Land at Broomy Farm, Woodville, Derbyshire - Archaeological Investigations Report

Wessex Archaeology

This report records the results of an archaeological watching brief and strip, map and sample excavation. The watching brief recorded a total of 99 shafts/bell pits which appear to relate to coal extraction. Post-medieval pottery recovered from the fills of one of the shafts suggest they may be related to previously identified coal workings on Woodville Road (HER No 20236).

The strip, map and sample excavation uncovered 17 pits. To their south-east an arrangement of six parallel furrows appeared to peter out to the south-west. The pits are presumed to have been dug for the purposes of clay extraction, with the clay used in the nearby pottery industry. The artefactual evidence suggests the pits were likely to have been broadly contemporary with each other and were probably infilled in the 19th–20th century. Their backfill contained quantities of local pottery, including mis-fired sherds, and kiln furniture, the presence of which indicates the material derived directly from one or more of the former pottery works known nearby.

The site contains evidence for the extraction of raw materials related to two activities historically attested in the local area: coal-mining and pottery production. That waste products from the local ceramics industry then entered the site is also of some interest, with the pottery assemblage preserving a ‘snapshot’ of some of the types of wares produced during the 19th and 20th centuries. The pottery assemblage therefore appears to have some limited potential to explore the regional research objective of developing understanding of the manufacture of pottery.