Gazetteer Of Sites Research Articles

The Archaeology of Industrialisation and the Textile Industry: The Example of Manchester and the South-western Pennine Uplands During the 18th Century (Part 2)

Between the early 18th century and the mid-19th century the north-west of England was turned from a relatively impoverished backwater to one of the major industrialisation zones in the world. This is thus a key region for understanding the archaeology of the early stages of industrialisation. The area around Manchester was at the heart of this process, which was driven in this region by the mechanisation of the textile industry. The archaeological remains of this industrial transition are not only very extensive but also comparatively early when considered against the classic period of the Industrial Revolution; the decades either side of 1800. This paper discusses this early evidence and the results of a wide-ranging regional survey looking at the archaeology of industrialisation within the textile industry and the role of local tenant farmers in promoting industry in and around Manchester during the 18th century. It highlights a number of key sources of evidence for this period, provides a gazetteer of sites and suggests some future directions for archaeological research into the early industrialisation of this important region. The first part was published in Industrial Archaeology Review XXX.1.

Sub-Roman Britain (AD 400-600): A gazetteer of sites by Christopher A. Snyder (review)

Reviews christopher a. snyder, Sub-Roman Britain (AD 400—600): A gazetteer ofsites. BAR British Series 247. Oxford: Tempvs Reparatvm, 1996. Pp. 70. isbn: 0-86054-824-4£17. Christopher Snyder's gazetteer of British sites inhabited during the Arthurian era will be welcomed by Arthurians at several levels ofexpertise and research orientation; it will probably prove most useful to the informed amateur traveler, but will also serve the serious scholar specializing in other fields as a reliable checklist for rapid reference. Although far from exhaustive, its author's gift for the concise entry makes it a genuine asset. This book opens with a brief(pp. 6-13) but thoughtful discussion ofthe nature of archeological evidence available for this period ofmaximum transition. Part II, fourfifths of the whole, consists of more than a hundred entries from five regions of Roman Britain, classified by Snyder as the East, the Southwest (the densest, with twenty-five entries), Wales, the Midlands (only twelve entries), and the North. The longer entries (such as South Cadbury and Tintagel) each occupy on the average a full, two-column, atlas-sized page. On South Cadbury Castle, Snyder offers his readers an eighteen-item bibliography, most ofit by Leslie Alcock, precisely cited in thirteen endnotes. That entry surveys with commendable dispassion the issue of that site's identification with Camelot, from John Leland to Alcock and Ashe. Unfortunately, the tamparts are cited as examples of 'murrus [sic] gallicus' construction, one ofthe infrequent misspellings in this carefully prepared edition. Would that the editors' care with typography had been matched by a modicum of imagination in visual design! Tintagel, the subject of Snyder's 1994 Emory Ph.D dissertation, is treated more richly. Eight authors—Ian Burrow, Kenneth Dark, OD. Morris, Jacqueline Nowakowski, Oliver Padel, C.A.R. Radford, Michael Swanton, Charles Thomas— figure in the bibliography, and Snyder's presentation ofcurrent theories—monastic centet, royal fortress, long-distance trading port—is remarkably even-handed. The numerous inevitable omissions from this selective list are occasionally regrettable. One misses some reference to the much-visited and somewhat controversial Chedworth villa, the latest wing of which has been claimed as lateRoman . The excellent discussion ofLate-Roman, Romano-British, and barely Roman Celtic evidence from Silchester, which Snyder sees as remaining the centet ofa 'Saxonfree zone' well into the seventh century, makes all the more disappointing the lack of arthuriana 8.2(1998) reviews143 reference to parallel evidence from nearby Dorchester-on-Thamcs, which Sonia Chadwick Hawes has proposed as the possible seat ofa late Romano-British prince supported by Saxon mercenaries (see her Chapter 6 in Archaeology ofthe Oxford Region, Grace Briggs, Jean Cook, and Trevor Rowley, eds.: Oxford U.P., 1986). It is pleasant to reflect that the tapid progress of British archeology makes an occasional assessment of Snyder's no longer accurate (certainly through no fault of his own). The most striking instance may well be the announcement in the summer of1997 ofthe spectaculat discovery ofa hoard offifth-century gold coins in Sussex, which requires emendation of his remark on p. 7 of the prolegomenous Part I that 'Britain betrays a unique pattern ofhoarding, for gold coins are almost nonexistent, while silver and bronze boards are quite numerous.' It is safe to suppose that the author will amend that judgment soon in subsequent editions of this very handy compendium. JEREMY duQ. ADAMS Southern Methodist University Robert E. bjork and john D. niles, A BeowulfHandbook. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 1977. Pp. 466. isbn: 0-8032-1237-2. $60. A BeowulfHandbook makes a timely, perhapscrucial appearance in an oddly inconstant age for Old English studies. The first-rank essayists of this collection honor the distinguished history of their field of inquiry even as they and their fellow AngloSaxonists are also retooling their field for rapidly expanding electronic scholarship. Taken collectively, the essays in this volume communicate the excitement of their moment. Ironically it is the same moment when many American graduate programs ofvarying distinction have marginalized Old English and scholarly study ofBeowulf. As a result, too many English departments teach a drasticallyabridged literary tradition that offers diminished opportunity for growth ofindividual talent. If, as it seems, the energy to reverse...

