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Kibboth Crew – Report

A  Layman’s  Report

This report gives a layman’s account of the dig at Kibboth Crew. Not having had any training in Industrial Archaeology I can only tell you what I observed over the three weeks of the dig and what we were told by the archaeologists at the time. For a technical account we will have to wait for the official report from Adam Thompson from the University of Manchester Archaeology Unit, who was in charge of the dig.

Kate Slingsby

INTRODUCTION

Although there was a fulling mill on the site from 1778 (or possibly 1710), we know that it was redeveloped or rebuilt after 1850. It was this later building which we were excavating in Spring 2007, with very little evidence of the earlier mill underneath.

The features of the mill are reported roughly in the order in which they were found.

Preparing the site

Preparation involved fencing the site, delivering a portaloo, and undertaking three days work with a mini-digger. John, the digger driver, was supervised by the university archaeologists and because of his competence and delicate touch, the digger was used to expose a number of the features of the mill. Spoil was a problem as it could not be removed from this very restricted site. This was a frustration to the archaeologists, volunteers and landowners alike who would all have loved to excavate down to the older mill shown on maps up to 1850. However, inability to dig in this area led us to focus on the more recent mill on the site.

Large stone Arch

Perhaps the most striking feature of the site was the arch of dressed stones, which was still in excellent condition. Many of us thought that it looked like a doorway, an idea that Adam Thompson from UMAU soon discounted because it was not in a suitable place. He thought it might be something to do with the machinery. Call in other experts and what do you get? Both Norman Redhead (Assistant County Archaeologist) and Dr Mike Nevell (Director of UMAU) thought it looked like a garden ornament, although neither of them believed it was, of course.

 

 

The  Water Wheel Pit

John Wild had previously brought in a mini-digger to excavate the wheel pit and so all but the northern end against the dam wall was clearly visible. One of the wheel bearings was still in place and the other one, which was near by, was moved back almost to its correct position by the mini-digger.

The Dam

The most visible feature, looming over the site, was the dam, which was completely cut through with a wedge shaped gap at its northern end. However, perhaps because of its proximity to the mill and the steepness of the sides of this little valley, a surprising number of people did not realise what it was until it was pointed out to them. The breaching of the dam and the death of a local woman in March 1894 is told in the section of this CD titled A Victorian Tragedy.

 

Walls

One of the walls of the mill, which lies parallel to the wheel pit and stands high above the top of the pit, was very obvious, but other walls on the left hand side of the track leading to the site were less easy to see. Before the dig began Adam surprised us by identifying another wall beneath our feet, which we could not see until the mini-digger removed earth from around it. Part of this wall, which ran east-west across the site, was one of the boundaries of a large rectangular room excavated during the dig.

Rectangular Room

The rectangular room was first unearthed by the mini-digger and the top of a large square stone in the middle of the room then became visible. Thereafter all the excavation work was done by hand with spade and mattocks, and Bryan Farlow deserves the ‘man of the match’ award for determinedly digging down to its floor some 3 feet below the surface.

 

Eventually it was discovered that the square stone was sitting across a culvert in the floor, the remainder of the floor consisting of 2 very large flat stones. The size of these stones gave the impression that the room must have been built for some heavy machinery. It was, at first, thought that this was the engine house. However Mike Nevell pointed out that there were no fixing holes and said he felt that the engine mountings lying parallel to the wheel pit were still in their original place. In one corner of this room were what appeared to be large ceramic washers and, like the room itself, their purpose was not known.

Engine Mountings

The engine mountings consisted of two large stones, although only one of these had been visible through the undergrowth. Excavation later revealed that they lay on a bed of at least three layers of bricks. Both stones had large grooves carved in them with bolt holes for fixing machinery.

The second stone also had an asymmetrically curved basin (with a metal plug in situ) at one end, and it was here that the difference of approach between the volunteers and the archaeologist became most obvious.

Volunteers had firm opinions as to its purpose “It’s a sink”, “It’s for the end of a piston”, “It’s shaped like that for a cam”. The professional just described it’s physical shape and the material it was made of, and after making an educated but cautious guess as to its purpose, reminded us that it might be re-interpreted at a later date. Incidentally, for those of you who wish to know, according to Dr Mike Nevell, the cam had it!

Cast Iron Pipe

Maps show that after the dam burst the stream flowed through the breach and into a waterway before going underground. This culvert was made of Accrington brick and had been clearly visible before the dig. A large cast iron pipe then ran underground across the site until it emptied the water into the lodge below.

This pipe was partly excavated by the mini-digger and partly by hand. The fact that someone had gone to the trouble and expense of installing the pipe might suggest that the mill still had some sort of use after the dam burst.

