Day Four of MD Survey - Sunday 22nd

Hello all,

I must admit that I did forget to fill in the last blog on Sunday, so my apologies if you have been waiting for it. Ryan and I managed to get back to Glasgow safe, sound and very tired! We both had a great week with archery, poetry readings and dinners. What a cultural place Selkirk is!

Have to say, Sunday didn't start out great. Unfortunately, we were not able to get into the paddock on health and safety grounds, however, we always have a plan B up our sleeves.

We decided to head over to Calton Cottage and work in the large field behind the plantation of trees which runs parallel to the main road. As cannon balls had also reportedly been found in the tree line when a pathway was cut we decided to send a small (and fit) team in there to check it out. The ground here was very steep and full of thick vegetation. We were only in there for an hour as it was hard going, but the effort was not wasted as a pistol ball was found! In fact, this field appeared to have a small cluster of pistol balls along the ridge way (which sits behind the trees), with four in total recovered! This is very interesting as pistol balls are more likely to represent cavalry. Are we perhaps seeing some cavalry movement on the left flank of the Royalists after all?

The Metal Detecting Team

Along with the pistol balls we also came across some buttons, coins and a buckle. Not a bad day at all! It was a massive area to cover, but we did manage to sample it in good time and with some interesting results! Think we might need to go back.

Everyone did a fantastic job and thanks very much to all who joined in. I am back in Selkirk on Monday 6th and Tuesday 7th June to do an artefact workshop in Selkirk High. Should be great fun.

See you all soon,

Tasha

Saturday - 3rd Day of the second phase

Hello all,

Much better day today. Weather held until the very end which we were very glad for.

Today we surveyed a field (named Bull Field on the estate map) on an area between Calton Cottage and Ravensheugh House. No bulls though, just two lovely horses belonging to Ravensheugh. A large area close to Calton Cottage was the site of the former Philiphaugh Farm, the ruins of which were demolished about 10 years ago. Unfortunately the site and and area just beside it had been covered in topsoil and another patch modified for flood protection. The latter would have been an interesting place to investigate as musket balls had been found in there previously.

The field was relatively flat and looked to be the base of a former river bed or paleochannel with steep river banks on one side. In fact it would be the perfect place to have a firing range or practice site behind the old farm with the bank acting as a butt to capture the bullets or musket balls. Sites like these have been found across Scotland and with a very similar geography. Always important to keep these things in mind if we were to come across significant quantaties of projectiles.

The field did not appear to have been ploughed recently and may have remained as a pasture for many years, hence the name Bull's Field. We did get some interesting finds, including a pistol ball and a piece of buckshot or hailshot. We also found a handful of late 17th - 18th century coins, a few buttons and a couple of buckles. The last find of the day, made by Elizabeth Simm, was a small blade which may be a knife or razor. Very interesting artefact, well done! Another interesting find was an ornate copper alloy walking cane end, which was identified by Ian Brown. Not a bad day at all and much better than expected.

Tomorrow we will be heading back onto the valley floor and into a small paddock just beside the Cricket ground which we were kindly given permisson to invesigate. Hopefully this will be quite an interesting area as it is adjacent to the field containing the Scheduled Area and just beside it are the remnants of a field bank which must have at some point connected to the bank and ditch on the other side of the criket and football ground. I was told that a cannon ball and buckle were found in gardens close by. Ever hopeful!

We had a visit from two War Studies students from the University today. Joanne and Tom are also doing a couple of battlefield archaeology modules with us, so came out to see how it all works in the field. I got them to work straight away digging and recording some finds. Thanks guys!

All the best,
Tasha

Involving all members of the community - including the horses!

Tom, Joanne (Uni of Glasgow) and Elizabeth with a horseshoe

Friday - Day Two of second MD phase

Hello all,

What did I say about being excited to survey the orchard? That we expected it to be a golden nuggett of untouched land holding within it scatters of lead projectiles and other battle related artefacts? I think a swear word is appropriate here, but I'll save you from that.

The day started off wet but picked up later in the day and turned out to be lovely, albiet with some heavy showers in the late afternoon. We began work in the orchard, an area of ground opposite Calton Cottage and infront of the remnants of field bank and ditch, a potential area of intensive fighting during the initial stages of the battle. The orchard appears on the 1st edition Ordnance Survey map of 1860s as an open field and it doesn't appear to have become enclosed until the 1930s. Importantly however, it had escaped being covered over by the football pitch and rugby field so represented a potential pocket of ground to investigate and could hold within it artefacts related to the battle in the topsoil.

