Looking for the lost Lowick

Enthusiastic amateur historians and archeaologists have no shortage of material to work with in Lowick as Paul Langdale of Lowick Heritage Group explains.

Digging up the lowdown on the ‘Farm on the Low’

The village of Lowick has a long history. Although the name first appeared in documented records in 1181, people have lived around here for much longer.

There are several visible sites with evidence of Iron Age settlement around the village which, together with archeaological artefacts found locally, suggest people have lived and farmed here for more than 4000 years, so there’s no shortage of material for enthusiastic amateur historians and archeaologists to pursue.

Lowick Heritage Group was founded in 2004 to maintain an appreciation of this long history and to promote lifelong learning for locals and visitors.The ‘appreciation’ takes various forms, including evening presentations in the village hall, coffee mornings, publications, a website and events, plus a very

Dryburn Limekiln was one of several in operation around Lowick in the 18th and 19th centuries. ‘Coal and limestone were prevalent in the area and easily accessible. They were the essential components for producing quicklime, used as a soil conditioner on the fields and for use in buildings as lime mortar. Many hundreds of itinerant workers may have been employed in and around Lowick during this period.

active, professionally led, amateur archaeology section.

The conversations, anecdotes and tales from the popular Down Memory Lane coffee mornings have helped the group produce a wonderful collection of reminiscences that will soon go to print as a lasting record.

There is also plenty of ‘hands on’ work helping to conserve significant relics of the industrial past. During the 18th and 19th centuries there was a thriving lime industry with several kilns clustered around the village.

To try to make the monumental structure of Dryburn lime kiln more accessible to the public, volunteers from the group have removed the scrub and invasive roots obscuring the kiln. An archeaological survey is being done before work begins to protect the remaining stonework.

It’s hoped that the kiln will become a focal point for heritage walks around the village and the group is working on an illustrated walks guide that will explain the importance of these buildings.

The fact that Lowick is enormously rich in archaeology, covering a period of around 8000 years from the Mesolithic Period (10,000-8,000 BC) to the Industrial Age, spurred locals

It’s possible that the current position of Lowick isn’t the original site of the village. It probably dates from the medieval period and is likely to be an amalgamation of several small local settlements.

Relocation to a prominent, elevated site at the cross roads of a historic trading route lying north to south (the Devil’s Causeway) and the Pilgrims’ Way lying east to west provided both trading and defensive benefits.

The villlage was first referred to as Lowyk at sometime between the 6th and 8th Centuries. Place names ending in ‘wick’ mean that historically the site was either a specialised farm, market or other important dwelling, eg ‘farm on the Low’. In the case of Lowick this would have been such a place on the River Low. The Low, as we currently know it, runs about a mile to the east of Lowick, so it is probable that the original village was next to the river.

The archaeology sub group is trying to locate the original site of the village, if such exists, using the extensive archaeological evidence available.

Called ‘Where Was Lowick?’, the project has three things in its favour; the professional leadership provided by Dr Kristian Pedersen, lecturer at Edinburgh University, the vast open areas of land on which our predecessors lived, hunted and farmed and the support of local landowners who have given permission to carry out investigations. It is also very likely that the early Medieval people who lived around

“We are fortunate to have Hunting Hall Farm on our doorstep. Thanks to the Burn family who own the farm and to Natural England, we have so far carried out three digs there. It’s almost as though we have our own archaeology site that could provide many years of activity.

“The only evidence of Iron Age activity prior to our excavations was a double ring ditch system. At certain times of year it was possible to see potential evidence of round house platforms, so in 2018 a small number of volunteers were trained to use geophysical surveying equipment.

“The outcome was astonishing, showing a huge amount of activity beneath the surface within the area enclosed by the ditches. This enabled us to ‘target’ our trenches for the second dig in 2019, resulting in an enormous number of finds of archaeological interest. This was only possible because of the input of so many willing amateur volunteers who in total provided more than 1,700 hours of their time.

here did so on sites that had been inhabited from much earlier times. We know from archaeological evidence that people have lived around Lowick since at least Bronze Age times, 3,500 years ago or earlier.

Recent activities by the archaeology group unearthed evidence of late Neolithic or Early Bronze Age communities with finds of worked flint that could have been made by a Neolithic farmer, suggesting people might have farmed the fertile soil left here after the last ice age almost 4,500 years ago. A number of 8000 year old flint blades, made by Mesolithic hunter gatherers, have been found just to the east of the village.

Iron Age bone, teeth and pottery were plentiful. It’s quite rare to find intact bone and pottery from this period but perhaps the nature of the soil has preserved them better than at most other sites.

We were visited by Professor Peter Rowley-Conwy of Durham University, an expert in prehistoric bones and he identified them as predomi-

Graham Taylor and Kristian Pedersen

nantly cattle and sheep. One of the cattle bones had been drilled to form a handle.

Expert in Iron Age pottery, Graham Taylor, joined us and is shown (bottom left) with professional archaeologist, Kristian Pedersen. Star find in the 2019 dig was an early medieval brooch from around 500AD..

Unlike most amateur archaeology groups we have the capacity to perform post excavation soil analysis using flotation and microscopy. Several members of our group have professional scientific backgrounds and this has enabled us to offer new opportunities for our volunteers to enjoy new knowledge and skills.

Find out more about heritage and archeaology activities in Lowick on:

www.lowickheritagegroup.org/archaeologyabout.html

For more information email us at:

lowickheritagegroup@gmail.com