A New Archaeological Survey of Llanmelin Wood Hillfort, Caerwent

Survey in progress by Royal Commission Investigators at Llanmelin Wood hillfort, March 2015. Here GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite System) technology is used to gather highly accurate 3D data.

A new archaeological survey is in progress at the magnificent Llanmelin Wood Iron Age hillfort, which overlooks Caerwent Roman town in south-east Wales. The Royal Commission is working closely with Cadw to provide a new detailed survey and understanding of this important hillfort to underpin a programme of new management, access and interpretation.

In the early 1930s Llanmelin hillfort was the focus of intense activity. An original survey by Sir Mortimer Wheeler was improved by V. E. Nash-Williams who conducted three seasons of excavation between 1930-32. At the time the hillfort was thickly wooded with virtually no clear sight lines. Nash-Williams excavated many narrow excavation trenches and running sections to explore the hillfort. In 2012 a new community excavation led by Cadw with Archaeology Wales was carried out to recover better artefactual and dating evidence including evidence for occupation into the Romano-British period.

Over 80 years on from the original survey, archaeologists Louise Barker and Toby Driver have returned to make a new detailed record of the fort. This is a site where many questions remain. The main hillfort has massive defences like many in south Wales, but it is flanked by a rectangular annex divided into two main compounds and bounded by massive linear earthworks. The 1930s excavations produced two human skeletons on the peripheries of the annex, an incredibly rare find for any Welsh hillfort. Previous opinion has suggested the rectangular compounds were for keeping stock, but there are few entrances. Reappraisal of the site in the Gwent County History suggested Llanmelin may be a late Iron Age oppidum with high status funerary enclosures – the annex - developed alongside the settlement.

Llanmelin hillfort from the air in 2011, AP_2011_1115.

The new survey has identified previously unknown parts of the hillfort defences, discovered traces of an early phase enclosure within the main hillfort and recorded evidence of alterations or rebuilds to the ramparts. It is also making an accurate record of all the 1930s trenches, documenting management issues like animal burrows and erosion, and shedding new light on all parts of this complex site. When complete this will provide a starting point for a fresh appraisal of one of the most important Iron Age hillforts in south-east Wales.

Louise Barker and Toby Driver
Subscribe to the Heritage of Wales News and sign up for the full feed RSS, just click this RSS button and subscribe!

Also find us on:


Twitter Hashtag: #RCAHMWales

Subsiding Storm-hit Shelter reveals lost Marine Baths!

Bathrock Shelter was designed to give protection to promenaders. The four open sides allowed shelter from any direction of wind and rain while, together with the glazed partition walls, preserved uninterrupted views along the sweep of Cardigan Bay.

The recent high tides battering the promenade in Aberystwyth have revealed the remains of the town’s earliest custom built bath-house, as well as causing severe structural damage to the historic shelter at the northern end of Marine Terrace.

Waves reaching over 6ft caused a breach in the facing of the sea wall on Friday night, removing the infill of the promenade beneath the Bathrock Shelter (NPRN: 411501). Built at the northern end of Marine Terrace in the inter-war period, this shelter is an open-sided timber structure in a simple Neo-Georgian style and an excellent example of the street furniture typical of sea-side towns of the early twentieth century. Unfortunately, as the infill has washed away, the concrete pad on which the shelter stood has collapsed and the building has started to subside into the void below.

The washing away of promenade infill by the recent storms has undermined the shelter. Although some twisting of the structure has occurred, the building is otherwise largely intact. Plans are now being made as to how best to stabilise and move the shelter for repair works.

Within the void, a series of basement walls have been uncovered. The Marine Baths were built in 1810 by Rice Williams Esq. a medical doctor who advocated the taking of regular saline baths to  alleviate certain medical conditions.  Saltwater bathing had been claimed as curative from the late seventeenth century, and bathing huts became a common feature of many resorts by the early nineteenth century. Dr Rice’s establishment would have enabled the less adventurous visitor to partake of the delights of sea-water bathing however. Not only were bathers able to take advantage of the private rooms, each provided with a bath ‘six feet long and two and a half wide, lined with Dutch tile, which being much less porous than marble, is more effectually cleansed from all impurities to which they are liable’ but large boilers heated the water so that those of a less robust constitution could avoid the necessity of the cold plunge.

The bath-house was substantial, containing a plunge bath, shower bath and vapour bath in addition to accommodation on the first floor. However, by the late nineteenth century, competition came from a new bath-house on Newfoundland Street (now Bath Street) and the Queens Hotel whose bathrooms offered hot, cold and salt-water taps for the convenience of their guests. In 1892 the Marine Baths closed and subsequent improvements to the north promenade led to demolition of the building.

