Publications | Down Survey | 1998 Issue Contents

Archaeology on a farm
M Lesley Simpson & Brian S Turner

The Croskery family of Ballystokes in the parish of Saul, county Down, have encouraged Down County Museum and its staff since its Director began work here in 1981. We are fortunate in the support we have from these and many other members of our community. This note records some of the results of the Croskery family's practical action and may serve as an example of what might be found on a working farm by observant and interested people.

The Croskerys' grandmother was a McGlennon, born in 1848. This family was the dominant population of the townland of Ballystokes, and neighbouring Carrowvanny, since at least the early eighteenth century, and perhaps long before.¹ The date 1761 and the initials HMcG are carved on a stone at the back of their house. The McGlennon name has now gone from the area, but in the first half of the twentieth century Eithne and Mary Croskery did an unusual thing for teenage girls - they listened to their granny. And so they gained knowledge of their native townland, and a firm sense of place.

Helped by their long association with the area the whole family has a genuine interest in local history. In 1983 the first issue of the local historical journal Lecale Miscellany carried an article by Eithne and Mary on the history of their townland,² and subsequent issues benefited further from their interest in the history and lore of their home. In farming the land, and particularly when ploughing, their brothers Eamon and Colum Croskery noticed and collected archaeological and other objects. By doing this, by caring for the objects collected until the foundation of the museum and their donation to it, Mary, Eamon and Colum Croskery, and their late sister, Eithne, have ensured the preservation and documentation of part of our heritage for the future. It is by piecing together the evidence from many different precious places, such as Ballystokes, that our understanding of life in the past is gradually increased.

The townland of Ballystokes lies about three miles east-north-east of Downpatrick, in what Mary Croskery affectionately calls "the barren uplands of Saul" between two of the modest high points of Lecale, Slieve Padraig and Slievenagriddle. Not only have archaeological finds been made in the townland itself but there are also several archaeological sites in neighbouring townlands.

One of the most interesting features in Ballystokes is a decorated stone, which probably dates from the Bronze Age. The decoration consists mainly of hollows (sometimes called cup-marks), circles and concentric circles, sometimes linked by long curving lines. These motifs were carved, or more accurately `pecked' on to rock outcrops or boulders.³ This type of rock art is very rare in much of Ireland. M A M van Hoek has mapped its distribution in the country, showing the isolation of the Ballystokes example, and the existence of a large group in Donegal.⁴ To the south of Ballystokes, on top of Slievenagriddle, there is a large slab of gritstone, which is probably the remains of a portal grave.⁵ To the south again, in Ballyalton, there is a court grave.⁶ This site was excavated in 1933 and some of the finds, including a pottery bowl and flint tools, are currently on display in the museum.⁷ To the east, in Loughmoney, is a dolmen, which could be the remains of a lintelled gallery grave.⁸

A catalogue of the archaeological objects given to the museum by the Croskery family is printed below. The axe heads and flints were found in a field to the north of the house, and adjacent to the field in which there is the decorated stone. Some were found during and after ploughing, and others simply noticed in the course of other work. They include a significant number of flint scrapers. While it is difficult to date many of the flints closely, they do indicate activity, probably nearby settlement, during the Neolithic or Bronze Age. This would make sense, bearing in mind the number of burial monuments in the area.

The pottery sherds and clay pipes were found in the garden to the south and at the back of the house. This is entirely what one would expect, when broken domestic items were thrown out with other refuse into middens in farmyards. The one seventeenth century clay pipe has special significance since pipes of this date have rarely been found outside towns such as Armagh, Belfast, Carrickfergus, Coleraine or Londonderry. Whether it actually derives from settlement on this site in the mid seventeenth century would be more difficult to prove.

Axe Heads

Flints 1-10

Catalogue
Axe heads
Measurements in mms, length x width x depth. Museum number in brackets.
1. Polished stone axe; porcellanite; neolithic; 75 x 6 x 27mm. (1986-197/1)
2. Polished stone axe; porcellanite; Neolithic; 85 x 46 x 26mm. (1995-202)
3. Stone axe. Fine-grained sandstone/basalt, pecked rather than polished; probably Neolithic; 106 x 56 x 37mm. (1986-197/3) The functional edge is badly damaged and scarring on the surface is probably recent, perhaps from ploughing.

