Site Event/Activity record ECH3726 - Platts Hall, Northwich - Archaeological Evaluation

In April and July 1998 Lancaster University Archaeological Unit carried out an archaeological evaluation at Platts Hall. Lostock Gralam, Cheshire (NGR SJ 682744), on behalf of P .J Livesey Developments Ltd. The evaluation was part of a comprehensive programme of recording of Platts Hall, which was a seventeenth century timber framed building with nineteenth century additions to the east, designed to accompany the dismantling of the structure, and the movement of materials from the west wing for re-erection at nearby Bostock Hall. The archaeological evaluation was undertaken after the demolition of the structure, and was confined to the footprint of the west wing, which contained substantial remains of a timber-framed house which has a dated timber plaque of 1655. However, documentary evidence has shown that there was a building on the site in 1631, prior to the construction date of the extant structure, and the evaluation was therefore intended to demonstrate whether there was evidence for an earlier building surviving below ground. The evaluation was undertaken in two phases, the first examining the footprint of the West Wing, and the second phase involved the excavation of a trench within the nineteenth century East Wing to investigate the potential for an earlier structure surviving in this locality. (1)