DerbyshireArchaeology

Yellow flags mark the individual pits of a pit alignment at Boulton Moor, Derby

A row of yellow flags marks a pit alignment at Boulton Moor Derby, being excavated by PCA.

Parcelling up the landscape around the Trent Valley, they mostly date from the Early Iron Age.

An example at Swarkestone Quarry has surviving posts made from squared off tree trunks Did they all have posts?

Conservation Work at Three Windmills Completed Conservation and restoration work at three windmills has been finished ahead of the winter. Heage Windmill in Derbyshire, Meopham Windmill in Kent, and the White Mill, also in Kent, have been undergoing programnmes of conservation and restoration work for several years. Heage Windmill was restored in 2002, but the Grade II* listed building required further work due to weather-related erosion to the exterior stonework and increased damp inside the building. Following consultation with Historic England, the Heage Windmill Society secured £30,000 in funding from the Association for Industrial Archaeology (AIA) and the Headley Trust for the works to go ahead.

Conservation work at three windmills completed

Weathered Saxon carving at Wirksworth Parish Church showing biblical scenes in two registers, including crucifixion and angelic figures, with expressive, stylised figures deeply incised in stone.

✨Lunchtime read:
Wirksworth changed the way I see things and I'm thankful for that.

There, I discovered two artefacts and contrasted their histories. Two things that are perhaps, in my Wirksworth state of mind, just as beautiful as each other. www.digest.andymarshall.co/loci-cultiva...

A necklace resting on a museum stand made of alternating black beads and pieces of patterned bone

#FindsFriday A fabulous jet and bone necklace from the Bronze Age, found at Wind Low barrow in Derbyshire, England, from about 1500 BC

What kind of person would have worn this?

Now held in the Weston Park Museum in Sheffield

📸 Mine

#archaeology #ancientbluesky #museums #photooftheday

An aerial view of 8 rectangular 'brick clamps' - temporary structures used in brick production. They were active in the 1870s as the Great Northern Railway moved through - there was a tunnel, cuttings and the former Mickleover Station just to the north. Red brick, yellow sandstone, green field, brown earth, dappled woodland. Image credit Wessex Archaeology 2021

Archaeology as cubism.

Rather than a Miro or a Braque, this is actually a drone shot of 1870s brick clamps in Mickleover, excavated by Wessex Archaeology in 2021. Short-lived structures churning out bricks for the Great Northern Railway as construction moved through.

#Derbyshire #archaeology

A 3D scan of the Anglo-Scandinavian cross shaft fragment from St Alkmund's, Derby, now in Derby Museum. 3D model by archaeo_stuff on sketchfab.com

A 3D scan of the Anglo-Scandinavian cross shaft fragment from St Alkmund's, Derby, now in Derby Museum. 3D model by archaeo_stuff on sketchfab.com

Part of a cross shaft from St Alkmund's, Derby, now in Derby Museum. This zoomorphic style emerged in South Derbyshire in the late 9th or early 10th century, right on the faultline between Viking and Saxon influence, blending elements of both traditions into something distinct and new.

The Derbyshire historic county flag with a green cross on a blue background and a gold tudor rose in the centre.

Happy Derbyshire Day. The flag of Derbyshire is flying in New Palace Yard today to mark this historic county day.

Did you know that Derbyshire has featured in the official titles of more than 200 Commons debates?

Derbyshire Archaeology Day 2026

Quite excited to hear that tickets for Derbyshire Archaeology Day 2026 are now available! My archaeology quest/dream/thingy began just after the event this year, so really looking forward to attending my first one next year!

#Derbyshire #archaeology

chesterfieldtheatres.co.uk/shows/derbys...

A white book cover, with a blue coloured design of a diesel train which states in blue lettering 'Derbyshire Railways Today'. In black lettering states 'by Terry Boden, The Derbyshire Heritage Series'.

In the Local Transport series of books, Terry Boden’s 1990 'Derbyshire Railways Today' covers the county's main and branch lines and also provides details on railways, quarrying, quarries and coal mining. Find a copy in our #LocalStudies library.

#history #trains #LocalHistory

Mosaic panel over the entrance of Long Eaton Libray, showing the figure of Learning holding a torch. Image credit 'The Wulfrun Way' on flickr

#MosaicMonday

Long Eaton Library, funded by the Carnegie Trust for Long Eaton Urban District Council in 1906, and Grade II Listed.

The mosaic over the entrance shows the light of learning.

her.derbyshire.gov.uk/Monument/MDR...

The ‘Wirksworth Stone’ - a sculptured stone-slab from St. Mary’s Church at Wirksworth in Derbyshire. Comprising of biblical scenes and figures, the stone dates from the C7th to C9th and may have originally been used as a coffin lid. 📸 My own. #SaxonSunday #SundayStonework

Star trails at Nine Stones Close stone circle, Harthill Moor, Peak District, Derbyshire.

#Photography

A piece of medieval floor tile being held by the attending archaeologist, image credit York Archaeology

#FindsFriday

This lovely piece of medieval floor tile was once part of the medieval priory church at Repton - now beneath the 19th century Pears Building in Repton School. It came to light yesterday as York Archaeology monitor remodelling work in the basement.

The Roman road out of the urbanised Manchester city centre is where the Roman route is less defined but sections are known, nearer to Melandra, from old maps and recently, LIDAR imagery. Melandra is the modern name for the fort but, its Roman name was possibly Ardotalia.

