Oldfurnace Cottage and Eastwall Farm, Oakamoor, Staffordshire - Archaeological Evaluation and an Assessment of the Results

Wessex Archaeology

The results of the work at Oldfurnace Cottage confirmed that iron smelting using the bloomery process, with associated pottery of 13th-14th century date, was well established on the site in the medieval period. However an unstratified sherd of Late Saxon pottery suggested that iron working on the site may have begun as early as the 10th-11th century. The bloomery slag was overlain by large accumulations of postmedieval slag dating from the later blast furnace. The depth of deposits indicated that the valley sides had undergone considerable modification during the use of the site. No traces of any furnaces were found, which are likely to lie beneath the present cottage. A trench north-west of the cottage provided evidence of unsmelted ore in what may have been a storage area.

A geophysical survey at Eastwall Farm revealed an anomaly shown to be the well preserved base of a bloomery furnace of probable 13th-14th century date. The remains of the clay-built furnace included the tapping arch and channel, bellows location and bloomery slag from the final tapping. Other strong magnetic anomalies in the immediate area suggest that similar furnaces are present on the site.

The evaluation produced a small but important archaeological archive for future research in to iron smelting in the Churnet valley. It also provided a number of stratified samples of slag that will provide a valuable resource for the study of comparable smelting processes from medieval bloomery furnaces and later blast furnaces.