LAP
  • LAP
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16 years ago
Hello :)
I went to great orme a few days ago, at a very cheap price (by coach), looked at train prices.. and well, from Lancaster they are rather high to say the least.
I've set myself the mission to try and understand more about bronze-age - early Celtic period mining, eg Ross Island mine nr Killarney, Great Orme & Parys, etc. I haven't yet come across any mining in The NW which goes back before about 1100 AD, does anyone know of any?

Kein geneis kanaf - Cain gnais canaf
Byt vndyd mwyhaf - byth onddyth moyav
Lliaws a bwyllaf - Líows o boylav
Ac a bryderaf - ac o boryddarav
Kyfarchaf y veird byt - covarcav yr vairth
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Neur byt bei syrchei - nour byth bai sorochai

carnkie
16 years ago
Alderley Edge. The site was the subject of a detailed survey by the National Trust and Manchester Museum ten years ago but I'm afraid I don't know the results of this.
It's mentioned in a paper by Ixer and Budd, "The Mineralogy of Bronze Age Copper Ores from the British Isles: Implications for the Composition of early metal work".

Oxford Journal of Archaeology 17(1) 1998.
The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there.
AR
  • AR
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16 years ago
I'm sure I've seen a reference somewhere to a hammer stone (usually an indicator of prehistoric mining activity) being found in the Levers water area at Coniston where the backstrings veins outcropped- could you confirm that Colonel, or is my brain playing tricks on me?

Not really NW area, but Ecton hill in Staffordshire definitely had Bronze age mining.
Follow the horses, Johnny my laddie, follow the horses canny lad-oh!
Wormster
16 years ago
Have a chat with the P.U.G. lot, in Parrys they're excavating a bell pit, that has all the evedence in situ, hammerstones teh lot - I've heard of reconstructive firesetting in limestone somewhewre, but no metaliferous work done (something I would love to be involved in doing!!) as to pre 1100 ad, its probs got do with migrations during differnet ages: Iron etc, plus the fact that ores may have been surface outcrops or imported from overseas. Don't forget that axes from Mynedd Rhyw were traded all over europe during the stone age.
Better to regret something you have done - than to regret something you have not done.
carnkie
16 years ago
I assume when you mention Ross Island as an example you also include Mount Gabriel on the Mizen peninsula?
The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there.
minerat
16 years ago
there was bronze age activity above cwmystwyth, mauls (stone hammers) have been found there.
be afraid.....very afraid !!!!
Captain Scarlet
16 years ago
"AR" wrote:

I'm sure I've seen a reference somewhere to a hammer stone (usually an indicator of prehistoric mining activity) being found in the Levers water area at Coniston where the backstrings veins outcropped- could you confirm that Colonel, or is my brain playing tricks on me?



There are certainly Anvil Stones near Levers Water, but they are certainly not Bronze Age. I have not heard of a 'hammer stone' though.

Does the quarrying of material to make axe and arrow heads at Langdale (Langdale Axe Factory) count?
STANDBY FOR ACTION!!!!...
carnkie
16 years ago
"minerat" wrote:

there was bronze age activity above cwmystwyth, mauls (stone hammers) have been found there.



Up to 12 Early Bronze Age metal mines have now been identified, with the area of central Wales Orefield turning out to be one of the most important and earliest sites of lead and copper mining in the UK. For a paper on this see:
The Origins of Metal Mining in Britain: the exploration and archaeological excavations of the Early Mines Research Group in Central Wales. by Simon Timberlake.

To be found in the The Lode of History, Proceedings of the Welsh Mines Society Conference 2007.
The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there.
ChrisJC
16 years ago
The Ecton Copper Mines date back to the Bronze Age I believe.
I'm not sure if the Staffordshire / Derbyshire border counts as NW England though.

Chris.
carnkie
16 years ago
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