Highfield Service Reservoir to Poaka Beck WwTW Pipeline, Cumbria- Desk-based Assessment and Walkover Survey

Following a proposal by United Utilities to construct a new water pipeline between Highfield Service Reservoir and Poaka Beck Wastewater Treatment Works (SD 24347 73926–24139 77821) a programme of archaeological investigation was
recommended by the Cumbria County Historic Environment Service (CCHES). This was to consist of a desk-based assessment and walkover survey. The study area crosses a large part of the Furness Peninsular, now in south-west
Cumbria but originally Lancashire ‘north of the sands’. Its south end is close to the town of Dalton-in- Furness, while the north is near to the village of Marton. There is
evidence in the local area for activity from at least the Mesolithic period, and although the evidence during the Roman and early medieval periods is less clear, the area is
likely to have been inhabited continually from the prehistoric period onwards. Iron mining played an important part in the development of the area from at least the
medieval period, although place-name evidence suggests that it was taking place much earlier. During the eighteenth century there was a massive expansion in mining, as a result of the construction of a number of blast furnaces, several extremely large and important mines developed. Many of these were very productive and continued in use throughout the nineteenth and into the twentieth centuries, leaving a landscape scarred by industry as its legacy.