The Bamburgh Environs Survey Project

The Bamburgh Research Project has set up a community based survey project in conjunction with the Local Heritage Initiative (LHi). The project, which is supported by Northumberland County Council, will allow members of the village community and the Bamburgh area to get involved in researching their past.

Bamburgh Village from the castle

The survey has involve the creation of a topographical map of the castle rock and its immediate landscape. Techniques as diverse as building recording, ground penetrating radar, EDM survey and column sampling by auger have been used.

Examination of surviving medieval fabric

The survey has included:

• Excavation of small test pits within the gardens of the village

• A ground penetrating radar survey within the west ward of the castle and on the village green in front of the castle

• Creation of computer model of the castle and the rock on which it stands

• The mapping of the layers beneath the present ground surface in the coastal area. This will allow us to study the changing coastal environment, which can be very dynamic. We will particularly concentrate on the area immediately to the north of the castle, which we know from map evidence was an inlet to the sea as recently as the 19th century.

Garden Archaeology within the village

In addition to using more conventional survey techniques and computer modeling we have conducted an innovative test pitting technique. This involves excavating small test pits, only 1m square, in gardens within Bamburgh Village and sieving the soil before replacing it in the test pit. The technique allows the recovery of finds and works rather like the more conventional process of field walking.

Excavation of a garden test pit

Sieving the excavated soil

Interpreting the finds to an interested resident

Fifteen test pits were excavated within the village. We hoped that the finds recovered would give us an insight into the nature and extent of past settlement at Bamburgh. As well as providing archaeological information, the survey project actively involved members of the village community in researching the past.

Worked flint of prehistoric date was found in two pits towards the western end of the village. Medieval pottery of 13th to 15th century date was found in six test pits, spread through the village. A wide range of post-medieval pottery, glass, brick, tile and clay tobacco pipe ranging from the 16th to 20th centuries was also recovered.

A selection of finds from the test pitting survey, with a trowel to show scale

The survey has shown us that the medieval settlement of Bamburgh was at least as large as the present village and potentially significantly larger, something we had only previously suspected. The presence of an apparent concentration of flint at the western side of the village near the Mill Burn is completely new information and will certainly prompt further investigation as we know so little of Bamburgh's prehistoric past.

Radar survey

Ground penetrating radar survey was undertaken in the western part of the castle, and on the cricket pitch outside. The results within the castle showed part of the medieval defences of the castle, a possible building some 15m by 7m in size, and a previously unknown archaeological trench dug in the 1960's by Dr Brian Hope-Taylor.

Location of the two radar surveys. Click on the survey areas to see the survey results

Until 100 years ago, the eastern half of the cricket pitch was marshland. The radar identified the buried remains of this causeway across the edge of the marsh. The interpretation of the feature is helped by it being depicted on the first maps of the village. To the east of this, and in front of the castle rock, the radar identified a ditch, up to 25 metres wide, roughly parallel to the castle. This ditch may be part of the medieval defences of the castle, helping to protect the landward side of the fortress.

Structural survey of the castle

EDM (Electronic Distance Measurer) and building recording survey has been undertaken within the castle as part of the project. The survey work combined with written evidence for the early structures has allowed a detailed picture of the medieval castle to emerge. The present phase of this work has concentrated on the west ward of the castle, an area not greatly disturbed by the reconstruction work undertaken by the First Lord Armstrong. Here the survey has been conducted in sufficient detail to generate a 3D computer model of the structures and the rock on which they stand.

Interested in the results?

A display of the results of the survey work has been opened to the public, at the castle and can be viewed as part of the castle tour.

Want to know more about the LHi

For further information about the Local Heritage initiative you can visit their website at: www.lhi.org.uk

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