An Archaeological Watching Brief at Damstead Works, Mill Lane Dronfield

Derbyshire County Council appointed ARCUS (Archaeological Research and Consultancy at the University of Sheffield) to conduct a watching brief on works taking place within the footprint of Damstead works, off Mill Lane, Dronfield (SK 359 782). All groundworks within the ruined building were observed, in order to record any archaeological remains that might be exposed or destroyed during the removal of deposits from the interior of the building. No significant archaeological features were removed over the course of the archaeological watching brief. The removal of spoil and rubble (09) did however reveal a number of features, some of which had previously been recorded in plan by Paul Smith and described by the South Yorkshire Industrial History Society (Bayliss 2002). The works monitored by ARCUS enabled a number of these to be more closely characterised. Only those features revealed by the removal of the demolition debris were recorded. Much of the structure of the building remains sealed beneath extant rubble and spoil deposits, and has probably been disturbed by the trees which have colonised much of the interior of the building and its environs. Further archaeological work would be needed to assess the relationship between the features identified by ARCUS, and the extant archaeological structures which remain at Damstead Works.