More Archaeology in the Community

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Hi All,

As I have previously mentioned, for the last couple of years I have been on the executive committee of the University of Otago Anthropology Society (UOAS), a student society that runs a number of social events during the year, as well as anthropology and archaeology related experiences.

A particular goal of the society at present is to get out beyond the university environment and into the community, applying our developing skills where they may be of use. Recently some of us from the society assisted a local charitable organisation, the Southern Heritage Trust, by cataloguing pieces of dismantled historic rope making equipment in Dunedin. For more details about this project, see my earlier post entitled Archaeology in the Community.

This post is about another project that members of the society were involved in, alongside a local consultant archaeologist, Dr Peter Petchey of Southern Archaeology Ltd. A short report about this project has appeared in the most recent issue of Archaeology in New Zealand, the quarterly newsletter of the New Zealand Archaeological Association - which will be cited herein as Petchey et al. (2015). 

EDIT (16/10/2018): The article referred to in this post is now freely available to download from the NZ Archaeological Association's website here.

The Hart's Black Horse Brewery site is located at Wetherstons, just outside the town of Lawrence in Central Otago, New Zealand. The ruins of the successful 19th and early 20th century brewery and adjacent daffodil fields are administered by the Hart's Daffodil Charitable Trust (HDCT), and is open to the public each spring when the flowers are in bloom. The site consists of the stone ruin of the malthouse, other building foundations, a small shed that was the brewery office, the derelict Hart family house, old gardens and the already mentioned extensive daffodil fields (Petchey et al. 2015: 20).

In 2013 the brewery and daffodil fields were registered as a Category 1 Historic Place by the New Zealand Historic Places Trust (now Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga). Category 1 Historic Places are those places deemed to be of special or outstanding historical or cultural significance or value. According to the Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga website, "[The] Black Horse Brewery Site has special historical significance as one of the most important provincial breweries in Otago and Southland, and one dating from the gold rush period of Otago’s history, and represents one of the significant early businesses from this time."

From an archaeological perspective, it is one of the more intact examples of an early brewery site and provides insight into the technology and buildings associated with the art of brewing in the 19th century. The site also has potential for the study of a number of other topics - e.g. related to the domestic archaeology of the residences and the garden archaeology of the house garden and daffodil fields (Petchey et al. 2015). 

In October 2014 a joint UOAS and Southern Archaeology Ltd surveying weekend was held at the brewery site with two main aims - to give archaeology students an opportunity to practice some basic mapping and recording skills and to assist the HDCT by producing maps and drawings of the site and the structures on the site that could be of use in developing a conservation plan for the site and which could also provide a springboard for future archaeological investigations (Petchey et al. 2015). In addition to being described in Petchey et al. (2015), the results of the survey have also been entered on the New Zealand Archaeological Association's Site Recording Scheme (ArchSite).
Remaining (south) wall of the malt-house. The remains are in bad shape (they are noticeably on a lean in the opposite direction) and their long term future is uncertain - hence the need to make a record of the site. Photo by author.



The malt-house of the Black Horse Brewery as it would have looked back in the brewery's heyday - from one of the information panels on site. Photo by author.
The derelict Hart family house. Image sourced from the Southern Archaeology Ltd page on Facebook and also appears in Petchey et al. (2015: Figure 9).
Back to basics! A plane table and alidade. One of the aims of the surveying weekend was to practice basic surveying and recording skills, so no snazzy electronic instruments were used. Photo by author.


Some of the output from the weekend (sourced from the Southern Archaeology Ltd facebook page. These also appear as figures in Petchey et al. 2015):
Drawing of the front elevation of the derelict Hart family house. Petchey et al. (2015: Figure 10).
Drawing of the south wall of the Black Horse Brewery malt-house ruin at Wetherstons. The lower section of the wall is stone, and the upper section (above the brick beltline shown) is brick. Petchey et al. (2015: Figure 8).


  
The final plane table and alidade map of the Hart's Black Horse Brewery Site, Wetherstons. Petchey et al. (2015: Figure 5).
Read an Otago Daily Times article about our trip here.

All in all, an enjoyable weekend of archaeology!

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