Archaeology students take their research into the South Pennines

Liza Kavanagh (right) with Marsden National Trust volunteer Nick Pollett, (left) and John Smithson, of Huddersfield and District Archaeology Society (centre) analysing peat at the University of Bradford

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Two Masters Students from the University of Bradford are benefiting from the wealth of archaeology in the South Pennines.

Liza Kavanagh and Ronald Organ are working towards their masters degrees and both have linked their research with the Watershed Landscape Project, managed by rural regeneration company Pennine Prospects.

Thanks to her twin role as community archaeologist with Pennine Prospects and honorary research fellow in archaeology at the university Louise Brown has been able to link both students with contacts and resources relevant to their studies.

“We’ve invited students to get involved with the existing projects managed by Pennine Prospects. Liza is looking into the benefits of community involvement to archaeological research, which is very relevant for this area as there are so many community groups working in the South Pennines,” explained Louise.

“And Ronald is linking in with our Riches of the Earth project. In his fieldwork he’s using geophysical survey techniques, or ‘geofizz’, to look underground and try to understand the nature of the many holes associated with coal mining on Baildon Moor.”

Liza has run three workshops with people from various different groups to introduce a wider audience to the scientific methodology involved in trying to recreate our past environments.

“Community archaeology is well established in Britain,” explained Liza.“We took a group onto Marsden Moor to collect peat samples by using a corer. The group then spent a day in the university laboratory analysing the samples of pollen remains, some of which were 10,000 years old and dated back to the last ice age.”

“I think everyone really enjoyed the workshops and it’s shown me what’s involved in working with community groups,” added Liza, who following her MSc in Bradford would like to return to her native Ireland to help develop community archaeology there.

"Ron has conducted his fieldwork on Baildon Moor, by using electrical resistance tomography, a technique for imaging sub-surface structures, he is hoping to find out if there are any galleries under the moor that correspond to a schematic diagram of former mine workings dating back to the 1860s.”

“According to council records the mines were operational in the mid-nineteenth century but the coal supplies were commercially exhausted by 1850.” explained Ron.

“As far as we know there were three main mines on Baildon Moor: the Lobley Gate Pit, Brantcliffe and Dobrudden Flats. I’m concentrating my fieldwork in the area of Dobrudden for this project but there is so much more work that can be done in this fascinating landscape.”

The Riches of the Earth project, is investigating the industrial heritage of the South Pennines, with a focus on mining activities on Baildon Moor and Todmorden Moor, and stone quarrying on Oxenhope Moor. Funding for the Watershed Landscape project is provided by the Heritage Lottery Fund, and the South Pennines LEADER programme, (the Rural Development Programme for England), which is jointly funded by Defra and the European Union, and managed by Pennine Prospects.