STANLEY POND, WHITEHAVEN, CUMBRIA Assessment Report

Following an application by Roxylight Agricultural Land (Cumbria) Ltd for a proposed open-cast coal extraction site at Stanley Pond, Whitehaven, Cumbria (centred on NGR NX
2988 5146), Lancaster University Archaeological Unit (LUAU) undertook a desk-based assessment and walk-over survey of the area in July 2001.
The Sites and Monuments Record contained seven sites within the study area, including a number of coal mines, bloomery sites, medieval field systems and an engine house adjacent
to Stanley Pond. A search of the documentary sources yielded further evidence for postmedieval colliery sites within the area. No sites of prehistoric or Roman date are known
from the vicinity, although there is some possibility that prehistoric sites are preserved within or associated with a wetland in the southern part of the study area. Such
environments have the potential to preserve important archaeological sites such as Ehenside Tarn, to the south of Egremont, as demonstrated by a recent study of the lowland wetlands of Cumbria by LUAU on behalf of English Heritage.
The walk-over survey highlighted the remains of a number of medieval field systems, centred on the southern half of the survey area. Despite evidence from documentary
sources, few colliery sites were recognised, even in the locations where they were known to have existed at one time; most appear to have been ploughed out or to have been filled in.
At the Low Scalegill colliery, shafts linked to the site have disappeared within the last ten years, and the associated buildings have now been mostly swamped by vegetation: only the waggonways and spoil-heap survive to any extent. The walk-over survey identified only a few sites that had not previously been recorded from the documentary study, but these included a post-medieval bridge and a heck gate.
Within the study is an extant farm, Low Hall Farm, which was examined as part of the present study; this is thought to be of eighteenth century date, although the site may once have contained a medieval hall.
The excavation of the open-cast coal extraction site will impact not just the identified archaeological resource but also the situation and setting of a number of sites, such as
Linethwaite Hall to the south of the study area. The excavation will remove a number of medieval field systems, and will damage both known and unknown late-medieval collieries, of which there are at least two in the area; it will also remove the old mineral line, which is currently used as a footpath. The development will impact on the wetland sites centred in the southern half of the survey area, which have the potential to preserve a significant
archaeological resource.
It is recommended therefore that further archaeological investigation be undertaken in advance of the development, which should include a programme of survey to record the
surface features, a programme of evaluation trenching to investigate below ground survival of archaeological remains, and environmental sampling in the wetland areas to investigate the potential for the survival of an archaeological / ecological resource.