Newsletter

Dear All,

Well, we've had quite a month - and, as we shall see, we have great things to look forward to as well.

Several Project members attended the Archaeometallurgy Conference at Bradford University in mid-November in honour of Dr Gerry McDonnell's departure to freelance pastures. Jim Brophy & I presented our Project to the international audience and we have now forged welcome links in Sweden and Belgium as well as Ireland too. A great few days was enjoyed by all, and our thanks and compliments go to our hosts.

Gerry and his son very generously joined us the following week for an exploration of a Smelt Mill that is marked on a 1611 map of our area - its remains lurk quietly beneath the side of one of our fields. The day was packed with fieldwalking, a Magnetic Susceptibility survey, quite a bit of deep squelchy mud, and a few test pits, each of which yielded finds. Admittedly they turned out to be corroded modern steel hinges, a bucket and traces of a not-so-old hen house, complete with nails and roof studs. But those modern hinges had laid hidden on some much older rough cobbling - perhaps our first sight of solid evidence of the 400 year old Smelt Mill and we shall explore this very soon.

In recent weeks we have also dug into the mystery that is the cist site high on the hillside. It all began as a hollow that caught our attention for the prosaic reason that it was tucked down out of a particularly violent and chilling wind ... and it turned into one of the most intriguing sites we have come across, The acidity of the soil means there's little to find except stone, but there's plenty of that, complete with constructed voids. The top right picture shows just one patch of the weather-beaten trenches we explored here, and also to the right is our second slingshot from this prehistoric hilltop. We shall return one day to investigate further ...

In the meantime ...

An Invitation to all :

Join us at 10am on Tuesday 15th December for our Christmas Review of the Year - a chance to sit in the warmth of Dacre Top's Schoolroom and take a virtual tour of our discoveries over the last 12 months. Everyone is welcome - bring your families and friends and enjoy some Yuletide refreshments. We shall follow this with lunch (on a pay-as-you-go basis) at the Royal Oak in Dacre. Booking for the lunch is essential - please contact me on gill@iron-age.org if you'd like to come along.

It remains to thank everyone for a stunning year: great archaeology, a variety of events and good company. What more could we ask for?

All the very best,

Gill

Gillian Hovell

Secretary, Iron-Age (Nidderdale) Project

As ever, may we remind you all that the site is on an exposed hillside and waterproofs/suncream and stout footwear are definitely required.

May we stress that the site is on private property with no public right of way - access must be accompanied by a group leader at all times.