Former Depot, Harmony Hill, Milnthorpe, Cumbria - Evaluation

Following planning permission being granted to by Home North West to construct ten
dwellings at Harmony Hill, Milnthorpe, Cumbria (centred on NGR SD 5005 8163),
Cumbria County Council’s Historic Environment Service (CCCHES) issued a formal
brief for a programme of archaeological work required as a condition. During a
previous evaluation at Dallam School, immediately to the north of the proposed
development site, in 2005 four human cremations were uncovered, three of which
were of Late Bronze Age date and grouped together, the fourth was Late Neolithic
and was located away from the other three (ASUD 2005a; ASUD 2005b). An undated
pit and ditch were associated with the late Bronze Age cremations. Therefore, this
area is considered to be of high archaeological potential and CCCHES advised that an
archaeological evaluation comprising a rapid desk-based assessment, visual inspection
and trial trenching of the site was necessary. Oxford Archaeology North (OA North)
were commissioned to undertake the work in July 2008.
Fifteen sites of archaeological significance were identified within the study area (a
0.5km radius surrounding the proposed development site) following consultation of
the Historic Environment Record (HER) in Kendal. The whole of the proposed
development site was identified in the HER as the site of a former weaver’s shop and
paddock belonging to the Dallam Tower Estate (HER 42180), which dated to at least
the early nineteenth century. However, by the second half of the nineteenth century it
had been cleared, as shown on the Ordnance Survey first (1862) and second (1898)
edition maps. The site was then later partially occupied by sheep pens by 1914 and
became a Council Yard in the twentieth century (Greenlane Archaeology Ltd 2008,
8).