From 1997 to 2001, works associated with Carlisle City Council’s Gateway City (Millennium) Project on Castle Way and Castle Gardens provided an important opportunity to conduct a programme of archaeological excavations on the site of the Roman fort at Carlisle, and to examine the development of part of the medieval castle, which occupies most of the fort site. Five main areas were investigated prior to the construction of the Castle Way (Irish Gate) footbridge and the Millennium Gallery and underpass, in what was the largest archaeological excavation undertaken in Carlisle since the early 1980s.

The results of the work greatly enhanced our understanding of the development of the fort during the Roman period, and of Carlisle’s role in the origins and development of the Tyne-Solway frontier system. Important evidence for occupation within the medieval castle’s outer ward was also recovered, and the large ditch separating the castle from the city was investigated. Waterlogging of the lower levels resulted in exceptional preservation of organic materials, which rarely survive on archaeological sites in Britain. These included the remains of numerous wooden buildings and other structures within two superimposed timber forts of the late first- to mid-second century AD, a multiplicity of wooden and leather artefacts of Roman and medieval date, and a wealth of environmental information. Some of the most exciting finds included preserved Roman arm guards and armour pieces, a roman comb with a preserved louse, and a fragment of Roman ruler!

The project was published in three volumes; two monographs presenting the detailed stratigraphic narrative, describing site development from the pre-Roman to post-medieval periods, and detailed evidence of the artefacts and ecofacts from the site, and a third digital appendices volume containing the detailed project data.

In 2003, Oxford Archaeology North commenced a large-scale programme of archaeological study at A & G Murray’s Mill in Manchester, on behalf of the Ancoats Buildings Preservation Trust. The study formed an important element of a major scheme of repairs to the mill complex, which has been given Listed Buildings status (Grades II and II*) in recognition of its immense historic significance, not least for incorporating the only surviving eighteenth-century steam-powered cotton mill in Manchester. The project was financed by the Heritage Lottery Fund in conjunction with the North West Regional Development Agency.

The mill complex was established by Adam and George Murray in 1798, and was one of the first in the world to have been designed to house steam-powered spinning mules. Within eight years, the Murrays had quadrupled the size of their premises. When completed in 1806, it was the largest complex of cotton-spinning mills in Manchester, housing an unprecedented number of spindles and providing employment for more than 1000 operatives. The Murrays concentrated on the production of finely spun cotton, rapidly gaining a reputation for producing the finest yarn available, and supplying national and international markets.

The Murrays chose to establish their factory on a green field site in the Ancoats area of Manchester, situated on the north-eastern fringe of the town. Within a few decades, Ancoats had been transformed from a rural backwater to a densely populated mixed industrial and residential area that was in itself larger than many towns in the surrounding region, yet it was unplanned and largely devoid of amenities and public buildings. It was also widely acknowledged as the manufacturing heart of Manchester, which itself was emerging as a global centre of the cotton industry. In many respects Ancoats represented a new type of townscape, comprising a dense concentration of steam-powered mills and associated factories that were interspersed with tracts of low-cost housing, intended for occupation by the burgeoning population. This manifestation of the urban factory system based on the application of steam power was to characterise numerous northern towns, if not the entire region, into the twentieth century.

A & G Murray remained in production for more than 150 years, spanning the entire era of the steam-powered textile factory, and the mill complex has survived into a post-industrial age as a monumental reminder of the crucial role played by the cotton-spinning industry to the expansion of Manchester.

The project allowed for a comprehensive archaeological investigation of the site, presenting an invaluable opportunity to carry out a detailed survey of an eighteenth-century cotton mill. The scope of archaeological works included research, analysis, survey, and targeted excavation of the mill complex, and was designed to inform decisions regarding the repair, management, and long-term sustainability of the buildings. It was also intended that the work would be published in order to disseminate the results obtained from one of the most detailed archaeological surveys of a steam-powered textile mill ever undertaken.

In March 2004, a Cumbrian metal detectorist, Peter Adams, working, with consent, on farmland belonging to Townfoot Farm, on the western edge of Cumwhitton, a small village in the Eden Valley, south-east of Carlisle, found a brooch in the ploughsoil. The brooch was subsequently identified as a rare Viking oval brooch of ninth- or tenth-century date. These brooches are almost always found in pairs, and in a burial context. Peter Adams therefore returned to the site and subsequently found a second brooch. Given the rarity of these brooches in England, the find was clearly of national importance, so funding was secured for an evaluation of the findspot, to ascertain whether they did indeed come from a grave. This was located and found to be furnished, the grave goods including the remains of a wooden casket, laid at the feet of the deceased. Several more artefacts of the same date, including part of a sword, were found in the surrounding ploughsoil by metal detecting during the evaluation, suggesting that the grave had formed part of a cemetery. A major excavation to record this important site was funded by English Heritage, as it was under immediate threat from plough damage.

