Site Event/Activity record ECH3642 - Lyme Park Nusery Gardens, Cheshire: Archaeological Evaluation

Archaeological evaluation undertaken in March 1996 of the former nursery gardens at Lyme Park, Cheshire, in advance of the development of a car park. The evaluation was one element of a major landscape survey of the park. The aim of the evaluation was to establish the historic development and use of the gardens, as well as the survival of any earlier phases of this development. It comprised three elements: a documentary study, a topographic study and a trial trenching programme. The form and character of the garden is clearly identified by both the 1947 Stockport Borough Council nursery gardens plan and a vertical aerial photograph dating to 1946. The excavations have confirmed the accuracy of the 1947 plan and have demonstrated the sub-surface survival of the primary garden features, in particular the paths. No evidence for a pre-garden phase or earlier features were identified which is reinforced by the fact that the artefactual material is exclusively of 19th and 20th century date. (1)