 18th-century glassworks at Prestongrange Museum, near Prestonpans, East Lothian. The site is part of an industrial complex previously known as Morison’s Haven, named after its associated tidal harbour. It has a long history of coal extraction that was established as early as the 13th century, and includes industries such as glassmaking, salt, pottery and brick and tile manufacture, and a colliery. The archaeological remains of the glassworks came to light during investigative works designed to locate Gordon’s Pottery, which was known to have manufactured fine tablewares in the 18th century.     

General Meeting,March 9th, 1849

Abstract

Salisbury Cathedral's cloister has received less scholarly attention than it merits. An important and outstanding issue is that of the structure's date. This has never been securely established, and there is no scholarly consensus on the matter. With reference to documentary and archaeological evidence, this article establishes unequivocally a documented start-date of after 15 June 1263 for the second stage of the project. In so doing it confirms the opinion of Pamela Blum, and corrects mistakes in her article of 1991 on the sequence of the 13th-century building campaigns at Salisbury.     

Lathom House: The Northern Court

Abstract

Thomas Stanley is credited with the creation of a fine new house at Lathom when he was made earl of Derby in 1485. This house, according to the poets and writers if the 16th and 17th centuries, was a sumptuous and well-defended place surrounded by moats and with as marry as eighteen towers. Indeed, it was claimed that Henry VII, stepson if the first earl if Derby, based his design for Richmond Palace on Lathom. After the house had fallen to the Parliamentarians it is usually accepted that the place was razed to the ground and, since the latter years of the 18th century, there has been considerable debate regarding its location. Recent archaeological work at the site if a later house, designed by Giacomo Leoni, is now providing evidence to show that Leoni's building probably lay on the site of the earlier structure and that some if the medieval masonry was incorporated into the rubble fill if the 18th-century walls. This study now examines the evidence for the first earl of Derby's house and argues that Lathom should be considered amongst the most important late 15th-century houses in England and Wales.     

Mid 17th- and 19th-century English wine bottles with seals in London’s archaeological collections

Abstract

This article details work which has, for the first time, delivered a comprehensive catalogue of 17th- and 19th-century dated English glass bottles with applied seals derived from archaeological excavations in London by MOLA (Museum of London Archaeology) and its predecessors. This text introduces the cataloguing methodology employed, reviews the historiography of bottle seal studies and summarizes the survey results. We consider, among other issues, the context and parallels behind individual seal designs, their chronologies, geographies of their movement and spaces of use in early Modern London.     

Chemical characterization of clay pipes and wig curlers from Roy’s Orchard,Pipe Aston,Herefordshire

Abstract

Excavation on the site of a late 17th-century and early 18th-century clay tobacco pipe kiln and workshop at Roy’s Orchard, Pipe Aston, in north-east Herefordshire has revealed that the site was probably used concurrently by a number of pipemakers, from c. 1680 to c. 1720 or slightly later. In addition to marked and unmarked pipes, the waste from the site includes unmarked wig curlers of two types. Chemical analysis of a sample of pipes and wig curlers and of pipeclays which might have been the source of the clay reveals that the wig curlers are probably products of the Pipe Aston pipemakers and that they were made in two batches, corresponding to their typological classification. The source of the clay used has been shown conclusively not to have been the locally available Silurian clays but a Coal Measures seatearth, comparable with the outcropping at Ironbridge Gorge. Samples of Devon Ball clay and Coal Measures clay from Clun, a closer outcrop than Ironbridge, have been analysed and can be discounted as potential sources of the Pipe Aston pipeclay.     

Vermin Traps and Rabbit Warrens on Dartmoor

Abstract

This paper examines the siting and operation of stone-built vermin traps associated with rabbit warrens on Dartmoor. A total of 81 vermin traps have been identified from the stone-built funnel walls and at 18 sites the traps still remain in position at the convergence of the funnel. Evidence suggests that the traps are 18th-century or earlier in date and that they do not occur on 19th-century warrens when the use of guns and gin traps for the control of vermin was more usual.     

