Site Event/Activity record ECH3568 - M6 widening, Sink Moss: A Desk-based Archaeological Assessment

Archaeological desk-based assessment, supplemented with field survey, undertaken in 1995 in advance of widening of the M6. The field survey took special note of any recently ploughed land and stratigraphical sections as revealed through drainage channels. The study has shown that Sink Moss was an ancient wetland, however, intensive drainage and arable agriculture over the last two hundred years has reduced its palaeo-environmental importance. All of the surviving peat deposits are heavily truncated and most suffering from dessication. The deepest peats in the survey area were only 0.9m deep and thus the potential of this area to contribute an insight into man's use of the land here is limited. Nevertheless four U-shaped features were observed during the digging of a new drain due south of Moss Cottage in April 1995. They were cut into the glacial clays below the peat deposits and aligned roughly east-west and possibly represent early drainage ditches. (1)