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All Manor of clues dug up at lodge
AN ARCHAEOLOGICAL dig at Sheffield's Manor Lodge has astounded staff by uncovering evidence of an early coal-mining site believed to date back to the early 18th century.
VIDEO: Press the play button to watch our video report.
The two-month dig, conducted in an 'insignificant' area of the ancient Tudor site, defied all expectations when, rather than uncovering 19th century garden material as expected, archaeologists discovered evidence of a site which they believe had been used for coal extraction.
"This dig has just blown what we thought to be true about this particular part of the site wide open," explained Peter Machan, Education and Interpretive Officer at Manor Lodge.
"The teams were just getting ready to wrap up the dig when the discovery was made."
Manor Lodge was built on the large site in 1510 and was home to the sixth Earl of Shrewsbury.
It is best known for its most famous resident Mary Queen of Scots, who was imprisoned there by the Earl, at Elizabeth I's request, for 14 years from 1570 to 1584.
A number of digs have taken place in its grounds in the last 150 years.
"This really began as a test dig, a chance to investigate a part of the courtyard that hadn't been extracted before," said Dawn Hadley, the project director and lecturer of archaeology at The University of Sheffield.
"We weren't expecting to find big holes cut into the bedrock and, when we followed the shelves of bedrock down, we couldn't believe what we found.
"We noticed the soil getting darker, much darker than the 19th century soil, and the bedrock sloped down so we followed it.
"There's no evidence of the 19th century garden materials at this point, a lot of tests will now be conducted to confirm what we have found here, but we're quite certain it is an early attempt to extract coal, dating back to the 18th century."
The dig also uncovered previously hidden foundations near the ruins of the Long Gallery.
"The foundations are enormous and well below ground level - we don't know what they were," Dawn told The Star.
"They are set far lower than we believe the ground level was in Tudor times, and it shows a long stone wall running to the Long Gallery, so all theories are up in the air now.
The staff of Manor Lodge and archaeologists were on a tight deadline to get answers, as the funding for the dig ran out on Monday and, at that point, the site was filled in.
"There's also a brick arch structure on one side but, again, we have no idea what it is or why it's so far underground."
"It's impossible to preserve what we have found, but we have recorded and documented everything very carefully so we will study these properly once the site is no longer available to us," said Dawn.
The dig at Manor Lodge has been going on for nearly eight weeks with around 70 different archaeologists taking part.
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"There's also a brick arch structure on one side but, again, we have no idea what it is or why it's so far underground."
The staff of Manor Lodge and archaeologists were on a tight deadline to get answers, as the funding for the dig ran out on Monday and, at that point, the site was filled in.
"It's impossible to preserve what we have found, but we have recorded and documented everything very carefully so we will study these properly once the site is no longer available to us," said Dawn.
The dig at Manor Lodge has been going on for nearly eight weeks with around 70 different archaeologists taking part.
Nik Brear
NIK BREAR
Digital Reporter
bb
Exciting discovery: Archaeologists at the Manor Lodge site
Hole lot of excitement: Top, Peter Machan by one of the tunnels and artefacts from the old kiln dug up by the archaeologists, right and above.
Pictures: Sarah Washbourn
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Saturday 26 May 2012
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