Flint (1 - 10, Plate 2) Measurements in mms, length x width. Collection of 12 flints
1. Double end scraper; 33 x 30mm. ( 1986-198/1 )
2. End and side scraper; 35 x 30mm. (1986-198/2)
3. End (broken) and side scraper; 36 x 45mm. (1986-198/3)
4. End scraper: 38 x 25mm. (1986-198/4)
5. End scraper; 30 x 24mm.
(1986-198/5)
6. Scraper; possibly Bronze Age; 35 x 37mm. (1986-198/6)
7. Portion of plano-convex knife. Late Neolithic/Early Bronze Age, although they mostly occur in Bronze Age contexts. 42 x l7mm. (1986-198/7)
8. Five unworked flints
9. Flint end scraper; 38 x 32mm. (1987-121)
10. Bifacial leaf-shaped point; `Laurel leaf' type; 47 x 32mm. ( I 993-234)

Collection of 6 flints
11. Scraper (end and two sides); probably Neolithic; 43 x 35mm. (1993-235/1)
12. Retouched, invasive retouch along one edge; 45 x 26mm. (1993-235/2)
13. Retouched implement, broken. Classification not possible. 31 x 40mm.
(1993-235/3)
14. Retouched; 25 x 35mm. (1993-235/4)
15. Modern, possibly gunflint; 27 x 32mm. (1993-235/5)
16. One unworked flint.

Other stone artefacts
1. Stone, both ends bevelled and showing recent wear or use. Appears to be fine-grained quartzite. Although it could be a hammer stone it is probably of more recent date. 80 x 60mm. (1986-197/2)
2. Spherical-shaped stone, possibly cannonball; diameter 73mm. ( 1987-123/1 )
3. Spherical-shaped stone, half only; diameter 64mm. (1987-123/2)
4. Tetrahedron-shaped stone. Longest side 150mm. ( 1987-123/3)

Ceramics
Collection of 17 sherds
l. Four body sherds; Sgraffito; eighteenth century. (1986-199/1)
2. Two rim sherds, with piecrust rim, and two body sherds slipware with combed/applied slip decoration; eighteenth century.
(1986-19/2)
3. Two body sherds slipware; eighteenth century. (1986-199/3)
4. Handle sherd green/brown glaze internally, unglazed externally; probably eighteenth century. (1986-199/4)
5. Body sherd brown stoneware; probably nineteenth century. (1986-199/5)
6. One rim sherd and four body sherds; late nineteenth and twentieth century, glazed in various colours, internally and externally, one with part transfer print lettering.
( 1986-199/6)
7. Base sherd, transfer-printed with part of man's face; second half of nineteenth century.
(1987-122)

Collection of 8 sherds
8. Sherd with internal black glaze; probably nineteenth century. (1998-263/1)
9. Two sherds slipware, red fabric; eighteenth or nineteenth century.
(1998-263/2) 10. Two sherds, unglazed; possibly eighteenth century. (1998-263/3)
11. Base sherd, patchy green/brown glaze internal; possibly eighteenth century.
(1998-263/4)
12. Two sherds with applied/combed slip; possibly eighteenth century.
(1998-263/5)

Clay Pipes
1. Clay pipe bowl, with milling round mouth and spur. Stamped `IR' on back; Rainford type; South Lancashire; mid seventeenth century.
(1987-120/1)
2. Clay pipe bowl, with spur. Heart on one side, `82' on other. Mid nineteenth century.
(1987-120/2)
3. Clay pipe bowl, with milling. Stamped `JOHN HAMILTON/BELFAST/MAKER' on back. Late nineteenth century.
(1987-120/3)
4. Clay pipe stem fragment, stamped `DERRY'. The mark `DERRY' referred to a type of pipe which was made in various pipe-making centres, including Belfast and Glasgow, as well as Londonderry. Late nineteenth century.
(1987-133)

M Lesley Simpson: Keeper of Collections at Down County Museum.
Brian S Turner

Acknowledgements
We would like to acknowledge Miss Mary Croskery and the late Miss Eithne Croskery for information used in this article. We are also grateful to Ms Sinead McCartan of the Ulster Museum for assistance in identifying the stone and flint.

References

1.	See, for example, Griffith, Richard, General valuation of Rateable Property in Ireland, Union of Downpatrick (Dublin 1863), pp245 and 247.
2.	Croskery, Eithne and Mary, `The study of the history of a townland', in Lecale Miscellany, 1 (1983), pp21-23.
3.	Department of the Environment for Northern Ireland, Hisroric Monuments of Northern Ireland (Belfast 1983), p15.
4 .	van Hoek, M A M, `The Prehistoric Rock Art of County Donegal', Parts I and II, in Ulster Journal of Archaeology, 50 and 51, 1987 and 1988, pp23-46 and 21-47.
5 .	An Archaeological Survey of County Down (Belfast 1966), pp81-82
6 .	Ibid. p72
7 .	On loan from the Ulster Museum, National Museums and Galleries of Northern Ireland.
8 .	Ibid. p81
9 .	Ibid. pp77-78