|
Boats in A Coal Mine: Archaeology on the River Aire, Methley, West Yorkshire
By John Buglass
This first volume is on a community ‘rescue’ excavation that occurred between December 1997 and the summer of 1999 with over 45 members of eight different archaeological organisations taking part. Over the three years they investigated, excavated and recorded of a wide range of remains along a drained section of the River Aire at Methley to the west of Allerton Bywater in West Yorkshire. The section of the river had become drained due to a catastrophic failure of the bank separating the river from the adjacent open-cast coal mine. The resulting draining of the River Aire exposed the remains of locks, a dry dock and substantial portions of at least nine wooden boats.
This section of the river Aire is historically important as in 1699 an Act of Parliament marked the creation of the Aire and Calder Navigation in West Yorkshire making it one of the earliest Navigations in the country and pre-empting the canal boom of the early Industrial Revolution. The development of the Navigation in the early 18th century saw the construction of an integrated system of locks and, uniquely at the time, river vessels that were built to exactly fit the locks to allow for maximum carrying capacity. Over time these locks and boats were enlarged and replaced and the physical evidence for these early years was largely lost. This was until the catastrophic flood of the open cast mine drained this section of the Navigation revealing, for the first time in 200 years, the remains of several of these unique early 18th century river craft.
The dedicated team of volunteers excavated, often in ‘challenging’ conditions, the remains of nine 18th century boats and an associated lock; a 19th century dry dock and a possible 17th century flash lock. One of the boats was found to still have the remains of part of its cargo and the crews’ equipment on board.
This volume presents the results of that excavation covering not only the remains of the boats and Navigation infrastructure but also the artefacts which shed light on the day to day lives of those working along the river in the 18th century.
|
|