Within the bastion of the promenade wall, the remains of basement walls belonging to the Marine Baths have been revealed. Cast-iron pipes ran far out into Cardigan Bay to ensure a supply of clean and sand-free saline water. Basement boilers heated the water for those wanting baths of a less invigorating nature.

Initial photographic recording of the basement structures has been carried out by the Royal Commission, and more detailed investigation and recording will take place when safe to do so. Discussions are taking place between Ceredigion Council and Cadw as to how best Bathrock Shelter can be stabilised and repaired.

By: Susan Fielding

Subscribe to the Heritage of Wales News and sign up for the full feed RSS, just click this RSS button and subscribe!

Also find us on:
Twitter Hashtag: #RCAHMWales

Castell Grogwynion … Fort of the white … Ceramics?

The Early Mines Research Group supported by Sarahjayne Clements, CBA bursary holder, RCAHMW, and Keith Haylock, PHD Researcher, Geography Department, University of Aberystwyth, excavating Castell Grogwynion Hillfort.

A small excavation was undertaken at the Iron Age hillfort Castell Grogwynion last week in an attempt to identify a potential Iron Age metal working site located on the northern terrace of the fort. Early mines are fairly elusive archaeologically and searching for them has been the focus of over twenty years’ research by the Early Mines Research Group. Evidence of Iron Age metal working is particularly rare in Ceredigion, despite the importance raw materials evidently held for Iron Age material culture.

Aerial Photograph of the Iron Age hillfort, Castell Grogwynion.

The excavation at Castell Grogwynion was the conclusion of a series of surveys conducted on three north Ceredigion hillforts, Castell Grogwynion, Darren Camp and Pen Dinas, for a research project by Keith Haylock at the Institute for Geography and Earth Sciences (IGES), Aberystwth University, in collaboration with The Royal Commission, and with permission from Cadw.

Using a special portable X-ray Fluorescence (pXRF) ‘gun’ Keith can find out what metals are present in the soils of the hillfort, with the aim of finding high concentrations of prehistoric metal working evidence. This equipment has revolutionised non-destructive archaeological identification of early mine areas, through the detection of metal slag and smelting activities.

Keith Haylock, operating pXRF survey.

The results of the Geophysical Survey taken in 2012. Areas of interest are highlighted with red, 1 = the area excavated.

Out of the three hillforts surveyed only Castell Grogwynion, in English “The fort of the white pebbles”, demonstrated high lead readings, which were focused on the terrace. Geophysical survey in 2012 by ArchaeoPhysica LTD further confirmed this concentration.

To test the nature and date of the lead concentration, Dr Simon Timberlake and the Early Mines Research Group, carried out a limited excavation on the terrace at Castell Grogwynion in early October.

The Early Mines Research Group excavating.

Some of the seventeenth or eighteenth-century pottery recovered at Castell Grogwynion.

Rather than an Iron Age smelting site, far more recent evidence of seventeenth or eighteenth-century lazy-bed cultivation was discovered with lead-glazed pottery and other domestic rubbish tipped into the soil. These findings confirmed that a nearby platform and cultivation terraces within the hillfort, first identified by Louise Barker during the new Royal Commission survey, were indeed the remains of a post-medieval upland cottage settlement.

Post Excavation Analysis.

Post medieval cottage settlements are fairly common in the Welsh landscape, however the structural evidence is rarely accompanied by any artifactual remains. Although Iron Age finds were limited to a single sling shot, it was exciting to discover the sheer quantity of pottery uncovered through the excavation, surprising in such a remote location. Further scanning the pottery with the XRF gun revealed the cause of the initial high metallic reading: the glazing of the pottery contained an unusually high lead content.  The leaching of the lead glaze into the soil was hypothesised to have been the most likely cause of the high metallic readings. The discovery of this pottery demonstrated the importance of XRF for archaeological survey ― it can detect vital and less structural remains including spoil heaps and rubbish dumps, where the most significant artifactual data is often recovered.

All in all it was great to be part of this excavation and watch the story of the Iron Age hillfort unfold and exciting to be part of such important research into the varied uses of new and powerful forms of archaeological remote sensing.
 

Kimberly Briscoe and Sarahjayne CBA Community Bursary Holders, RCAHMW, Castell Grogwynion.

By Kimberly Briscoe, Community Archaeology Placement Holder.


Subscribe to the Heritage of Wales News and sign up for the full feed RSS, just click this RSS button and subscribe!

