Elmswell 2018

There are around 2,000 abandoned medieval villages in England, and each one has its own unique story to tell. At Elmswell Farm, there’s evidence of an entire medieval village… and of settlement that goes even further back in time. Support this dig and you can help explore it!

John Fenton has tended Elmswell Farm, near Driffield in the East Riding of Yorkshire, for a lifetime. Over the years, it has produce an extraordinary number of archaeological riches – Roman coins, Anglo-Saxon burials, Bronze Age weapons and even a cache of stone tools. That’s 5,000 years worth of evidence!

Many of the discoveries were made and recorded by two of the most diligent detectorists (our famous ‘Detectologists’) we’ve ever met, but perhaps the most impressive discovery yet is a series of cropmarks that are so distinctive they can only be one thing: an entire medieval village.

In fact, it’s so well preserved that from the air, you can still see its crofts, tofts and well-established holloways (paths worn into the ground through time).

So far, John and the two detectorists have done a marvelous job of keeping all this archaeology safe, even going so far as to build a small museum – it’s an incredible achievement. But with such a huge and unexplored chunk of history lying just below the surface, more needs to be done, and together we can help them!

In 2017, we took an exploratory look at the medieval remains, proving that they’re full of evidence that can help us chart the ebb and flow of life at this well-preserved village.

It’s also obvious that Elmswell Farm has the potential to become one of Yorkshire’s most important multi-period sites. There are strong links with the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Deira, Roman ruins, and traces of Iron Age settlement.

Only a bigger excavation can reveal the full picture, and we need to raise £15,000 to do it. Why did people settle here? What jobs did they do? Were they prosperous? And why was the village eventually abandoned?

With your help, we can begin an archaeological investigation that will head ever further back in time to build up a timeline of life and settlement in the Yorkshire wolds.

This year, we want to bring the medieval village back to the surface on a much bigger scale, and really get into its nooks and crannies. We also want to head further back in time to examine the Roman ladder settlement that lies just a little deeper underground. With your help, we can do it.

Multi-period site like this are archaeologically precious, because they’re the ones that really help to tie together the stories of everyone who has come and gone over the millennia.

We believe that Elmswell Farm could easily become one of the most important archaeological sites in Yorkshire. We can see its potential, and we hope you can too!

Support this dig to start exploring ancient life in Yorkshire.

The discoveries at Elmswell Farm started back in the 1870s, when John Mortimer began excavating some of the many prehistoric burial mounds in the area. In one, he found an early Bronze Age person buried with a hawk, some amber beads, a copper dagger and a gold-decorated wrist-guard. Later, he discovered that this mound also concealed a further 46 Anglo-Saxon burials.

Then, in the 1930s, the Roman finds came tumbling in. Among them were 37 coins (one of which was Iceni), plenty of pottery and, in the neighbouring field, clear evidence of a Roman ladder settlement that had been occupied from the late Iron Age to the early Anglo-Saxon period.

As if that wasn’t enough for one farm, aerial photos taken by the RAF revealed the outline of another settlement – this time a deserted medieval village.

Over the last few years, metal detectorists have continued to report remarkable finds, and surveys have also added new details to the Iron Age, Roman and medieval villages.

What’s more, the remains of an 8^th century palace were found just two miles away, and a nearby church at Driffield has been linked with King Aldfrith. With evidence of such a strong Anglo-Saxon presence in the area, it seems likely that excavations at Elmswell might also uncover new evidence of the lesser-known kingdom of Deira.

This project has grown out of the exceptionally strong personal commitment shown to the land’s heritage by the farmer, John Fenton. But it’s still a working farm, and with every passing day it becomes more and more important to figure out exactly what archaeology survives and where.

The farm has maintained the same ancient boundaries for over a thousand years, since at least the time of Edward the Confessor. Such a continuous parcel of land is  unique, and worthy of study in its own right. But the thing that makes the archaeology here so special and so valuable to our understanding of the past is the sheer number of distinct archaeological remains, which together span 5,000 years.

For archaeologists, there’s little more precious than a multi-period site like this, because these are the ones that really help us tie together the stories of all the different people, traditions and cultures that have come and gone over the millennia.

Elmswell will be especially important for anyone interested in the early medieval and medieval periods. For a start, there’s an entire deserted medieval village to be explored, complete with crofts, tofts and holloways.

There’s also the Roman ladder settlement, which includes a 4th century villa, and which seems to have been inhabited from the late Iron Age, right through the Roman period and into the early Anglo-Saxon occupation.

Now add in the fact that 46 Anglo-Saxon burials were found on the farm, the area’s links with Anglo-Saxon royalty and connections with the kingdom of Deira, and you can start to see why we think Elmswell has the potential to fill in so many historical blanks.

On top of that, the farm sits in the Hull valley, which is famous for having square, as well as round, Iron Age burial mounds. Elmswell has turned up some rather curious Iron Age finds of its own, but it also has earlier ones – including several Bronze Age burial mounds. There was also a cache of stone tools, taking us even further back in time. Again, it’s a trail of dots just waiting to be connected.

From an entire medieval village, right back to 5,000 years in the past, Elmswell Farm has so much just waiting to be explored. We can see its potential, and we hope you can too!

Our goal for this season is to do a two week excavation at Elmswell Farm exploring the abandoned medieval village. But we also want to get a headstart on some of the other archaeological remains that we know exist, including the Roman ladder settlement.

• Excavate the remains of the medieval village. There are buildings, ditches and heaps of pottery and domestic artefacts that got left behind, all of which can help the story of the people who lived once lived here
• Dig trenches over some of the other ‘bits’ of Elmswell’s archaeology. This will give us all a taste of how well each part survives. We’re particularly interested in the deserted medieval village, the ladder settlement and the areas surrounding where the Roman coin hoards were found. In future, we’d also like your help to take a look at the tumuli (burial mounds) and the field where lots of stone tools were found!
• Look for more features from the air. We haven’t explored the whole farm yet, or done a complete fly-over with our archaeology drone. Have we missed anything? There might be more that no-one’s even spotted yet!
• Do a close-up geophysics inspection. This will mean we get to add some great new detail to our maps of things like the deserted medieval village… before we even start digging!
• Turn the survey results into virtual landscapes. That way, everyone will be able to explore them in 3D from the comfort of their own computer!

To do it, we need to raise £15,000 – that should be just enough to cover two weeks of excavation and everything else that goes with it, including what we need in order to:

• Plan the dig. There are some (fairly complicated) logistics involved!
• Run the excavation. We need enough archaeologists on site to make sure that everyone who comes digging with us has plenty of expert support
• Pay for all the ‘aftercare’. We’ll need specialists to analyse, conserve and take care of all the artefacts we find
• Share lots of updates before, during and after the dig. It doesn’t start and end with excavation. We’ll be publishing videos, live streams, virtual artefacts and blogs so that you can watch the archaeology online!
• Make sure that all of our data, discoveries and interpretation are freely available online. We think that the results of publicly funded research should be free and easy to access. We’ll be putting all of ours online as soon as they’re made.

At DigVentures, we believe that archaeologists can carry out internationally important research while also bringing as many people on this journey with us as possible, and making the thrill of discovery available to everyone.