| Abstract: |
Prior to the submission of any planning applications for work at Temple Bank, Beetham, Milnthorpe, Cumbria, Greenlane Archaeology was commissioned to carry out a desk-based assessment of the site. This was completed in May 2021. Following this and the granting of planning permission, a condition was placed requiring an archaeological building recording of the barn due to be converted and an archaeological watching brief on the excavation of footings for a new garage and associated landscaping within the garden. Temple Bank is on the east side of the centre of Beetham. Information contained in the Historic Environment Record revealed a variety of sites of archaeological interest located within close proximity to the site, the most pertinent of which is the supposed remains of a medieval chapel dedicated to St John, evidence for which, including human burials, was found during the construction of the present house. Nearby are the parish church of St Michael, which has at least 11th century origins, and medieval chantry college. Other human remains have also been uncovered in the village, thought by an antiquarian source to be the results of a battle. Temple Bank itself was constructed in the early 19th century, probably in 1816, by the Revd Joseph Thexton, after he became vicar of Beetham in 1811. There was, however, apparently a building already on the site before this date.
The map evidence shows that the site had essentially developed its present form by the beginning of the 19th century, and this, and other documentary sources, show that it remained in the ownership of Thexton’s descendants into the early 20th century. In the 1920s it was passed to the diocese, although it never seems to have officially been used as a vicarage; that was immediately next door to the east. After carrying out numerous repairs in the following decades the church decided to sell it in 1949.
The building recording revealed that the barn was probably of late 18th or early 19th century, and represents a good, if unusual, example of a bank barn. It perhaps predated the current house and was converted from a purely agricultural use to something more appropriate to a domestic setting as it contained a range of features such as stabling and a toilet. Nevertheless, it is remarkably well preserved and was subject to very few later changes.
The watching brief revealed very little of interest in the initial excavation for the footings, although a thick buried soil was revealed, as well as a later pit containing ironworking slag and animal bone, and some loose human bone. However, excavation for a new retaining wall revealed a row of five graves containing at least 11 human burials, buried below the same thick soil, and with a range of other features, including a shell midden. The human burials showed a range of burial forms, with supine being most common, but flexed and even prone also present. All were buried approximately east/west with their head to the west in the Christian tradition, but there was no direct dating evidence. Stratigraphically they are likely to be medieval or earlier, which fits with the historic suggestion that there was a medieval chapel on the site. An assessment of the human bones, including numerous disarticulated ones recovered from later contexts and unstratified pieces from the spoil, revealed that as many as 31 individuals are represented, with a range of interesting pathologies, including joint disease, neoplastic disease, and various trauma. Other finds recovered during the watching brief include: a range of animal bone, including unusual examples such as eel and deer antler with evidence for working; some residual medieval pottery, and large quantities of post-medieval pottery from the buried soil. A range of early post-medieval coins and a jetton struck in Nuremberg were recovered from the spoil with the metal detector. |