Also find us on:
Twitter Hashtag: #RCAHMWales

First Tramroad Bridge in Wales, and One of the Oldest in the World

Kymer’s Canal and the Pwll-y-Llygod Tramroad Bridge

Survey in progress at the Pwll-y-Llygoed Tramroad Bridge.
©Crown Copyright. NPRN 43100, DS2013_139_001

Kymer’s Canal is the oldest purpose-built canal in Wales and was constructed by Thomas Kymer between 1766-8. The canal ran for 4.8 kilometres and transported goods from a series of anthracite collieries and limestone quarries situated along the valley of the Gwendraeth Fawr, to a quay at Kidwelly. At Pwll-y-Llygod, which marked the terminus of the canal, a tramroad linked from Carway Colliery. This tramroad crosses the river adjacent to the canal, and the bridge carrying it has recently been the focus of work for the Royal Commission. An important scheduled monument this is the oldest tramroad bridge in Wales and one of the oldest in the World.

Following a request from Cadw, Royal Commission Investigators have been undertaking a detailed survey of the bridge. The structure has suffered damage from recent floods and to help inform repairs it was essential that a detailed survey was undertaken. Using laser scanning and total station technology an accurate three-dimensional record of the bridge has been captured. The data, together with the resulting plans and elevations, will now be archived within the National Monuments Record of Wales. 

Subscribe to the Heritage of Wales News and sign up for the full feed RSS, just click this RSS button and subscribe!

Also find us on:
Twitter Hashtag: #RCAHMWales

Surveying Cottages at Glendalough in Ireland

Glendalough, miners cottages recently surveyed.

At the beginning of February the Metal Links archaeologist, Samantha Jones headed off to Glendalough in Ireland with Louise Barker, Royal Commission investigator. Glendalough, famous for its monastic remains, is also home to a number of mine sites that dot the valley side. The mountains were mined for lead and zinc from at least the 1790s up until the 1950s and as a result the area is littered with the remains of this past industry.

Our visit was at the request of the Glendalough mining heritage group, partners on the Metal Links project. Much of the mine complex at Glendalough has been surveyed by the group however there are remains of a number of miners cottages linked together via lanes and surrounded by field systems that have never been fully investigated. This was therefore the focus for our work.

On our first day we awoke to find it had been snowing throughout the night. Luckily this didn’t stop us and although bitterly cold we cracked on with the survey using both the total station and GPS equipment. Come spring the site will have disappeared beneath a dense covering of bracken, and thus a winter-time survey was essential. Over the two days, we collected all the information on the complex, together with sketches and photographs to help produce a series of plans back in the office.  The site and our survey will now form the focus of an event during County Wicklow’s Heritage Week in August, when it’s hoped that the local community will try their hand at surveying and also provide the Metal Links partners with valuable memories and information about the site.

Subscribe to the Heritage of Wales News and sign up for the full feed RSS, just click this RSS button and subscribe!

Also find us on:
Twitter Hashtag: #RCAHMWales

Ynyslas Wreck Recording Maritime Archaeology

Laser Scanning in action - © Crown Copyright RCAHMW

Yesterday the Royal Commission together with the Robotics Section of the Computer Science Department at Aberystwyth University undertook laser scanning of a former slate-carrying vessel that is eroding out of the steep bank of the River Leri at Ynyslas near Aberystwyth. The vessel is one of three wrecks in the area, all of which were depicted on an Admiralty chart of 1892. They are thought to have been part of the Derwenlas slate-carrying fleet, responsible for transporting slates from the Corris and Aberllefenni quarries. The vessels became redundant following the arrival of the railway, and around 1868 were put to their last useful purpose as markers in the channel.

The wreck at low tide - © Crown Copyright RCAHMW

Recent monitoring of the wreck by the Malvern Archaeological Diving Unit highlighted the increased erosion and exposure of the vessel and it was therefore important to make an accurate record, both to provide benchmark data for future monitoring and also, in the worst case scenario, ensure preservation by record. Laser scanning was the ideal technology to use given the muddy and tidal environment as well as the 3-dimentional nature of the wreck, all of which would have made traditional recording both a challenging and time consuming task.

Detail of the wreck showing the treenail fastenings - © Crown Copyright RCAHMW

Find out more about the wreck here: http://www.coflein.gov.uk/en/site/506769/details/UNNAMED+WRECK/

Subscribe to the Heritage of Wales News and sign up for the full feed RSS, just click this RSS button and subscribe!

Also find us on:
Twitter Hashtag: #RCAHMWales