Nineteenth Century Tin and Lead Dressing: A Comparative Study of the Field Evidence

This paper surveys the growing divergence between the methods used for dressing lead and tin ores in Great Britain in the course of the nineteenth century. It is based as far as possible on archaeological and field evidence and the limitations of documentary evidence for the study of mineral dressing are considered. The passage of both lead and tin ore is traced from its emergence from the mine to sale to the smelters, looking at methods of storage, reduction, concentration and secondary processing. The authors use examples of recent site work in Derbyshire, Wales, Cornwall and the north of England as well as their own surveys and excavations of mineral dressing sites. The paper attempts to account for the changing methods employed for the dressing of both minerals during the nineteenth century and evaluates the comparative field' evidence. A selective. gazetteer of sites in the British Isles with surviving dressing floors is appended.(Note: there are two sets of numbers in the text. Those prefixed S refer to the site gazetteer: those without a prefix are references. Both are listed at the end of the text.)

Nineteenth Century Tin and Lead Dressing: A Comparative Study of the Field Evidence

This paper surveys the growing divergence between the methods used for dressing lead and tin ores in Great Britain in the course of the nineteenth century. It is based as far as possible on archaeological and field evidence and the limitations of documentary evidence for the study of mineral dressing are considered. The passage of both lead and tin ore is traced from its emergence from the mine to sale to the smelters, looking at methods of storage, reduction, concentration and secondary processing. The authors use examples of recent site work in Derbyshire, Wales, Cornwall and the north of England as well as their own surveys and excavations of mineral dressing sites. The paper attempts to account for the changing methods employed for the dressing of both minerals during the nineteenth century and evaluates the comparative field' evidence. A selective. gazetteer of sites in the British Isles with surviving dressing floors is appended.(Note: there are two sets of numbers in the text. Those prefixed S refer to the site gazetteer: those without a prefix are references. Both are listed at the end of the text.)

Cooking-Pots and the Origins of the Scottish Medieval Pottery Industry

SUMMARYThe ‘Northern British Cooking-Pot’ stems from Saxo-Norman antecedents, and is found in two basic light-coloured fabrics, the ‘Gritty Northern’ and the ‘Staxton Ware Type’. From Yorkshire the type spread in the early thirteenth century west over the Pennines to Carlisle and thence to south-west Scotland. Present evidence suggests that while ‘Gritty Northern’ ware traditions may have spread to eastern Scotland by an overland route, there is reason to suppose there was close contact between the potteries of Fife and Angus and those of the Scarborough district in the late thirteenth century. While in Scotland there is a considerable hybridization of forms and fabrics, ‘Gritty Northern’ ware appears predominant north of the Forth, ‘Staxton Type’ ware to the south. In the fourteenth century distinctively Scottish local variants occur. French and Low Countries influences on early Scottish pottery are discussed, a tentative Scottish cooking-pot type-series put forward, and a gazetteer of sites producing ri...