 

Flag Flooring

At the start of the dig John and Gill Wild had intended to leave exposed everything that was found. A floor to the mill was not expected, as John had previously explored this possibility when he used a mini-digger to excavate the wheel pit.

So Gill planned to plant bulbs and shrubs around whatever features protruded from the soil at the end of the dig. However, soon after we started a stone paved floor began to be uncovered by a number of volunteers in various places across the site of the building.

It looked as though patio tubs would be required and John thought that Gill might want to put out table and chairs! More digging showed that one line of flags was very uneven and some stones appeared to have tipped and sunk a little. There was no stopping the archaeologists at this point, as Adam was looking for evidence of the by-wash or culvert which allowed water to bypass the wheel when it was not in use. So the prospective patio was sacrificed and trenches were dug.

Culverts

The search was on for the by-wash. The first stone in the flag flooring was lifted and a very small trench dug. This was so narrow that Adam’s feet would not fit across the width of the pit and not having child labour available to us, Bill, our slimmest volunteer was set to work. Having dug down about 3 feet no culvert was found, although he had cut through several layers of soil on the way. Not being easily deterred Adam lifted another stone and digging was started again, but again nothing was found. Still hot on the trail he ordered a third pit to be dug. This seemed to be in the least likely spot, as it would mean that the culvert ran under the heavy engine bed and sure enough after several hours digging Lynn and Peter drew a blank. It was only after Jackie, Graham and other volunteers deepened the same pit that the by-wash was finally found.

It was a surprise to us, though not to the experts, that the site seemed to be riddled with culverts. One ran from the wheel pit through the floor of the large rectangular room and went underground again to the lodge below. In fact this seemed to be totally intact  and it was reported that daylight could be seen by those intrepid enough to put their heads down it. The by-wash too was culverted to the lodge and this appeared at the bottom of another trench towards the end of the dig.

Another culvert was eventually found where the flag flooring ran to the north wall and Lynn and Pete who had started the search for the by-wash, had another futile dig in this area too. Following in their steps Janet, Bob and possibly some others dug down until an opening into the culvert was revealed and it could be clearly seen running away from the dam and turning west by the wall supporting the spoil. This culvert however was special in a different way, in that it may well have come from the old mill building still hidden under the spoil heap.

Another small culvert-like structure was found on the last day, which ran from somewhere near the tree and entered the waterway from the wheel pit beyond the large rectangular room. No suggestion as to its use has been offered.

The Boiler House

Since this was the site of a mill, it was hoped that there would be further evidence of the power source and machinery, in addition to the mountings for the engines already described. Knowing that these were steam engines Adam was also looking for a boiler house from early on in the dig. Buildings by the track leading to the mill showed on early maps, and two parallel walls in that area were soon under investigation. What emerged was a stone built, brick-lined building, likely to be a boiler house, but considered rather small for the job. However no other evidence of another boiler house was found.

Small pipes were found in a couple of places in this part of the site, one of which entered the rectangular room at quite a high level. Another emerged from under a stone which looked as though it had been carved in situ to allow enough space for the pipe to pass beneath it.

Strangely, some curved bricks were found that according to Mike Nevell would have been round the bottom of the boiler. But these had clearly been re-used, they had each been broken in half and were laid out in a line on the ground.

Machinery

Rather disappointingly no mill machinery was found. However as fulling stocks may have been made of wood, they might have crumbled away or, perhaps more likely, may have been removed when the mill closed. In fact the only piece of equipment found must have been removed from its original place as it was unearthed in the ground outside the main building. This strange wood and metal object, broken into several pieces, was the subject of much speculation as it was gradually uncovered. Whilst it originally looked rather like a skateboard or a small bogey, we eventually decided that it didn’t have wheels after all. Luckily Mike Nevell called on the last morning of the dig and identified it as a line-shafting box, this being an open-ended wooden box with metal attachments to fasten it to a wall, or ceiling.

Its purpose was to protect the drive shaft, which would have passed through it, and to stop anyone accidentally touching the rotating shaft. Not much to go on, perhaps, but at least some evidence of an industrial process in the mill.

Pottery shards

As this was an industrial rather than a residential site, the pottery finds were on the whole not very significant. Some of the pottery was 20th century waste including some wall tiles and, rather strangely, a one and a half inch high plastic Japanese soldier! Most shards came from the 19th century and included remains of earthenware pots and stems from clay pipes, and one entire beer bottle. However there was at least one piece dating back to the 18th century and even more surprising was a piece of 17th cent slipware which is thought to have been made between 1620 and 1680. Bearing in mind that the earliest known date of this site is 1710, the significance of this find is not clear.