Land between Brook Street and Raby Road, Neston, Cheshire
AOC Archaeology conducted an excavation of an early post medieval, 1,600m² site on land between Brook Street and Raby Road, Neston in advance of redevelopment. The archaeological work was funded by Ellesmere Port & Neston Borough Council.
An archaeological evaluation of the site was undertaken in 2008 by AOC Archaeology to establish the presence or absence of archaeological remains within the proposed development site. The results of the evaluation led Cheshire County Council's Planning Archaeologist to recommend an archaeological condition be placed on planning permission to undertake an open area archaeological excavation. This was a key opportunity to uncover significant early post-medieval archaeology in an area where such remains rarely survive.
The six-week-long archaeological excavation began in March, revealing evidence of activity from the 17th to 20th century. The remains centred upon a sandstone building in the southwest corner of the site. The building was constructed prior to 1732, depicted upon the Mostyn Estates map of that year, which is currently held in Bangor Archives. The building comprised at least 3 phases of reconstruction represented by the demolition and addition of sandstone walls, drainage structures and stone, brick and concrete floors. A cobbled surface was found leading from the entrance of the house to the adjacent Brook Street, below a silted deposit rich in pottery. A later surface constructed from sandstone, cobble and brick was found near the house’s entrance and a subsequent cobble surface was found near to Brook Street. An enclosed cobbled yard, with a central brick pad may have represented a workshop contemporary with the early construction of the house, but was truncated by a later wall and an early 20th century structure.
Significant finds included a metal key and bronze buckle. A large variety of post medieval pottery was recovered from throughout the site, some of which appears comparable to the imported foreign wares from France and Spain, and domestic wares from Devon and Surrey, uncovered during the Evaluation. The post-excavation phase of the project is now underway.
AOC Project Supervisor: Paul Harris
Client: Ellesmere Port & Neston Borough Council
Planning Archaeologist: Mark Leah
