An Archaeological Evaluation at Lady Manners School, Castle Hill, Bakewell, Derbyshire

Peter Knowles architects appointed ARCUS (Archaeological Research and Consultancy at the University of Sheffield) to excavate trial holes in the grounds of Castle Hill, Lady Manners School, Bakewell, Derbyshire, during March 1999. These investigations focused on the area enclosed by the old walled garden and part of the adjoining ground to a brief from the Peak District National Park Archaeological Advisory Service, seeking to locate archaeological deposits particularly related to the adjacent medieval earthwork castle from which Castle Hill and Burre Close take their names. Whilst no medieval features as such were identified in the trial holes a section of old track-way was exposed forming part of the old pack horse road between Edensor and Bakewell. The only medieval material recovered was a single sherd of twelfth- to fourteenth-century locally produced pottery from the garden subsoil.