In total, six burials were found, dating to the early tenth century, though almost no skeletal material survived as a result of the acidic nature of the soil. The burials were all richly furnished, and contained a wide range of arefacts, including swords, spearheads, spurs, knives, and numerous beads and other objects. Though the objects were poorly preserved, the careful and detailed process of excavation, conservation, and analysis has meant that a wealth of information has been recovered from these objects concerning their original appearance, manufacture, and use. Of particular note were the rare decorated drinking horn, a seax with a silver-inlaid horn handle, a locking wooden casket containing implements associated with textiles, and a unique group of decorated, tinned copper-alloy buckles and strap ends. This rare opportunity has allowed the examination of a closely linked group of Viking burials, probably of a single family and seemingly of not more than two generations. It has highlighted both the similarities and differences between the graves, which might point to some individuality in the burial rites, and the diversity of the cultural origins of the objects that furnished them. Most importantly, this site has provided a tantalising glimpse of the cultural origins, beliefs, and status of these people and how they may have fitted in the volatile political landscape of tenth-century Cumbria.

In 2009 and 2010, OA North undertook extensive excavations at Furness Abbey, just outside of Barrow, Cumbria. The works revealed many aspects of the three construction stages of the medieval presbytery.

The earliest stone-built presbytery, built by the Savigniac Order in c 1127, was an apsidal structure typical of Benedictine-plan churches. This decorative presbytery was torn down shortly after the Cistercian Order took over the abbey in 1150 and replaced by an austere square-ended edifice. By the early fifteenth century even the Cistercians were tired of their austerity measures, and the presbytery was rebuilt a second time, creating the structure that (just about) stands today. During the excavations in 2010 one further discovery was made, one so significant that English Heritage (EH) has only recently lifted a media embargo on the subject.

Amongst several burials excavated within the presbytery, one was found to be accompanied by a spectacular gilded crozier and a bejewelled finger ring. It is the first time in some 50 years that a high-ranking clergyman has been excavated in Britain, and it represent a discovery with few parallels in the era of modern archaeology. The finger ring, found on the skeleton’s right hand, is considered to be of fourteenth-century date, and may have been commissioned personally. The square setting bears a white stone, either a piece of rock crystal, or, perhaps, a white sapphire. The inner part of the bezel forms a pyramidal point, and it is possible that this may have been designed to dig into the man’s finger. This ‘mortification of the flesh’ would have been a constant reminder of his piety, and it is interesting that x-ray revealed a void between the stone and the point, which may have formed a reliquary.

The crozier was found in the crook of the skeleton’s left arm. It is apparent that the head, which is largely made from gilded copper alloy, may be a composite piece that had been altered at least once during its use. The majority is thought to be of twelfth-century date and, although forming a relatively simple crook, is of excellent craftsmanship, with an exquisite (and rather canine) beast head forming the terminal. The modifications comprised the addition of a pair of gilded repoussee discs over a silver background, all secured with gilded nails and effectively filling the void within the original crook. The identical appliqués depict St Michael tussling with a winged dragon and, although the style is somewhat naive, the detail of the archangel’s wings, sword and his decorated round shield can be clearly seen. Again, x-rays were extremely useful in showing the way in which the crozier had been constructed from a series of separate parts, and the fact that the appliqués had been made over the same former.

Along with a small piece of the painted ash stave, a fragment of silk and linen fabric was recovered from inside the crozier, and may be a vestige of the sudarium, a streamer-like cloth that would have adorned the junction of the stave and the head. At the foot of the skeleton was the iron ferrule that would have protected the base of the stave. Neither chalice nor patten, the badges of a priest, were identified in the grave.

Examination of his skeleton indicated that he was about 40-50 years old when he died, some 5’7” tall, well-built and possibly on the tubby side: like many of his peers he suffered from the spinal condition DISH, which is associated with obesity and Type II mature-onset diabetes.Whilst it may seem obvious to draw the conclusion that the man was an abbot (and there are several possible candidates in the Furness Coucher Book), it is unusual for a Cistercian abbot to be buried in the presbytery, which, from the late thirteenth century, generally hosted the graves of those patrons wealthy enough to procure such a holy, and prestigious, position. Rather, Cistercian abbots were generally buried in and around the chapter house, and it is only in the later medieval period that abbots at other monasteries (such as at Fountains Abbey, Yorkshire) were buried in the nave and the choir of the church. It is, of course, possible that the Furness clergyman was an abbot who stemmed from a wealthy patronal family, or whose rule was greatly respected. Alternatively, he could be William Russell (died 1374), one of two Bishops of Man who were known to have been buried at the abbey, and who may have retained sufficient wealth to secure a place in the presbytery.

A team of archaeologists from Oxford Archaeology North (based in Lancaster) monitored by English Heritage and Cumbria County Council's Historic Environment Services, excavated sites on behalf of Birse Civils Ltd along the route of the Carlisle Northern Development Relief Road (CNDR), running to the north and west of Carlisle.