No such luck! It became clear that the ground had been disturbed and possibly affected by a significant flood event in 2003 which placed the valley under 3ft of water! We found a Red Bull can about 30cm down which is not a good sign. Ryan excavated a small trial pit to assess the stratigraphy and found it to be mixed and homogenous with glass and coke fragments all the way through. There was a small area of ground to the northern end of the orchard which did appear to be better preserved. We found the faint remnants of a field bank which ran parallel to another more prominent field bank in the garden of the adjacent cottage. This did produce more interesting finds, a skillet leg (bronze pan or pot), a Penny dating to 1862 (Ryan liked this one as it was minted during the American Civil War) and a large horse tack buckle. That, I'm afraid to say, was it for the day.

Tomorrow we will be looking in the area of the old Philiphaugh Farm, but this will be limited as the buildings were demolished and the site covered with soil brought in from Dalkeith! Always the optimist though. Stay calm and carry on, or as I prefer, Heat Nann and Curry On.

Tonight I am off to Bowhill to hear a poetry reading as part of the Borders Festival of the Horse: http://www.bordersfestivalhorse.org/

Our Time Team moment - deciding where to go next

The Orchard

Not sure about how tomorrow will go but will keep you posted.

Tasha

Thursday 19th - First day of Second Phase

Hello Folks,

Back again in Selkirk! Ryan McNutt (a doctoral researcher in the Centre) and I headed down from Glasgow this morning. This time we have the Land Rover so it was a bit of a bumpy ride down the M8 and A7! Great fun though once you get used to it.

We met at the Cricket Club today and began work on Area C, making sure to avoid the Scheduled Area protecting an Early Historic settlement and burial ground (eeek!). From the work we have done with documentary records and map regression, it appears this area should have evidence of the main engagement of the Royalist and Covenanter forces. The northern edge of the field (now in the Scheduled Area) is bordered by quite a substantial field bank and ditch in front of it. We hope to do some excavation of this in August to find out if it could be contemporary with the battle and if it had indeed been modified as a defensive structure by Montrose.

The ground was also ploughed and seed drilled for turnips so again we were a little limited on what we could do. However, there was enough room to carry out a good sample of the area. First of all we covered the edge of the field which hadn't been seeded. Unfortunately very little came up, except modern items thrown over the garden wall from the row of houses opposite. We then decided to metal detect transects using the tram-lines created by the tractor as a low impact soloution. These transects ran in a north western direcion across the field and stopped at the scheduled area. We uncovered one musket ball and a piece of what appears to be cannister shot. The musket ball was very unusual as it seems to have an iron object set within it and a hole running through the centre! The cannister shot, musket balls placed in a can and fired from a cannon, have a very distinctive signature with facets all over the surface caused when the balls bounce off each other when fired out the cannon. We also found a small coin which may be French and possibly dating to the mid-17th century. The decision was taken to cover this area more intensively moving along the furrows and being careful not to disturb the seed drills. This was hard going but worth the effort to make sure the ground was covered.

Doesn't sound too bad, but I think in this area we would expect to find much more than two projectiles and a coin. Something we will have to consider when we come to interpret the site.

Tomorrow (Friday), we will be moving to the orchard area just opposite Calton Cottage and Leslie Cottage. I think this will be an exciting area as it sits in front of the bank and ditch mentioned earlier!

We have been keen to make advantage of staying in Selkirk and when we were invited to join the Etterick Forest Archers for an evening we jumped at the chance. Myself, Ryan, Chris Bowles (regional archaeologist) and his wife Claire headed up to Philiphaugh to have a go at the archery. After a rather shameful start I turned out to be a bit of a hotshot and got myself a golden centre!

Fingers and toes crossed for Friday!

All the best,

Tasha Hood of Etterick Forest

Area C - a very patriotic field

My arrow is the one in the middle! : )

Sunday - Last day of first MD phase

Hello all,

Home at last and the first phase of survey completed. We have certainly achieved an adequate sample of the area towards the outer limits of what we would expect to be the battlefield, or at least the limits of the main fighting and rout, etc. As there was a crop in Area B we decided to cover the fringes of the field and along the field enclosure. Not much is left of the enclosure, except for remnants of the bank which you can see more clearly in the garden of Etterickhaugh House.

The weather wasn't great today, however the rain stayed off for most of the day which was better than expected. We had 6 metal detectorists and two local volunteers to do the recording, Sue and Jane. Martin, our student on the Centre's MLitt course, made the journey down from Glasgow to help out too.

We did have a very limited area to survey in the cropped area, although we did make use of the 'tram-lines' made by the tractor to at least get a small sample of this area. This gave a good cross-section of the field and seemed to work well without damaging the crop. Two c.17th century buckles were recorded, along with a couple of buttons and despite getting ever closer to the 'front line' as it were, still no lead projectiles! Only the five from the previous day. Not to worry. We did get more strips of lead however. Always an interesting find.

As our surveyor Fiona is not coming out with us next week I had to learn how to use the GPS SmartRover which gives us sub-centimeter accuracy for recording the finds. It's relatively simple to use, when no problems arise that is! Hopefully I will be well versed in its use for next week. The venerable Dr Chris Bowles, Scottish Borders Regional Archaeologist, also paid us a welcome visit today. Thanks Chris!

