Remains of a Medieval lead-smelting site at Ronaldsway were discovered and excavated by the Rev. E H Stenning in 1935 during the levelling of the area for the construction of the airport. The structures were based on a raised beach and covered by about three feet of blown sand, and were interpreted as a 'lead floor' and accompanying store house and probable dwelling (see sketch plan on illustration card). Finds included masses of domesticated animal bones, apparently for supplying bone charcoal to the crucibles. Two types of pottery were also found, one a coarse type and the other a domestic yellow-glazed ware, dated by the British Museum to the 14th and 15th centuries; two deposits of clay (see plan) suggested manufacture of the pottery on the site; the red clay for the production of crucibles and the fine kaolin (chine clay) for the domestic use. Studying the evidence, Mr M Jope of Queens University, Belfast, tentatively suggested that the site may have been a cupellation shop for the extraction of silver from the lead. Ronaldsway has been equated with 'Bakenaldwath', granted to Furness Abbey in 1246, 'to build a house as well for the reception of their men as for a repository for their minerals', and may relate to the excavated remains. Stennings' excavation also revealed a lintel-grave with the decapitated burial of a young person. The skull was intact but the remainder of the body appeared to have been cremated; burnt earth and ashes had evidently been interred with the skull but no recognisable bone. The mode of burial suggested a Neolithic or later date but Stenning observed that the remains of the smelting site 'were, if anything, a little lower than the base of the grave'. (This suggests that the burial may have been later than the 14th or 15th centuries possibly.)