As part of the scheme a new bridge was constructed over the River Eden, and Scheduled Monument Consent was granted to excavate a poorly preserved segment of Hadrian's Wall, where it coincided with the planned bridge abutment. This provided a rare opportunity to address some of the many questions that yet remain unanswered regarding the western end of the Wall and, despite the poor state of its preservation, excavations have yielded excellent results, revealing the lowest courses of the Stone Wall, constructed on top of the original Turf Wall. Below the Turf Wall were earlier field boundary ditches that demonstrate the enclosure of the landscape, either by the Romans, who had already been in the region for fifty years by this time, or by the local tribespeople prior to the Romans' arrival.

On the floodplain on the northern banks of the River Eden, prehistoric remains were unearthed that date back to the first time the landscape was occupied, about 9,000 – 7,000 years ago, providing evidence for some of the earliest Cumbrians. These nomadic hunter-gatherers probably settled there in seasonal camps, perhaps to take advantage of marine and riverine resources, such as migrating salmon. A massive assemblage of struck stone tools – including many projectile points – associated with hearths on the banks of a relict channel of the Eden, show where people made their homes. Preserved wood in the channel bears the evidence of ancient woodworking, but also of other mammals, which shared this habitat. Tree trunks had been gnawed by beavers and dragged together by them to form lodges; it is even possible that the hunter-gatherers were first attracted to a clearing in the wildwood caused by the beavers, who can fell large areas of woodland in a very short time. Claw marks on another log seem much too big for a beaver and, tantalisingly, may hint at bears roaming the area.

Large circular cropmarks 150m upslope of these excavations suggest that two henge-type monuments mark this location on the edge of the floodplain as a once important place of congregation and ceremony for the first farming communities in the region, about 5,000 – 6,000 years ago. Elsewhere, it has been shown that, in the rituals enacted at these monuments and in their surroundings, people often make reference to and draw a contrast between wetland and dryland places. This may explain the unusual finds within the upper sequence of waterlogged channel deposits where, amongst the remains of a rudimentary wooden platform, a decorated pottery vessel, several pristine arrowheads and four stone axes were recovered, characteristic of the Neolithic period. At the same level in the channel were two very unusual wooden artefacts that have been radiocarbon-dated to the fourth millennium BC: three-pronged wooden 'tridents', measuring in excess of 2m in length, carefully carved by stone tools from single green oak planks. Similar artefacts were recovered during the nineteenth century at Ehenside Tarn, near Ravenglass, on the Cumbrian coast, and Armagh, in Northern Ireland, but their function is something of a mystery; it has been suggested that they may have been for agriculture or fishing, although none of the explanations proffered so far seem satisfactory.

Project Website

The detailed archaeological survey undertaken throughout the Lake District between 1982 and 1989 recorded some of the most remarkable field systems and settlements in England, mainly of later prehistoric date. The recording programme was set up to provide for the management of these upland landscapes, to ensure their preservation in the future, and to seek a greater understanding of the character of the occupation of the marginal lands of the Lake District and how this developed over an extended period. The survey involved the detailed recording of the landscape by means of instrument survey, and examined 78 square kilometres of uplands, recording over 10,300 monuments.

This, and subsequent surveys, have demonstrated that the greatest concentration of prehistoric landscapes within the Lake District is on the marginal uplands in Western Cumbria, adjacent to the Cumbrian coastal plain, which has been shown to be an area of Mesolithic and Neolithic activity. This survey programme, however, was geared to recording upstanding monuments and thus it is not surprising that the majority of the remains identified in this programme would appear to be of Bronze Age date and reflect an expansion out from the coastal plain during a period of good climatic conditions. The most common physical expression of this activity was the cairnfield, which reflects the clearance of stone as part of a programme of land improvement.

There was a general dearth of Iron Age-type monuments on the marginal lands which, coupled with palynological evidence indicating some forest recovery during that period, suggests a degree of abandonment of these areas, possibly in response to a climatic decline in the earlier part of the Iron Age. At several sites, particularly on the South-West Fells, there was clear evidence of a reoccupation of the uplands during the Roman period, which may have continued into the early medieval period. At several sites across the Lake District, localised medieval settlement was also found, in some cases developing out of shieling sites, and Post-medieval activity within the extent of the study areas was primarily unintensive pastoral farming, represented by stock shelters and extensive Parliamentary enclosure, but also by localised industrial extraction.

The surveys have demonstrated that a series of nationally important archaeological landscapes survive on the marginal uplands of Cumbria, which form a palimpsest of many periods of activity, and provide a remarkable opportunity to understand the development of the land and its people. As a result of this programme, the archaeological landscapes are now subject to improved management and conservation, and have a significantly greater potential for survival beyond the twenty-first century.