Investors in People

Today we have heard that Ironbridge Archaeology have been officially recognised as Investors in People. This recognition means that we meet the Investors in People standard. In the jargon of the Investors in People scheme, this specifically means that...

1. A strategy for improving the performance of the organisation is clearly defined and understood.
2. Learning and development is planned to achieve the organisation's objectives.
3. Strategies for managing people are designed to promote equality of opportunity in the development of the organisation's people.
4. The capabilities managers need to lead, manage and develop people effectively are clearly defined and understood.
5. Managers are effective in leading, managing and developing people.
6. Peoples' contribution to the organisation is recognised and valued.
7. People are encouraged to take ownership and responsibility by being involved in decision making.
8. People learn and develop effectively.
9. Investment in people improves the performance of the organisation.
10. Improvements are continually made to the way people are managed and developed.

Although we thought we were doing this anyway it is nice to be inspected by an external body and found to be up to scratch.

Merry Christmas!

On Friday we had our Christmas lunch, at the Kynnersley Arms.

Sophie Watson, Paul Belford, Emma Dwyer, Simon Roper and William Mitchell



Our association with the 'Kyn' goes back to May 2001 when we were digging holes with the Time Team. On that occasion we actually managed to keep control of the mad TV archaeologists, and the results were very interesting.

Beneath the pub are the remains of a blast furnace, built in the mid 17th century and in use for over 100 years. Our work with the Time Team discovered the hearth of this furnace and the extent of associated features. Since then the landlady - Jane Wood - has been extremely busy with local groups fundraising and restoring the remains of the furnace and the 18th century mill machinery.

As usual we went for our Christmas lunch this year with our colleagues at the Ironbridge Gorge Museum library and archives and with the Ironbridge Institute.

John Powell, Jenny Bill, Joanne Smith (Library) and Janice Fletcher (Institute).

Contemporary Archaeology

Although we have been doing work on the 20th and 21st century archaeology of many of our sites, we have only recently developed an explicit approach to 'contemporary archaeology'. Following recent discussion in the contemporary archaeology community we have decided to set up an entirely new blog devoted to the subject of contemporary archaeology.

The first 'project' to feature - appropriately enough given the time of year - is an exercise in 'Postal Archaeology' undertaken by Emma Dwyer and Simon Roper.

Stourbridge

We have been monitoring the partial demolition of a former iron foundry site at Stourbridge. The site was built in the late 18th century and was one of the larger foundries in the west midlands during the industrial period. It sadly closed in the early 21st century, and now forms part of the canal-side redevelopment here. These photos were taken last week.

A crisp frosty morning.

Inside the main foundry building - cold and quiet today but only a few years ago a scene of heat and activity.

One of the buildings associated with the foundry.








This Grade II* listed 18th century building has been appropriated as an artistic canvas by members of the local community. We are recording this graffiti as part of the project. Current conservation ethos is likely to require that this building is restored to a point in time that is not December 2005, thus removing this period of the site's development from the official narrative.

Clear blue winter skies.

Jackfield Mill Building

Some cosy Christmas views of the Mill Building at Jackfield, as the final stage of recording was being undertaken last week. Some photos taken last month can be found by scrolling down or going here.

This is the south wall of the west pan room.

This is William posing for the camera!


This is the lid of a colour jar, with the word 'yellow' written across it.

Diggers at Work

Often in archaeology too much attention is paid to the finds and not enough to the finders. Despite its pretentions as a science, archaeology is a very subjective entity and a great deal of interpretation rests on the shoulders of its most junior practitioners.



Since May 2005 we have been been recording our staff and others at work on our sites.

An initial series of these photos is in the process of being posted here. Please be patient, it would be best to wait until early December to see more than one or two photos.

