BCA Newsletter - Bidston Community...
Transcript of BCA Newsletter - Bidston Community...
Spring/Summer 2013
Message from the Editor
A very warm welcome to all our members both old and new.
As this is our first newsletter of the year we hope to give you
an insight as to what has been happening recently and what
we have planed for the coming months.
Coming Events:
April 20th 10.00 - 16.00
BCA Display at Wirral History & Heritage Association Local
History Fair at Birkenhead Town Hall
June 1st 10.00 - 16.00
Start of new seasons excavations at Tam O’Shanter Urban
Farm
July 13th 10.00 - 15.00
CBA Festival of Archaeology Open Day event and tour
around excavations at Tam O’Shanter Urban Farm
Sept 7th 10.00 - 15.00
Wirral Heritage Open Day event and tour around excavations
at Tam O’Shanter Urban Farm
See our website news section for news of any additional events.
www.bidstoncommunityarchaeology.weebly.com/news
BCA members at Lunt Meadows excavation site
LUNT MEADOWS
Bidston Community Archaeology
has been working with Museums
of Liverpool since spring 2012 on
the excavation of a nationally
important archaeological site at
Lunt Meadows in Sefton.
Preliminary carbon-dating results
suggest a settlement 8,000 years
old, from the Mesolithic period, of
at least three structures. This
suggests that family groups were
living together in possibly one of
the earliest known settlement sites
to be discovered in Britain.
The people that lived on this site
would have been early nomadic
hunter gatherers who would have
ranged far and wide living off the
land’s natural resources and who
would of at least returned
repeatedly for a part of each year
or lived at the site for long periods
during the year.
Visit our website for full details.
In This Issue
Summer 2013 dig
Flag Signalling System
Bidston Hill Stone Carvings
Guest Feature :
‘Bidston Memories‟
BCA Newsletter
Summer 2013 Dig
Three separate phases of building have previously been found,
these date from stone masonry walls sometime prior to 1840
map evidence to hand made brick built walls from the early
19th century and right through to the mid 20th century. Last
year we found large amounts of iron slag suggesting that
metal smelting or metal forging had taken place on the site
together with evidence of a potential furnace and smithy.
This coming dig season will see our main focus of excavation
taking place in the areas of the oldest structures on the site in
search of the earliest dating evidence for occupation. Two new
trenches will be opened up and existing trenches will be
excavated down below the floor surfaces exposed during last
season’s dig. We also plan to
excavate the area around the
potential furnace location to
look for evidence that may be
able to shed light on whether
both primary metal smelting and
the secondary working of metal
took place on the site.
We have evidence of potential
prehistoric activity on the site
with the discovery of a worked
flint scraper and a number of
flint cores from which flint tools
would have been produced.
Large quantities of pottery have also been recovered mostly
dating from the 19th century but with some examples coming
from the both immediate post-medieval period and from the
18th century. No stratified dating evidence exists at present as
all finds have been recovered from ground greatly disturbed by
both demolition and pig activity. It is also possible that some
finds may result from topsoil being brought to the site.
This season, however, will finally see us working within both
sealed and undisturbed ground layers where any dateable
finds revealed will produce reliable indicative dates for those
structures built above them.
Getting Involved
Phase three of our excavation
project on the Pig Field site at the
Tam O’Shanter Urban Farm will
start on 1st June and we will
continue each weekend until 14th
September. All our members are
warmly welcome to join in by
giving as much or as little of their
time as they may wish.
It is not all about digging, there
are lots of other activities that you
can help with from recording and
processing finds to surveying and
drawing plans and lots in
between, all with our help and
guidance. You could, maybe, just
enjoy a well earned snooze in the
warmth of the summer sun.
Come along, you never know it
may be you that finds that missing
piece of evidence that produces
the date of the first buildings and
occupation on the site.
