industry

The Past

‘Industrial scale’ medieval tannery found at Fountains Abbey in Yorkshire

Archaeologists working at Fountains Abbey in Yorkshire have identified the remains of a monastic tannery, where animal hides would have been processed in the medieval period to produce a variety of essential materials, including vellum on which scribes would have…

Northampton’s chequered history: uncovering Britain’s first medieval chess workshop

Excavation in Northampton town centre has revealed the remains of a 12th-century bone-working workshop that yielded not only antler offcuts and other echoes of industry, but a number of high-quality chess pieces that had been discarded at different stages of their manufacture. With a monograph describing the finds in more detail having just been published, Rob Atkins tells us more about this unprecedented discovery.

Opposite Prior Park, home of philanthropist Ralph Allen, who transformed Bath’s small scale stone mining industry into a major commercial venture. In the foreground can be seen the wooden railway Allen built to transport the stone. above An artist’s impression of working in the part of the quarry known as the ‘Grand Canyon’.

Hollowed Ground: the archaeology of Bath’s stone mines

The hills around Bath look solid enough but below the surface they are riddled with tunnels and stone quarries. When some of these began to collapse, putting the village of Combe Down at risk, Oxford Archaeology was called in to record this vast labyrinth before it was filled with concrete. Chris Catling reports on the record they made of an industry that helped create the beautiful buildings of Georgian Bath’s ‘Golden Age’.