Site Event/Activity record ECH2635 - Excavation at Churche's Mansion, Nantwich in 1976 (D.Wilson)

In 1977, an excavation was undertaken on behalf of Cheshire County Council in front of Churche's Mansion prior to the area being lowered by the owner. Two features were exposed - a rough-cobbled area laid on sand and contemporary with the building of the mansion in 1577. The second was a ditch dated by pottery in the lowest silt to be open prior to the building of the mansion. The ditch could explain the tradition of a moat at the site. A range of medieval and post medieval pottery was recovered together with some 17th cenntury clay pipe fragments in good condition. (1-2) David Wilson, of the Elizabeth Gastrell College, Manchester, who undertook the excavations at Churche's Mansion in 1976, did not consider a moat to have existed, but thought the ditch to be a drainage channel. Part remains exposed in front of the house. (Source 3)