Not a member? Then get details
on how to join us from our website
or pick up a leaflet from the
Rangers office at Tam O’Shanter
Urban Farm
Possible Furnace & Smithy
Bidston Hill’s Carvings
Currently BCA are recording and researching the carvings on
the northern part of Bidston Hill. Our aim is to create both a
physical trail for those walking on the hill and a web based
multimedia experience for those unable to do so.
We are reviewing previous
research on the origins of the
carvings and are carrying out
further research. A number of
these carvings have long held
names such as Sun Goddess,
Moon Goddess, Horse and
Dagger Man. Nigel Rose wrote
“Carvings On Bidston Hill” in
2005. In this work he details
the carvings and provides
information on some of the
theories which have been
expressed related to their
origins.
Along with our continuing research into the carvings we are
recording their NGR co-ordinates using GPS. At present the
Rangers at Bidston Hill have an available leaflet that
includes information and the locations of a number of the
carvings. Ultimately, and with the support of the Rangers, our
aim is to have all this information available on QR codes at
the locations of the carvings and linked to a dedicated
section on the BCA’s website.
For those people who are unable to visit or access the hill
then our aim is to provide a virtual experience of the trail
detailing each of the carving’s locations with digital links to
both images and to detailed descriptions.
Flag Signal System
The end of the Seven Years War
in 1763 brought concern about
identification, movement and
protection of ships sailing in and
out of the River Mersey. In 1763 a
signalling station was built near to
the present Bidston lighthouse
utilising around 100 flagpoles as
an early warning system.
Merchant ships rounding the Point
of Ayr or Formby Point would be
spotted and identified. Watching
flag runners then had 11 minutes
to raise both the company's flag
and ship’s cargo flag on the
ship owner’s pole, enabling the
docks to ready their work force to
off-load the ship.
In 1771, the first lighthouse and a
semaphore station was built, as
part of a chain of signals along the
North Wales coast. Signals could
then be sent from Holyhead to
Liverpool in 8 minutes giving a
little longer to organise offloading
of cargo. In 1856 work began to
replace the manual semaphore
system by an electric telegraph
with the final connection between
Liverpool and Holyhead taking
place in 1861.
Extract from an A level Archaeology
project by current member Betty Nesbitt.
A detailed booklet on the remains and the
operation of the flag signal system on
the hill is currently in production.
Further details in our next newsletter.
Sun Goddess
Bidston Hill Flag Stations
Contact Us
If you would like any further
information about our activities or
have any other queries then you
can contact us via any of the
options below:
Bidston Community
Archaeology
C/O Tam O’Shanter Urban Farm,
Boundary Road, Bidston, Wirral
CH43 7PD
Email us at:
bidston-community-
Visit us on the web: www.bidstoncommunityarchaeology.
weebly.com
Visit our Facebook page:
www.facebook.com/BCAPAGE
Archaeology for all
I started „Bidston Memories‟ as a Facebook page as a way of
collecting pictures and stories however small to share and
provoke memories of Bidston village, the hill and of the
surrounding area. Members are increasing every day and a
comprehensive collection is beginning to form.
All of the stories share a
love of the hill with a lot of
childhood memories of
playing on the hill in the
summer time. There are
lots of brilliant old photos,
postcards, and paintings
that have been shared for us all to see. It is amazing to see
how Bidston Hill looks without any trees; the views must have
been brilliant. Other interest has included the, now closed,
tunnels but there are also lots of videos, pictures and stories.
One photograph that I had
not seen before I started to
search through the archive
material relating to Bidston
is this one of the old
Bidston Aerodrome which
was originally located on the current site of what is now the
Bidston golf course and close to the present railway station.
There is so much history attached to the area and I hope that
people will continue to share their memories or even the tall
tales they have about Bidston with us.
Pay „Bidston Memories‟ a visit on Facebook, share your own
memories or just have a look.
www.facebook.com/groups/bidstonmemories
Deb Lindon
BIDSTON MEMORIES