10th March 2012 - Barley Vaccary and Mancknowls Ing

The sun came out as we were making our way back!

It was a cold start to our Spring field walking programme.  Strong winds and showers forced us to retreat to the deserted Mancknowls Ing farm for lunch, where we had a long look around.  This is a fascinating building probably dating to around 1790.  It is a laithe farm (i.e. with a barn and midden attached) and contains a room designed to house a loom for wool or cotton weaving.  There is lime-rich mortar between the rubble stones of the building, something rarely seen these days.

The farmland was well laid out with several ditch and bank boundaries running down the slope to where we believe the boundary of the medieval vaccary lies.  We think Mancknowls Ing is a later extension to the vaccary.  Ridge and furrow could be seen in many of the fields and gateposts were a consistent design and of surprisingly high quality.

See photos here, use the slider to zoom in on the map...
https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/albumMap?uname=archaeologygroup&aid=5718684534237130481#map