Land off Greystone Lane, Dalton-in-Furness, Cumbria: Archaeological Desk-Based Assessment

Prior to the submission of a planning application for a proposed residential development on land off Greystone Lane, Dalton-in-Furness, Greenlane Archaeology was commissioned to carry out an archaeological desk-based assessment. This examines the known and unknown archaeological resource of the surrounding area and was carried out through the examination of both primary and secondary sources, including the Cumbria Historic Environment Record, and a site visit was also carried out in order to make a brief assessment of the current condition of the site and identify any potential constraints to further archaeological work.

The site comprises three long fields to the north-east of Greystone Lane at the south-east edge of Dalton-in-Furness. The site is shown as open fields on the tithe map of 1842 and changed very little from the mid-19th century to the early 20th century. The fields seem to have had a number of owners and occupiers and were all known as ‘Weybrow Hill’ on the tithe map, which perhaps includes the Old English element burh meaning fort, although they seem to have changed name later. The wider local area has evidence for human activity from the last Ice Age onwards, although the site is in close proximity to the primarily medieval and post-medieval settlement of Dalton-in-Furness and in an area of numerous iron mines.

An assessment of the significance and potential of the site with regard both known and unknown archaeological remains suggests that although there is only a single stray find known from within the proposed development area, there is clearly, based on the known archaeology of the wider area, the potential for other remains to be present. These are likely to be industrial and connected to the mining of iron ore in the 19th century, but earlier remains could also be present. While there will already have been some disturbance to any archaeological remains that might be present due to a range of factors, the nature of the development would mean that any that were still present would be adversely affected. It is considered that the most efficient means of assessing whether anything of archaeological interest is present would be through geophysical survey, although this would be of limited use in the western field due to the presence of recent structures and access roads.

The full report will be made available on the Archaeology Data Service website.