Ingleborough
  Archaeology

 Group Excavation of a corn drying kiln, Kilnsey
September 2008






In conjunction with the Upper Wharfedale Heritage Group, the Ingleborough Archaeology Group completed the excavation phase of a project at Kilnsey in Wharfedale in late September 2008. The project, which has involved full topographic and geophysical surveying, was funded by Awards for All. Over eleven (miraculously dry) days a team of twenty carried out a full excavation of the structure whose position was known from the 1844 Tithe Apportionment map but whose existence was not certain as no surface features had survived.

The kiln proved to have had two phases. The earlier bowl was oval and made of coursed limestone blocks with a flue exiting to the south, and it was much larger in diameter and depth than anticipated. The south wall was intact but the north wall had been demolished to make way for the wall of the phase two bowl which was square in plan and smaller than the original. The flue was blocked off by the later wall.



A large quantity of artefacts was recovered, dominantly late 18th and 19th century pottery. An archaeomagnetic specialist is being brought in to try and obtain a date for the last firing of the earlier kiln.

The project team were keen to involve local primary schools. The entire Kettlewell School spent an afternoon on site, undertaking a range of activities such as trowelling, washing finds, surveying and learning how oat cakes were made from the grain dried in kilns like this one. Pre-visit and follow-up work is being undertaken by all year groups.

This site will be updated as post-excavation work unfolds.

David Johnson, Project supervisor, 1st October 2008.