Upper Coalbrookdale Landscape - update

This project is the latest part of the CHART programme of research into the landscape of Coalbrookdale. Earlier in the autumn we began archaeological investigation of an area above the Darby Houses. This area is now known as the 'Arboretum', and this was laid out and planted in 1805. However it partly overlies an older formal walled garden which is depicted in engravings of the mid-eighteenth century and has disappeared from present-day interpretations or understanding of the landscape.

Detail of a 1759 engraving of the garden by Francois Vivares (IGMT Collections)



Our work involved walkover survey, geophysical survey and excavation. Not only were we trying to establish the survival of remains associated with the eighteenth century garden, but we were also asking questions about its origin.

Resistivity survey in progress - attempting to locate the southern wall.





The excavation work looked at various components of the garden, and discovered previously unidentified elements of the walls and original paths. However the main focus was on the Summer House shown at the top of the garden in the engraving (above). We located the original eighteenth century building, and also discovered evidence for its modification in the nineteenth century.

One of three trenches on the summer house site; original walls appear as infilled foundation trenches.


Further work on this site will be undertaken next year, and we will be seeking volunteers to work on the project. Please email us for further information.

Jackfield Mill Building

This work is now nearly completed. Our analysis of the building during restoration work has revealed a great deal of new information. Previous studies of how the site worked have relied heavily on historical documentary sources or on incomplete inspections of the site. Now our work is approaching a 'definitive version' of events.

Flint grinding pans still in situ in the Mill Building








Mounting blocks for blungers and bearing box.














Of course there is still a great deal of analysis to be done. We need to reconcile the evidence from the buildings with the known historical data and early map evidence.

In 2006 are hoping to produce a monograph on our work at Jackfield. This will be written by Sophie Watson and Simon Roper, with contributions by others who have worked on the site over the last 20 years - including Tony Herbert, Tim Jenkins and Shelley White.

Finds from Jackfield

Here are some of the finds from the excavation of the kiln and associated features at Jackfield. Some photos of the kiln itself can be found by scrolling down on this page, or by clicking here.


A selection of the assemblage - creamware, a saggar, kiln furniture and slipware.

Some more slipware.
Arguably one of the nicest pieces of pottery found in the Gorge for some time, a beautiful slipware jug.

Finds from Wednesbury

Here some of the more interesting finds from our recent excavations in Wednesbury. More information about the site will appear in due course.

Unusual to see lithics in a post-medieval context but these are eighteenth century gun flints.

A porcelain bowl made in c.1780 by the Caughley factory in Shropshire.

Holloways ointment jar, dated to 1842-1867 by the firm's location at 244 The Strand, London.

Early pottery making at Jackfield (2)

Here are some photos of the kiln and other features recently excavated at Jackfield...
(scroll down a couple of posts for background info).

The first three photos were taken at the end of last week, the last two were taken today.


General view of the kiln. The wall down the middle is from a later building.




The outside of the hovel wall is still standing nearly 2m in height


A brick-lined clay storage pit, and the saggars which have been excavated from it.



These photos were taken today, and show progress on excavating the centre of the kiln, and also exposing the rest of the outer hovel wall...


Here is the newly-discovered part of the kiln, showing the outer hovel wall and the well-preserved floor inside. You can also see the quarry tiled floor of the abutting building in the foreground.


The centre of the kiln... the curved wall here is the base of an earlier kiln.

Culvert survey in Wednesbury

Today we were working at Wednesbury with Waterco (specialist water engineers) to try and explore the extent of an old culvert running underneath the site. We had discovered the culvert back in June, but had not been able to explore it thoroughly ourselves.

The guys from Waterco brought with them a remote-operated vehicle. Unfortunately there was not enough water in the culvert for it to operate properly, so various ad hoc efforts were made to improve floatation. Here we see the eventual result, with two 100mm water pipes lashed to the robot keeping its head (camera) up and its tail (propellors) down.


This is the main chamber with the outflow from the old tailrace seen in the distance. The culvert underlies three phases of building, the earliest being early 19th century, so the culverting of this watercourse probably dates from that period.

