Site Event/Activity record ECH3872 - Land off David Street, Northwich, Cheshire: A report on an archaeological evaluation

An evaluation consisiting of a desk based assessment and excavation of 13 Trenches covering an area of 180 sq m was carried out on land off David Street in Northwich. The site is approximately 200m from the southern defences of the Roman Fort of Condate on the edge of a river terrace. Historical evidence suggests that this area was not intensively used during the medieval period. It lies within the post-medieval parkland of Hartford Hill. During the twentieth century the northern part of the land was developed as part of the Castleleigh Centre. These building have since been demolished The only securely dated features were of the eighteenth century and later. The soil profile above the natural deposits suggests woodland giving way to open land with no development before the eighteenth century. The soil profile included eighteenth century pottery. Earlier finds were restricted to a flint flake of probable mesolithic date, a single sherd of samian and two fragments of fired clay, possibly of Roman date. It is concluded that, in view of the absence of any significant background scatter that there was no development of this area until the twentieth century, with earlier post-medieval features being associated with Hartford Hill. There is no indication that there was any Roman activity on the site, suggesting that any vicus associated with the fort lay elsewhere. (1)