#RomanFortThursday

On the edge of an East Manchester modern housing estate, on a prominence overlooking the valley below, stands the well defined outline of a Flavian Roman fort.
It was on a road out of Mamucium #Roman fort, heading eastwards. (See.Alt)

#Archaeology #History

Sidestepping into #HillfortsWednesday with a 'not a hillfort but it should've been'. Coppy Hill, near Ticknall in #Derbyshire. What were those silly Iron Age folks doing ignoring this hill, which is ripe for a spot of hillfortery! Quite tempted to start my own. #archaeology

Aerial photo of Markland Grips promontory fort, image credit Historic England Archive 20885_015, taken by Dave MacLeod in 2009

Lovely drone shot of Markland Grips from the east, pinched from Simon Elliott who has some interesting new theories about the site.

On #HillfortsWednesday, the Markland Grips promontory fort near Clowne - mostly enclosed by the limestone gorge, with a trivallate rampart cutting off the neck (left of first photo). Excavations by Harry Lane in 1969 identified pottery from Late Bronze Age/Early Iron Age and 2nd-3rd century Roman.

Magpie mine, Sheldon, Derbyshire.

Five disused lead mines (Magpie Mine, Dirty Red Soil, Great Red Soil, Maypit and Horsesteps) are located within this walled enclosure. The site is a protected Scheduled Monument.

#Photography

A view of the northern night sky over Nine Stones Close stone circle, Harthill Moor, Peak District, Derbyshire.

#Photography

A colour image of four standing stones known as 9 Stone Close. Up to a little over 2 metres tall they are the largest standing stones in the Peak District and Derbyshire.

If you'd like to know the secret of Nine Stone Close you can join us on our last tour of the season on Monday 1st Sept. Email or DM for details. Only 4 spaces left!
#Archaeology #Tour #Derbyshire #PeakDistrict

Whitfield Green Wondering What ho! Fancy meeting you all here… Happy summer everyone! I hope the season finds you in good form… or at least not in actively terrible form. Having recently celebrated a somewhat si…

I've just posted a new article on the website - Whitfield Green Wondering, it looks at a mystery demolished farm, and what is there now, and what I found there. Have a read here. #Glossop #Derbyshire #Archaeology glossopcuriosities.co.uk/2025/08/22/w...

A (blurry) 1988 air photo showing two enclosures near Walton-on-Trent with typical Roman 'playing card' corners, one double-ditched and one single. Image credit Derbyshire HER

Enclosure ditch profiles from (what was) a suspected Roman temporary camp near Walton-on-Trent 2025, image credits Headland Archaeology

A blurry photo, but nice playing card corners - Roman fort, right?

A planning application this year and trenching confirmed some real features - no finds though.

The developer redesigned to avoid the 'fort'. Then the radiocarbon dates came back .... medieval ... and Anglo-Saxon.

I love my job!

Colin is a legend

A man gesturing with his arms while giving a talk to a small group of people stood outside in front of a small stone wall and a hedge.

A small archaeological excavation featuring a trench, a spoil heap, and some archaeology students sieving soil, looking for finds.

Two young men digging soil out of an archaeological trench. There is a group of people stood around the edge of the trench.

A small group of people stood in a field on a sunny day, with rolling hills in the background.

The brilliant Colin Merrony showed me and other members of the Derbyshire Archaeological Society around their excavations in Castleton yesterday. Fascinating listening to him tell us stories of the village, as well as tales from digs over the years here. Cheers, Colin!

#archaeology #derbyshire

Prehistoric cup and ring on an earthfast boulder at Dobb Edge, with a nice scale rod placed along side and surrounding by frost-encrusted mud and turf. Image credit Derbyshire HER

Landscape context of the rock art at Dobb Edge, showing the cup and ring marked boulder in the foreground and a frost upland landscape of drystone wall and bracken in the background. Image credit Derbyshire HER

Frosty images for a sticky July day - prehistoric cup and ring marks at Dobb Edge, above Baslow. The vibrant red of the scale rod really jumps out!

#Derbyshire #Archaeology #Prehistoric

Skeletal remains and historic wall discovered in Chesterfield town centre during work to transform Rykneld Square Skeletal remains and a historic wall have been discovered in Chesterfield town centre during work to transform Rykneld Square.

Interesting finds in Rykneld Square! @derbyshirearch.bsky.social www.derbyshiretimes.co.uk/news/people/...

Waste not want not - nice re-use of those architectural bits, I wonder where they came from?

That's stunning, I hadn't spotted that before. I wonder whether that is actually the line of 'the Portway' (which supposedly runs up past Robin Hood's Stride then off towards Castle Hill). The original Portway guy (RWP Cockerton) described it as linking up hillforts and hilltop enclosures ...

Never come across this one. Do love it up around Birchover though, and there seems to be footpaths right up to it, so will have a wander next time we're up there.

If you squint and cross your fingers, you can maybe make out the western causeway leading up to Castle Ring.

It's less hard work than pushing rocks

Cratcliff Rocks 'defended settlement' from the air in 1988, image credit Derbyshire HER.

OK, pushing the envelope slightly for #HillfortsWednesday, this is Cratcliffe Rocks 'defended settlement' seen from the air in 1988. Possibly of Iron Age or Roman date, could even be a medieval drovers' pound