The Lowland Wetlands of Cumbria

This volume is the sixth of seven county-based books resulting from the North West Wetlands Survey, a long-term project design to identify the archaeological and palaeoecological resource of the lowland wetlands of the North West of England. The survey focused on lowland wetlands on the coastal plain in the south, west and north of the county, with rapid palaeoecological assessments of small basin mires on the upland fringe to supplement the large body of extant literature.

The three largest areas of wetland are in south Cumbria, on the fringes of Morecambe Bay, the West Cumbrian coast, and the area on the south coast of the Solway on the North Cumbrian Plain. Many wetlands survive well, though most are in decline due to a range of factors such as commercial peat-cutting and forestry. The predominantly pastoral land-use has meant that archaeological remains are difficult to detect from either surface or aerial survey, and this may mean that ancient sites and landscapes remain well preserved. Most of the evidence for the use of the wetlands throughout the study area derives from the excellent palaeoecological archive, which records climate change, clearance episodes and marine transgressions.

The earliest human use of the mosslands in all areas was probably during the Palaeolithic period, when there is artefactual evidence form deposits in caves. Mesolithic activity is both sealed by barrows in the south and has been identified on the raised beaches of former coasts in the west, where it was possible to take advantage of the biodiversity of these environments. A concentration of sites exists in the Esk estuary, and the archaeological potential for the Mesolithic is also shown by sites revealed by survey on the northern side of Solway.

In West Cumbria, the type site for the early Neolithic is the famous habitation site of Ehenside Tarn, but occupation of this date appears more widespread than during the Mesolithic. Later Neolithic use may be reflected by the deliberate deposition of polished stone axes in mossland sites, and there are visible ritual monuments in the west. Some Beaker-period burials have been identified in the south, but the distribution of Bronze Age material broadly results from chance finds. Palaeoecological evidence suggests more intensive land-use, coupled to an increased material assemblage as the late Bronze Age is reached, with settlement expanding onto marginal land, where numerous sites survive. Unlike earlier periods there is no real evidence for the preferential use of wetlands at this time, though ritual deposition of metalwork seems to have occurred.

The late Bronze Age clearances were clearly not maintained through the early Iron Age, as vegetation regenerated, but a sustained and extensive clearance for cereal production and grazing took place in the late Iron Age. Clearance in the Hadrian's Wall area had clearly taken place before the Wall was built and was not predominantly a product of its construction. Despite the palaeoecological evidence for this phenomenon, there is little associated archaeological material attesting Iron Age and Romano-British settlement. Settlement sites, detected on the North Cumbrian Plain through aerial photography, may in many cases be of this period, though one example at Plasketlands on excavation proved to be Neolithic in date; such sites may represent a long period of landscape development. It seems that settlement had moved away from wetlands in the late prehistoric period though their continued use for ritual is shown by the bog bodies from Seascale and Scaleby Mosses. For the early medieval period there is evidence of ritual activity in the shape of the Solway cattle, and there is also some evidence for hemp retting on Glasson Moss. Later in the middle ages, large-scale management of mossland exploitation was undertaken by the great monastic houses, such as Furness in the south and Holm Cultram in the north. The survey undertook substantial documentary work to trace the medieval and post-medieval uses of the mosslands. The principal means of exploitation was demonstrated to be the cutting of peat for both domestic and industrial fuel supply in the absence of timber, though this was carefully regulated. Enclosure and reclamation has only taken place on any scale since the eighteenth century.

It is clear that the mosslands retain a huge archaeological potential, particularly in the palaeoecological archive contained. There are many threats to the survival of the archaeological archive of the wetlands, including commercial peat extraction, drainage, forestry and, ironically, wetland restoration schemes. These can, however, be minimised by sensitive management.