People have inhabited Millom 'for at least 3,000 years'

This includes prehistoric footprints on the Duddon estuary, Neolithic flints, stone axes and artefacts found by metal detectorists affiliated with Millom and District Local History Society. Josh Carr, from the society, found six Bronze Age socketed axe heads early last year. 

Anglo-Saxon gaming pieces, Medieval ampullae, musket balls and lots of coins from Roman times up to the Victorian era have also been found. 

Josh Carr, his brother Stephen and nephew Ashden, and the six axe heads (Image: Josh Carr)

Last year, twelve volunteers conducted a geophysical survey of fields around Millom Castle and the church to identify potential sites to sink trenches. A drone survey found new sites to place trenches including a possible fish pond or tidal harbour, a possible Prehistoric burial ground, a prehistoric enclosure or a site relevant to the Civil War when the castle was besieged. 

The society was then awarded just under £30,000 from the Government's Levelling Up Scheme to conduct a community dig. 

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About 40 volunteers will take part in three training events this month before the dig starts on Monday, 10 June and will continue until Friday, July 5.

Sites identified for this year include areas next to Holy Trinity Old School and Cottage and two fields. One could be either a Medieval field boundary or related to a hill fort associated with the siege of Millom Castle in the English Civil Wars (1644 and 1648). The other is in a field where two middle Bronze Age funerary urns were discovered full of bones in the mid-19th century.

A spokesperson for the society said: “In 2001 a flat (as opposed to a barrow) cremation cemetery was found in Allithwaite near Morecambe Bay and a second one was found in 2015.  We are hoping to find something similar here, not least because of the collared funerary urns with bones found in the mid-19th century but also because of the possible site of a burial ground found in the recent drone survey.  

"And, of course, Lacra, with Bronze Age burial circles, is literally just over the hill."

Daniel Elsworth of Greenlane Archaeology, Ulverston, will be leading the dig. TV show Digging for Britain has reportedly expressed an interest and may visit the site depending on what is found, according to the society. 

Members of the public will be invited to visit the site on four open days: Saturday, June 15, Sunday, June 23, Saturday, June 29 and Monday, July 1 (10am-4pm).