Site Event/Activity record ECH3451 - Excavation: Stockton Heath - Area B

A series of trial excavations was carried out at Stockton Heath by the Liverpool University Rescue Archaeology Unit in advance of building development. Two areas were investigated: Area A (SJ 6130 8627) in the car park of shopping precinct and playground of the now demolished St Thomas' School. Excavations to the east of this area by Thomas May between 1901-4 had uncovered a Romano-British industrial complex. Area B was a triangle of land bounded by the Manchester Ship Canal, the Bridgewater Canal and the course of the Lumb Brook. A Romano-British stone building had been found to the north of this area in 1930 (Fairclough 1931) and, to the north-east, a small Romano-British settlement was excavated in 1976 (Hinchcliffe and Williams). Also, in 1976, a Roman lead coffin was found in the side of the Manchester Ship Canal (Hinchcliffe and Williams). Neither excavation located any Romano-British features. In several cases the subsoil had been disturbed probably by earlier quarrying activity. Three sherds of Romano-British pottery were found in Area A and were probably the products of local kilns. A flint leaf-shaped arrowhead and a flint flake were found in unstratified contexts in Area B. Also, in a letter dated 25/03/1981 from J.Samuels, Asst. Director of the excavations to the Chief Engineer of The Manchester Ship Canal Company, it is reported that two sherds of Roman pottery, a flint arrowhead? and the skeleton of a baby thought to have been buried in Roman times were recovered during archaeological investigations on the north bank of the Ship Canal adjacent to Northwich Road Bridge. (Letter included in SCH2991). Another letter dated 27/03/1981 to the Curator of Warrington Museum and Art Gallery says that the skeleton found near the ship canal is undatable due to disturbance from a rabbit burrow. (Letter also included in SCH2991)