John Lewyn of Durham: A North Country Master Mason of the 14th Century

Abstract

This paper examines the structural evidence for the claims made on the behalf of the 14th-century master mason, John Lewyn. It suggests that comparison of artistic detail, has limited usefulness when attempting to identify his work. Buildings which, on a superficial level, bear little resemblance to one another, can nevertheless be shown to have significant mutuality of concept when studied in depth. Thus, a close examination of John Lewyn's known works and contemporary buildings suggests that Lewyn was the dominant influence in the northern region during the later 14th century, and that he retained control of planning to a fine level, whilst allowing his deputies varying degrees of independence in the execution of detail.     

Glassmaking in Bagot’s Park,Staffordshire, in the 16th Century

Abstract

Out of 15 glass-making sites found in Bagot’s Park during land reclamation, one, Site 4, was left for examination. Two furnaces were excavated; the larger was for the melting of glass in six crucibles, and was typical of late medieval English practice, being built of brick and stone with a clay dome; it was the first to be excavated with clear evidence of an all-over timber and tile roof. The second, built partly of brick, was for annealing. The main product was Crown window glass; the amount of Broad glass and vessel found was insufficient to say with certainty that they were made on the site.

Archaeological evidence supported by documentary references suggested that the site was in use in the early 16th century, well before the agreement of 1585 between the Bagots and the Lorrainer Henzey family. Such evidence of glass production in this period suggests that the weakness of the English glass industry before 1567 may have been exaggerated.     

The Birmingham Button Industry

Abstract

The city of Birmingham has been the birthplace of many industries and, somewhat surprisingly, one of the most important of these is the button industry, since this small but indispensable item appears to have been a major factor behind the increasing prosperity of 18th- and 19th-century Birmingham.     

On Carvings in Morse Ivory

Abstract

Recent excavations at Beverley Minster contribute significant new information relating to the development of the minster from the later pre-conquest period until the 12th century, as well as some technical detail relating to the 14th-century nave. This paper provides a brief overview of later 19th- to 20th-century considerations of the minster’s origins and development. Thereafter, the results of recent excavations are presented and the impact of these in re-shaping the history of the minster’s development is then considered within the wider context of the minster as a whole. More specifically, evidence is presented for the existence of an early pre-conquest cemetery, perhaps focused on a church of an alignment slightly different from that of the present. The implication of further burials pre-dating a 12th-century nave is also examined. Evidence relating to a large 12th-century aisled nave is also presented and discussion given to the impact this nave had on the rebuilding of the eastern parts of the church after 1188 as well as to the origin of the eastern elements that preceded these.     

The St Helens Iron Foundry

Abstract

Initial documentary research undertaken by Lancaster University Archaeological Unit (LUAU) in 1995 for 'The Hotties Science & Arts Centre Ltd.' (hereafter The Hotties) revealed the existence of a former iron foundry on part of the development site for the wider The World of Glass Project which will portray the technical development and heritage of the glass industry in St Helens. Between January 1996 and November 1997 LUAU were commissioned by The Hotties to undertake a range of archaeological works resulting in the excavation of a smithy complex. Known as the St Helens Iron Foundry, and latterly owned by the Daglish family, the site had an international reputation for the casting and building of steam pumping and winding engines for the mining industry. It was particularly successful during the mid-19th century producing locomotives and bridges for the expanding railway network. The foundry was in continuous production from 1798, until its decline and eventual demolition in 1939.     

Excavations at Stirling Castle 1977-1978

Abstract

An excavation and survey were carried out on the Spur Battery and adjacent areas of Stirling Castle (NS/790940) over three phases of excavation. The subsequent findings conformed with the plans of the 16th-century ‘French Spur’ as illustrated by Slezer and Dury. Further evidence of the 16th-century defences was uncovered in the area adjacent to the Queen Anne Battery.