Land at Midtown Farm, Little Urswick, Cumbria: Archaeological Desk-Based Assessment

Small fragments are frequent finds on north-western sites, but, although they appear frequently on Romanised settlements such as Carlisle (see for instance Henderson 1991), it is suggested that, being relatively easy to make with recycled glass (Stevenson 1954-55, 216; Swift, E.2003, 25), they might have an indigenous origin, since stray fragments often appear on otherwise relatively un-Romanised settlements, for instance that investigated at Baldhowend Farm, Matterdale (Hoaen and Loney 2013, Appendix 2) The potential development area is located to the east of the centre of Little Urswick and comprises a former farm and part of open fields to the east, adjoining a recent housing development to the south. The HER records a total of 35 sites of archaeological interest nearby, ranging from prehistoric find spots and a scheduled settlement, Roman stray finds, and potential early iron ore mining and working to medieval finds. The map evidence reveals that the area comprises part of strip fields of medieval type, running from the village, which is also probably largely medieval in origin, with farm buildings of post-medieval date still present on the site, as revealed by the site visit. The site visit also revealed considerable areas of probable disturbance, which would have probably impacted on any surviving archaeological remains. While there are no known sites of archaeological interest recorded within the proposed development area, with the exception of the standing historic farm buildings, there is potential for archaeological remains to be present, particularly of medieval and post-medieval date. It is therefore recommended that some further archaeological work be carried out, specifically the recording of the historic farm buildings in the first instance and geophysical survey on the open areas to the east. Further work would possibly be carried out depending on the results of this.