Shoot four navigation
The hand held scanner holds a class 2b red laser and two cameras that capture the information wherever the laser is placed. ‘This is actually less powerful than a supermarket cashier's laser,’ says Carolyn. Alistair picks up the science bit: ‘We have two boxes at fixed points which produce a magnetic field. A third sensor in the handset allows our main box of tricks to triangulate the co-ordinates and know exactly where in space the laser is being pointed. We can then do multiple scans of an object like your hand and produce a highly accurate 3D computer image.’ Alistair and Carolyn have been using their machine to scan the interior of the waterwheel cellar.
Throughout the afternoon the geophysics team have been surveying the fields around the back of the pub that lead down to a small stream. ‘It looks like we’ve picked up a number of terraces in the fields that could have been used to channel water in some way,’ says John Gater. ‘Katie Hirst picked up a few nice pieces of 17th and 18th century pottery from the top of some mole hills while she was walking through the meadows, and that’s quite a good sign.’
Overhead the helicopter is blasting through the sky at low level holding Mick Aston and Stewart Ainsworth. Apparently a great deal was said about water courses: ‘For the first time ever we actually ran through a whole tape just on the conversation. There was just so much packed into such a short space of filming,’ says chopper sound chief Steve Shearn.
By 4.00pm a discovery is made. Series producer, Tim Taylor, gives Onsite the scoop: ‘We’ve found the furnace! We’ve got the centre of it with lots of burnt stone, it’s very good, fantastic. Documentary resources have shown that there was a pumping house down by the stream that would have forced water up to the waterwheel. Having sorted out where the water would have come from to drive the waterwheel, and finding the alcoves where the wheel driven bellows would have been, we’ve gone on to discover the tuyere opening for the air pipes and finally the furnace base itself. I’m really happy.’
So what’s next?
‘What we’re now hoping to do is find the casting floor, which was the lower working surface of the foundry. This is where the liquid metal would have run out into moulds to cast pig iron.’
Pig Iron is so called because the ingot blanks of pure iron that were produced were set in moulds that ran off from a central channel, which resembled a sow and her feeding piglets.
‘The more work we’re doing to the site the more interesting it’s getting,’ continues Tim. ‘We want to put a trench in the field where geophysics have got those terraces so we can see what’s going on. I also want to put one of the diggers in the bottom of the waterwheel trough so that we can try and find where the water outlet is situated.’
How have you found the work today?
‘It’s good and I like these industrial sites though it would be nice to find a bit more dating material. There’s also something that Tony has been calling the casting couch, but he means the casting arch, where the red hot metal came out. I want to find that today as well if we don’t run out of time.’
Finally, are you happy with how the programme is coming together?
‘I’m very happy. I really like these sites and to work on something that looks like it could be one of the earliest foundries at the start of the Industrial Revolution is just fantastic.’
Over at the reconstruction cameo site, some eight miles up the road, things are going well. You’re going to have to watch the programme to find out what the full cameo is about, but Onsite can give you the scoop on one half of it.
In a temporary camp set up in the middle of some woods, Paul Pinnington and Jon Roberts are busy making charcoal. Charcoal was widely used in the smelting of iron before the coke burning technology was established around 1709 by Abraham Derby. Having dug a shallow pit and stacked it with wood, a slow burning fire is started. Then soil is heaped over the wood stack to create an oven so that the wood can bake. This process removes all of the moisture from the wood and turns it into charcoal.
‘From a tonne of wood you are likely to see just a quarter of a tonne of charcoal,’ says Paul Pennington. ‘The whole process takes a good two days but the results are always worth waiting for. Another good thing is the smell of it. Isn’t it lovely?'
‘I’ll tell you something, the ladies can’t resist a bit of the old charcoal smell!’ chimes in Rob.
Hopefully tomorrow the Team will discover the casting arch and casting floor. Evidence from the terraces may give us a better idea of how the water was managed that powered the whole system, and a few more finds wouldn’t go amiss.
