Monument record MDR8128 - Possible charcoal burners' site, Eckington

Several documentary references exist relating to the production of charcoal in the woods of Eckington - for example an agreement about iron smelting between George Sitwell and the Lords of the Manor of Eckington states: '..and to dig convenient pitts upon the same ground for the converting of the said wood into coles..'. Blackened patches observed in ploughed land at the western end of the old Eckington Park may be the remains of charcoal burning. Although now one field, there had previously been three, the north-western field being shown on a map of 1772 as Furnace Close. (1)