Early pottery making at Jackfield (1)

Excavations during the redevelopment of Jackfield Tile Museum last week discovered a kiln and other features relating to the early pottery industry. The kiln, which probably dates to the late 18th or early 19th centuries made slip-decorated earthenwares. We have recovered a number of wasters and saggars...

...and today we have opened up the centre of the kiln and discovered a possibly earlier kiln underneath! We have also found a nice quarry-tiled floor in the remains of a building abutting the kiln, quite probably the earliest surviving bit of tiled floor extant at Jackfield.

More news (and photos) will appear here soon...

First steel furnace in England

After five seasons of hard work at Coalbrookdale we have discovered the first cementation steel furnace in England. The furnace was built by the industrialist Sir Basil Brooke in 1619.


The 2005 season was another collaboration between the Ironbridge Gorge Museum and Wilfred Laurier University. With students from the UK, Canada and the US under the expert - if sometimes slightly frazzled - guidance of directors Paul Belford and Ron Ross, we finally were able to answer our many questions about this important site. More information about the project, and about the ongoing programme of research, can be found here.

Upper Coalbrookdale Landscape Project

This exciting new project is exploring the early non-industrial landscape of the upper part of Coalbrookdale. Using a variety of methodologies and approaches, we are beginning to understand the wider 17th and 18th century landscape in all its wondrous complexity...


...a fascinating palimpsest of formal gardens, avenues, pools, woodland and even a water tower. Geophysics, environmental sampling and excavation are all being deployed. We hope to run a large excavation next year to fully expose the remains of the 18th century summer house.

The old archaeology van

Well what can we say? A very battered old transit van, built in 1991 and amazingly still in use at the Museum, although now no longer by the archaeology team.

Some famous accidents and incidents include...

• Hitting a lamp-post on Dale Road after a bizarre skid - needed extensive remedial work at the Ford factory before being returned to service (c.1995? we think) - the stump of the old lamp-post remained in situ until recently (M. Worthington)
  
• In use as a diving board at a notorious archaeology party of the late 1990s at the Lloyds, dents in the roof still evident (S. White)
  
• Being apprehended by Customs and Excise en route back from Barrow in 2003 with a broken exhaust, enquiring if we were using red diesel! (S. Roper)

A EULOGY TO THE VAN supplied by Kurt Vincent...

...incidently Michael wiped out the entire "Steel" fencing along the pathway which used to run parallel with the road, one of the horizontal lengths of 50mm steel tube pierced its way through the near side panel and opening it up like a tin can, Michael was very lucky....resulting in the whole one side of the van needing to be replaced, hence no signage on one side to date. This very sad looking and abused vehicle who's life has been a rocky one, is now sitting at Furrows Telford with Axle/Diff/Gearbox/Clutch problems, which it's repairs being estimated more than it's value.......all it ever wanted was a careful loving owner, a pair of furry dice to proudly display around its mirror, a leather wheel cover, leopard skin seat covers, 12" spotlights, Starsky & Hutch style white lightning transfers to the sides and to be driven along the backbone of Britain, instead it was subject to torturous "local" roads, wheelbarrows and shovels, hedges and fields, wild party nights, the "vinyl gloves treatment" over fuel type by the ministry and to be left naked and exposed on Dale Road. May this van's suffering and turmoil finally end and may it rest in eternal peace.......Amen !! :-)

Any more stories and tales about this epic vehicle from Ironbridge staff past and present... please add your comments!

The hidden history of tilemaking

Recent comprehensive restoration work on the Mill Building at Jackfield has revealed an interesting and remarkable collection of early encaustic tile moulds from the early days of the Craven Dunnill factory.

These moulds, dating from the 1870s, were recovered from rubble deposits beneath the floor of what now appears to be a possible blunging area. Many of the patterns were previously unknown, and curators Michael Vanns and Tim Jenkins enthusiastically waded in with the archaeology team to assist in the retreival of these interesting artefacts.

More information can be found here.