Athersley Schools Test Pits

Here is a short, non-technical, report of results from the test pits dug by pupils of the three primary schools in September 2013.

Schools test pits.

Archaeology Report 2013

The team excavate at St Helen's Church.

Here is the report of what we found during the first season of archaeological test pits in Athersley and New Lodge as part of the HLF ‘Hands on History’ project. 

Download the full report.

Download the finds report tables.

Digging an Athersley garden.

In September 2013 we excavated 42 archaeological test pits in the gardens, primary school grounds and grounds of St Helen's Church, Laithes Lane, of Athersley and New Lodge. The excavations revealed widespread archaeological evidence from the 18th century through to the modern times, even a piece of medieval pottery was identified. This evidence comes from pottery, clay pipes, glass, animal bones and industrial residues (iron and glass slags). Deliberate burial was also revealed in the form of a dog who is still remembered locally and chance loss was also found in the form of an 18th century gentleman's fob seal.

18th century gentleman's fob seal.

Impression of the Greek or Roman figure on the seal.
Could it be Bacchus / Dionysus? 

The report outlines the aims, methodology and results of the 2013 test pit programme, together with an analysis and interpretation of the results. There are plans showing the locations of test pits.

The test pit programme was managed by Dr. B Bevan and the Romero Community, and supervised by Chris Scurfield. Volunteers from the local community excavated the test pits. Further test pits were excavated by over 100 pupils from three local schools, generating future interest in the archaeology, and also revealing some unexpected results.

We are very grateful to all the owners of gardens and land who offered sites for test pits: 
New Lodge: Beryl Russell, Nicola Kelley, Frank, Mike and Rebecca Jones
Athersley North: Athersley North School, Lyn Shepperd, Lorraine Sykes, Brooks
Ridough, Megan Palmer, Ashleigh McKnight
Athersley South: Father Marshall, Richard Newman & Athersley South School, Carl
Yeates.

Beryl, Sylvia and Chris backfill the first test pit,
New Lodge Crescent.

Thank you to the volunteers who dug the test pits and washed the finds: Carol Clair, Robert

Cartwright, Mary Dalton, Kate Faulkes, Pearl Green, Abbey Jones, Sylvia Nixon, Joanne Mann, Conor O’Connoll, Daniel Parkes, Megan Palmer, Glenis and Mark Ravenscroft, Ashleigh McKnight, Beryl Russell, Brooks & Luke Ridough, and Carl & Poppy Yeates.

Thank you to all the pupils and teachers who took part from Richard Newman, Athersley North and Athersley South schools. 

The excavation of the test pits, finds analysis and production of this report were funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund.