Foxhills

Geology When you are on site you are standing on a huge, ancient sand dune. During the last Ice Age, rocks were crushed and ground up by the massive weight of the ice. When it melted around 10,000 years ago, all this debris was left behind. The smallest grains of sand were whipped up by strong Westerly winds and gathered in deep drifts like the one you are standing on today. Wildlife The site boasts a mixed native woodland with open areas of sand which attracts a plethora of mammals, birds and insects. Woodland flowers you can spot throughout the year, include the Bluebell, Red and White Campion, Lily of the Valley, Forget-me-not, and Celandine. On open sandy areas look for hare's foot Clover, Common Stork's-bill and Stitchwort. If you look closely as you venture through the site you might spot wooden carvings of a bat, sparrowhawk, and a dragonfly. Look for these butterflies in open areas, such as Small Tortioseshell, Common Blue, and Peacock; and the Speckled Wood along the edges of the woods. Other creatures to look out for are bats at dusk and dawn, foxes, rabbits, birds of prey and other birds such as the Green Woodpecker, Roe Deer and Hedgehogs. To reach the Phoenix and The Moated Site, park at the end of Moat Road behind the Skippingdale Industrial Estate and the reserve is straight ahead of you if you walk past the vehicle barrier and walk along the track (http://www.northlincs.gov.uk/transport-and-streets/cycling/). The track will take you to a large pond on the right and then a litle further the Moat. The Moat is rich in history and we are currently putting together a historical information board to be sited here. If you walk past the slag bolders (from the former steel works) and follow the track round you will see up to 15 species of butterfly (the best site in town for butterlflies!). As you head down hill, the Saxon Settlement and Flixborough old church and graveyard are to the right. We are also gathering historical information to put an information board here for visitors. This part of the site is scheduled. History We know that people existed here and hunted here during the Ice Age. A flint hand axe (35,000 years old) found on neighbouring Risby Warren would have been used by a Neanderthal hunter. Mammoth teeth have been discovered in the gravel deposits that are found at Flixborough and Bagmoor. After the ice melted, it remained cold and bleak, like the tundra is today in Russia. It gradually warmed. This site remained as open heathland with plenty of animals and waterfowl and thick woods nearby. Nomadic people came across the land-bridge froom the continent, 'hunter gatherers' who lived off the land. These people were attracted to natural clearings with a good view of the surrounding countryside. Their spears and arrowheads were tipped with tiny chips of flint, called 'microliths'. This period in time is known as the Mesolithic 10,000 to 6,000 years ago! Many of these 'microliths' have been found here. The Neolithic, or New Stone Age, began 6,000 years ago. People began to settle in one place, although they still hunted. They needed more land to keep animals and grow crops. So they felled trees. Neolithic stone axes and flint arrowheads have been found here. The Stone Ages ended about 4,300 years ago when the people who arrived here knew how to make tools out of metal. Some lived very close to here on what is now Phoenix Avenue. Archaeologists have discovered Bronze Age pottery and cremated bones there. The History of the 'Little Conesby Moated Site' Occupation of this moated site is dated from the late 13th or early 14th century via dating pottery found on site through to the abandonment and desertion from the site in the 16th century. It is thought to have been built by the D'Arcy family who owned the manor here for over 300 years (after having acquired it in the aftermath of the Norman Conquest). In the 1920's, despite being a beauty spot of historical significance, the moat disappeared under the slag heaps of Lysaght's Normanby Park Steel Works. The moat was lost when it was filled up with slag poured from ladles mounted on railway trucks. In the 1980's, the Lysaght's works closed and were demolished, leaving behind gigantic slag heaps. As part of the clean up, all slag was to be removed from the site and the council agreed that the lost moat should be looked for. The search for the lost moat began, the site was evaluated by Humber Field Archaeology in 2000. The Team discovered the location of the moat, alongside the remains of a Medieval building on the platform within the moat, and so excavations began in 2003. Archaeological Finds On the site they found a stable, manor house, kitchen, gatehouse, bridge and causeway. As archaeologists investigated the bottom of the moat, they uncovered organic material including a wooden bowl, several pairs of shoes (pointed toe from 14/15th century, blunt toe from the late 15th century and 'broad' Tudor shoes), textiles, traces of cereal grains, hemp, linseed and hazel nuts. They uncovered the remains of a timber bridge and evidence of a gatehouse aligned with a metal trackway and a metalled yard. A non-domestic building was also found (13th-14th century) outside of the moated area. A large iron key was discovered on the causeway. Could it have been left under the doormat as the inhabitants abandoned the site? There were specially moulded bricks (one of the largest varied assemblages of Medieval ceramic building materials found from a rural site in the region) and painted glass showing the wealth of the owners. Pottery findings identified two main periods of activity; the late 13th to early 14th century and a later period of demolition of the structures on site. The demolition of the hall was dated by the discovery of an un-worn penny of Henry VII (AD 1500-1509) found in the rubble. The Saxon Settlement at Flixborough This site is scheduled under the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979. It includes the remains of an Anglo-Saxon ecclesiastical site, probably a nunnery, a ruined medieval church and its attached graveyard. Excavated buildings and finds confirm that it was a high status site occupied by people who had access to skilled builders and the products of fine craftsmen. Pre-Norman monasteries and nunneries are rare nationally, and are normally identified on the basis of early documentary evidence. However, there is no recorded history here and it has solely been identified on the basis of excavated finds. It has produced more archaeological evidence than many other documented sites. Findings of the Dig The remains of an Anglo-Saxon settlement were excavated by Humberside Archaeology Unit between 1989 and 1991. An unprecedented Middle to Late Saxon rural settlement sequence was uncovered. There were six main phases of occupation, dating from the early 7th to the 11th centuries AD. The greatest period of activity was during the 8th to early 11th centuries. The site is particularly exceptional because of the association of 40 buildings, floor surfaces and massive refuse dumps. This orderly disposal of the rubbish by the inhabitants provided an unprecedented amount of evidence on the character of occupation, as well as indications of the wealth and social status of its population. There were over 10,000 recorded finds, including many luxury artefacts that were associated with elite lifestyles and activities, including literacy. The majority of the buildings were houses, many of which had internal stone and clay hearths. There were also exceptional buildings, one of which may have been a chapel for the leading family of the settlement. Within it 5 inhumation graves were discovered. The layout of buildings and other structures changed significantly over time. Industry On the same site there was evidence for Iron Age domestic occupation (c.400 BC) with evidence of smelting iron in a bloomery furnace, pottery, animal bones and a weight from a loom. We used to believe that the Normans brought rabbits to the British Isles, but recent discoveries have proved it was the Romans. Breeding colonies called Warrens began to be used during the Medieval period for meat and later in the 18th century, largely for the fur to trim clothing and hats.