The metal detecting team!

Jane, Martin and Sue recording the finds. Hard slog towards the end.

Me pretending to know what to do with the SmartRover

Thanks to all who came out this week. Well worth it and plenty more to do for the next week. Hope to see all the regulars next Thursday. Thank you also to Justin Smith for coming down with us to help out. He has been a super star and couldn't have done it without him. Justin is off to Corsica next week so can't join us. We don't like Justin anymore! : )

Looking forward to another few days with Al and Judith Patullo who have been amazing hosts. Food and entertainment (including a showing of the film Seven Samurai with is 35mm projector!) a plenty. All the best and see you next Thursday Selkirk!

Tasha

Saturday - 3rd Day of MD Survey

Hello all,

Well, three days of survey! Time is flying by. Today we finished Field A (opposite the Waterwheel Cafe) with two long 25m wide transects across the field and a small area of more intensive survey further up the field and along the road side where some musket balls had been previously found some years back. We covered quite a substantial area today, helped by the fact that it stayed dry and warm. My face certainly looks like it has had the sun! We had 10 metal detectorists today and a number of volunteers helping to record and lay out tapes and ropes.

Results were much better today. Came away feeling a little more optimistic than I was yesterday. The area we surveyed by the road side worked well. We came across a small concentration of artefacts including 3 musket balls, two pistol balls, a ball button and the rim of a bronze cooking pot. Interestingly, we also found three folded lead strips. This is something we quite often find on battlefield sites and may represent rations of lead which are melted down by soldiers to cast musket balls etc. The lead can be stripped from churches or from windows. As quite a heavy item this may be one of the first thing to be dropped or thrown away if being persued by the enemy! This assemblage was quite small but spatially quite distinct. So far this represents the only concentration of what I would identify as a battlefield assemblage.

Managed to finish this field which is a bit of a relief, although we were all starting to get a bit tired towards the end! I feel we have assessed this area as much as we can for now.  The transects provided an interesting window into this area and although we didn't find very much, this is as much of a valid a result as if we had found hundreds of projectiles etc. Move on to the next!

Tomorrow we will be moving northeast up the Etterick valley towards Selkirk and closer to where the main engagement is believed to have taken place. Because of crops and Scheduled areas we are limited to how much ground we can cover. We will, however, be able to investigate the fringes of the fields to see if anything comes up.

Large buckles and button found on the battle site in previous years.

Recording volunteers.

Why you should never survey near a cafe!

MD survey on the battlefield. Beautiful landscape.

Last day of the first phase! Survived this long, might as well carry on for another day. Hope the weather holds out!

Days 2 & 3 (Thursday and Friday)

Hello Folks!

My apologies, blog didn't seem to be working yesterday or last night! But it's back.

Thursday was the first day of the metal detecting survey which continued on in the same place on Friday. We have had a good body of volunteers coming to help out with 5 metal detectorists the first day and 9 on Friday, together with 3 recording assistants. Everyone has been working really hard and enjoying themselves at the same time. We have had heavy rain showers and been soaked a couple of times, but the sun has always come out to dry us off.

Currently we are in a large field beside the Waterwheel Cafe along the Etterick Valley. This is not far from the Salmon Viewing Centre and the weir, previously a fording point, which we believe may be the location where Leslie and his Cavalry crossed the river to outflank the Royalists.  The aim here is the invesigate the extent of the battlefield and how far along the valley in reaches. We began at the field enclosure and working our way southwest in 3m transects in 40m spits. There was the potential that the enclosures had been used as ready made defences for those routed along the valley. After the first day not a sausage, except for some horseshoes, 18 - 19th century coins and an Army Catering Corps badge. The decision was then made to stretch out into the main area of the field with long corridors with the aim of hitting potential scatters of projectiles etc. Those who had detected on the field before had reported finding concentrations musket balls in this field, unfortunately we're not quite sure where this may have been.

On Friday we continued along the enclosure and set out the long corridor to the end of the field towards the cafe. The corridor began at 50m wide, but as nothing was coming up we decided to narrow this to 25m to ensure we could cover the area and reach the end of the field. This seemed to work well and we came across our first projectile. I should say, our first and only projectile of the last two days. We also recovered a small Fleur d'Lis made of lead. Another interesting find was a sherd of Roman Samian Ware! Very interesting. We also came up with a small assemblage of coins, buttons and buckles. Towards the end of the transect we began to get more modern finds such as 20p etc. Possibly due to a recent farm show!

It was a great day of survey and everyone was in great form, however the lack of battle-related finds is a little disappointing. The plan for Saturday is to finish in this field and to put in another 25m corridor at the other side of the field parallel to the previous one. The weather is supposed to be much more settled so fingers crossed!

I will post some photographs tonight!

All the best,

Tasha