This volume presents the results of archaeological investigations at the site of the former Kirkstall Forge in Leeds, UK. It provides a window into the evolution of iron- and steel-working and engineering in Leeds over a period of 400 years, as the site expanded from a water-powered iron forge to a major industrial works, manufacturing products that aided in the development and expansion of the textile, railway, coal and engineering industries in Leeds and further afield.A ‘bloom-smithy’ was present on the site by the end of the 16th century, and in the 17th century the forge and a new slitting mill became part of the Spencer Syndicate’s extensive network of ironworking sites across Yorkshire. In 1779, the forge was taken over by the partnership of Beecroft and Butler, which ran the works for nearly 100 years. This partnership introduced iron puddling for the production of high quality wrought iron and a substantial engineering business was developed. The Forge finally closed in 2003 and the site was cleared of the majority of buildings in 2007.The origin, growth and development of the works and business fortunes are charted through research, standing building recording and extensive archaeological excavations. This has revealed information on the development of puddling technologies, power sources and the changes in the engineering and axle production industries.

The Hungate archaeological project was undertaken by York Archaeology, then known as York Archaeological Trust, from 2006 to 2011 on behalf of Hungate (York) Regeneration Ltd. It comprised a series of evaluations, excavations and watching briefs across the regeneration area, incorporating one of the largest ever urban excavations in York.The Block H excavation area lay on the south-east side of Stonebow, between Hungate and Dundas Street, and revealed a deeply-stratified sequence including a Roman cemetery, Viking Age buildings, a medieval city dump and later urban development within an area that had become regarded as a slum by the start of the 20th century. This volume reports on the Roman cemetery and earlier landscape use, including a full catalogue of the cremations and inhumations and associated burial goods together with specialist analysis of the human remains, artefacts and ecofacts recovered.With at least 120 graves present, the cemetery at Hungate is one of the largest Roman cemeteries of York to have been subjected to a modern archaeological excavation. It began life as a cremation cemetery in the mid to late 2nd century AD with gradual development and expansion as an inhumation cemetery over the following 200+ years. Zonation of the cemetery was evident in distinct groupings on differing alignments with a potentially late 4th century horizon in the north of the cemetery space, somewhat less coherent in layout and alignment.Extended, supine, and coffined inhumation was the norm, but a range of other rites were also represented, including one richly furnished lead-coffined burial. Grave goods/furnishings were relatively common, more common than at many cemeteries of this date with pottery, glass vessels, body adornment and footwear all included as deliberate deposits. Several of the burials were quite richly furnished, having multiple items in different materials (jet, copper alloy, pottery, glass). One burial contained a jet baton of unique form, which had been placed in the hand of an older juvenile. A further individual furnished with jet necklaces and bangles shows remarkable similarities with the ‘gallus’ from Catterick, interpreted there as a transvestite priest of the cult of Cybele.

The Iron Age and Roman site at Hanging Banks, Wingerworth lies a few miles south of Chesterfield in North East Derbyshire. The site was discovered and excavated in advance of residential development.Occupation begins in the late Iron Age and is characterised by a series of small sub-rectangular and curvilinear ditched enclosures, a ditched trackway, round-house gullies, four-post structures and pits supporting a complex arable economy but with little evidence surviving for animal husbandry. The complete absence of ceramics and other material culture testifies to the (relative) archaeological invisibility of settlement in this period in north-east Derbyshire. Only extensive excavation supplemented by a programme of C14 dating allowed this to be well characterised.The focus of occupation shifts towards the south into the early Roman period, the site then being comprehensively remodelled in the late 1st century AD with the construction of a large rectangular enclosure, defined by a substantial 3m-wide ditch with a single 5m-wide eastern entrance. Within were various associated features including stone foundations with pad-stone alignments and large stone-packed post holes suggestive of at least two large timber-built structures, all generally dating to the 2nd century. A number of corn-drying kilns and possible bread ovens were also identified, several deliberately placed around the periphery of the enclosure on the inner edge of the main enclosure ditch. Very little later Roman material was recovered and the site appears to have been in decline and largely out of use by the early 3rd century. The recovered artefact assemblage would not appear to point to any particularly high status, but included a rare enamelled miniature stand, a distinctively British artefact type, largely associated with temple and/or military sites.Early medieval activity was evidenced by a single pit with a deposit of charred barley C14 dated to the 6th-7th century AD. This represents a rare finding in this area of Derbyshire, and indeed in the county as a whole, but the evidence is slight and hard to characterise, being significantly truncated by later ploughing. Roman period occupation has left abundant traces, but pre- and post-Roman occupation is much less visible in this landscape.