| Description | In July 2012 Archaeological Services WYAS (ASWYAS) undertook a geophysical survey, and archaeological excavation in the grounds of the Greenwood Centre, Ravensthorpe as part of the Ravensthorpe Community Heritage Project. The excavation lasted two weeks and involved pupils from five local schools and local community groups. The Greenwood Centre occupies the site of a former mid 18th century house, called Brickhouse, which in the mid 19th century was the home of George Tattersfield, a locally important mill owner and councillor. The site of the gardens associated with Brickhouse now comprises of a small public park.
Both a magnetometer and earth resistance geophysical survey were undertaken, and a high resistant rectangular anomaly was identified as the remains of a possible structure measuring 18m by 10m.
Two 1m by 1m test pits were excavated by hand to establish the nature of this anomaly. Test pit 1 was located on the north west ‘corner’ of the feature, while Test pit 2 was positioned approximately mid way along its northern side. The remains of a three course mortared brick wall were encountered in both test pits, running on an approximate east west alignment. The bricks were of a frogged, machine made type of probable 20th century date.
A larger trench, known as Trench 1 (measuring 12.6m by 2m) was excavated by hand along the southern side of the rectangular anomaly. The remains of two parallel walls c.1.2m apart were revealed, also consisting of 20th century bricks, and running on an east west alignment. A total wall length of 6.2m was exposed, and although the depth of the wall was not established due to time constraints it was thought that there were at least two courses surviving below the surface.
Soon after the conclusion of the excavations a local resident provided an oral description of a WW2 air raid shelter which was located in the position of the excavations in Ravensthorpe Park. The shelter was described as a largely sub surface feature and consisted of four narrow corridors arranged in a rectangle. It was accessed via a ramp in the south western corner with ladder positioned in the remaining three corners. This description corroborated well with the walls found during the excavations.
For further detail please see the final report (ASWYAS, 2012), a copy of which is on file in the HER. |