Site Event/Activity record ECH3798 - Vale Royal Scheduled Area, Cheshire: Archaeological Evaluation and Excavation Report

In 1998 a progamme of evaluation, excavation, masonry recording and a watching brief was undertaken in advance of the development of a golf club within the scheduled area of Vale Royal Abbey. Seventeen evaluation trenches were excavated to a maximum depth of 0.3m, to assess landscaping proposals. Trenches were also located to investigate the construction of a barrel drop into the north west wing of Vale Royal House, also for steps accessing the cellar beneath the south range. A programme of masonry recording was undertaken of the scattered architectural fragments around the abbey, within an area called the 'Nun's Grave', and from the excavation trenches. Finally, a programme of watching briefs was required during groundworks for the landscaping and following the breaking through of the north wall of the north west wing for the barrel drop. The majority of the evaluation trenches revealed only disturbed deposits within the 0.3m depth limit, however, concentrations of loose sandstone were recorded in four trenches, which could relate to the demolished monastic or later sequences. In Trench 12, a robbed wall foundation was recorded which correstponds to the putative alignment of the southern wall of the church nave. Within Trench 17, a further potential robbed feature was identified, which corresponds to the suggested located of a pier within the west wall of the chapter house. The mitigation excavation for the barrel drop (Trench 1) revealed a mortared wall foundation beneath that for the north west wing, this is in line with that observed in Trench 12, potentially being the foundation of the nave wall. The watching brief monitoring the break-through of the north wall of the north west wing for the barrel drop revealed only the foundations of the existing building. An excavation was undertaken to a depth of circa 0.4m at the site of the new staircase giving access to the cellar of the house. A large concrete slab was recorded which covered a large hole filled with cobble stones. The majority of the masonry fragments recorded appear to have come from the abbey church, and include decorative floral rosettes from the geometric window tracery, sections from a column plinth and a series of fragments with bases formultiple orders of narrow columns. The evaluation programme demonstrated that archaeological deposits exist in localised areas, principally the proposed practice green and car park, however, given the depth of the proposed development and landscaping works, it is unlikely there will be any impact on buried deposits. (1)