Archaeologists find 'significant' Viking building
Grampus Heritage
Archaeologists have unearthed what they believe to be a Viking-age building in a recent dig.
Teams of volunteers dug up High Tarns Farm in Silloth, Cumbria, in July after crop marks indicated a structure had previously been on the land.
Carbon dating of a timber building they discovered suggested it was a "large hall of the late-Viking age", archaeologist Mark Graham of Grampus Heritage told volunteers.
Mr Graham added the significance of the discovery in shedding light on the early medieval period and social structure in rural Cumbria was "hard to overstate".
More than 50 volunteers carried out the dig.
Mr Graham told BBC Radio Cumbria: "That excavation [was] totally delivered by community volunteers giving their time every day to come out to the trenches and uncover our shared past."
Grampus Heritage
In a letter written to volunteers, Mr Graham said load-bearing timbers they had found had a 94% chance of dating back to 990–1040 AD.
Similarly, a charcoal production pit and a corn dryer were likely to date back to the late 10th to early 11th Century, he said.
"It seems most likely that the hall is the focus of an early medieval manor farm," Mr Graham said.
He explained the site appeared similar to high status Viking age farms in Denmark, because it encompassed not only the hall but also the social structure and broader agricultural activity associated with them.
Mr Graham said it was a remarkable discovery.
"You really do not find much archaeology from that period [the Viking age] in our county," he said.
"It's a big gap in our knowledge."
Grampus led the excavations, which had been funded by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.
A full excavation report would be released "in due course", Mr Graham added.
Follow BBC Cumbria on X, Facebook, Nextdoor and Instagram. Send your story ideas here
Archaeology
Silloth
History
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Scotsman
18 hours ago
- Scotsman
Technician Takeover highlights careers in pest control
A national trade body is handing control of its social media platforms to five pest technicians from across the UK for World Pest Day (June 6). Sign up to our daily newsletter – Regular news stories and round-ups from around Scotland direct to your inbox Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... BPCA members will be posting from the association's Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and X accounts to highlight the benefits of a career in the pest control industry. Pest professionals have a key role to play in protecting public health, supporting businesses and safeguarding wildlife and natural environments. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad The industry offers a variety of career opportunities and specialisms, such as working with birds of prey, field biologist and product development. Harry Leyland and Aislyn Risk Taking part in the technician takeover is: Aislyn Risk, Pest Solutions, Scotland Carl and Craig Hoult, Reaper Bird Solutions, Norfolk Elsie Anderson, Pest Solutions Scotland Harry Leyland, PestForce, Doncaster Karen Dawes, Training and Development Manager at BPCA, said: 'There are many routes to a successful career in professional pest management, from people leaving military service or looking for a career change, to young people and university graduates considering their next steps. 'BPCA membership encompasses a huge range of businesses operating in domestic, commercial and industrial sectors, using specialist techniques that protect the food chain, homes, businesses, wildlife and the environment from the potentially harmful impact of a pest infestation.' Carl Hoult, Elsie Anderson, Craig Hoult Visit the BPCA careers page ( or get in touch to find out more about careers in pest control. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad BPCA member businesses are endorsed by the Government via the TrustMark quality scheme as they must carry the correct insurances and are trained and qualified technicians who are assessed to the British Standard in pest management EN 16636 and follow BPCA's Codes of Best Practice.
NBC News
a day ago
- NBC News
Welcome to kitten season, when animal shelters need all the help they can get
NEW YORK — Strawberry, Blueberry, JoJo and Mazzy were about 6 weeks old when animal rescuers coaxed them out of long metal pipes in the parking lot of a storage unit company. Meatball was a single kitten living in a cold garage with a group of semi-feral adult cats. Spaghetti, Macaroni and Rigatoni, meanwhile, were just 2 weeks old when the good folks of LIC Feral Feeders, a cat rescue in Queens, took them in and bottle-fed them until they were strong enough to survive. Consider these cuties the face of kitten season 2025. Kitten season, typically landing during warmer months, is the time of year when most cats give birth. That produces a surge of kittens, often fragile neonates. Shelters get overwhelmed, especially when it comes to the 24-hour care and feeding of extremely young kittens. That, as a result, triggers a need for more foster homes because many of the 4,000 or so shelters in the U.S. don't have the time or resources for around-the-clock care, said Hannah Shaw, an animal welfare advocate known as the Kitten Lady with more than a million followers on Instagram. "We see about 1.5 million kittens entering shelters every year. And most of them will come into shelters during May and June," she said. "Shelters need all hands on deck to help out through fostering." Familiarity with fostering animals is high, Shaw said. The act of doing it is a different story. There's a false perception, she said, that the expense of fostering animals falls on the people who step up to do it. These days, many shelters and rescues cover the food, supplies and medical costs of fostering. "A lot of people don't foster because they think it's going to be this huge cost, but fostering actually only costs you time and love," she said. Lisa Restine, a Hill's Pet Nutrition veterinarian, said people looking to adopt kittens should take pairs since cats often bond early in life. And how many cats is too many cats per household? "This is nothing serious or medical but my general rule of thumb is the number of adults in the house, like a 2-to-1 ratio, because you can carry one cat in each hand, so if there are two adults you can have four cats and still be sane," she said. Square footage to avoid territory disputes is a good rule of thumb when planning for cats, Restine said. Two cats per 800 square feet then 200 square feet more for each addition should help, she said. Littermates, like Macaroni and Rigatoni, are much more likely to bond, Restine said. Kittens not biologically related but raised together often bond as well — like Meatball and Spaghetti. But adopters hoping to bond an adult cat with a new kitten arrival may be disappointed. "Once they're over that 3- or 4-month mark, it's hard to get that true bonding," Restine said. Typically, kittens stay in their foster homes from a few weeks to a few months. While statistics are not kept on the number of kitten fosters that "fail" — when foster families decided to keep their charges — some shelters report rates as high as 90%. That's a win, despite use of the word "fail," advocates note. Shaw sees another barrier holding people back from fostering: the notion that it requires special training or skills. That's why she has dedicated her life to educating the public, offering videos, books and research on how it works at her site Companies are coming on board, too. Hill's, a pet food company, runs the Hill's Food, Shelter & Love program. It has provided more than $300 million in food support to over 1,000 animal shelters that support fostering in North America. "About a quarter of a million kittens, unfortunately, don't survive in our shelters every year," Shaw said. "The shelter's going to be there to mentor and support you. So I think a lot of the fear that people have about fostering, they might find that actually it is something you totally can do. It's just scary because you haven't done it yet."
BBC News
2 days ago
- BBC News
Man to face no action after boy hit in Blandford Forum accident
A man arrested after a three-year-old boy was seriously hurt when he was hit by a car towing a caravan will face no further 19-year-old man was initially arrested on suspicion of causing serious injury by dangerous driving after the boy was hurt near Milldown Road in Blandford Forum, Dorset, on 8 Police said officers had found no evidence of driving offences after an boy was airlifted to Southampton Hospital in the aftermath of the the accident but was released from hospital in mid-May and is expected to make a full recovery. You can follow BBC Dorset on Facebook, X (Twitter), or Instagram.
