Site Event/Activity record ECH3907 - An Archaeological Evaluation at 'The Royal George', King Street, Knutsford, Cheshire

An archaeological evaluation was undertaken on land to the rear of 'The Royal George', Knutsford. The buildings which occupy the site date to the eighteenth, nineteenth and twentieth centuries and include The Royal George Hotel, an eighteenth century, Grade II listed coaching inn. The evaluation comprised eight trial trenches, five in an area occupied by a car park, two immediately to the south of the main Royal George buildings, and one inside an area of sheds/stables. No in situ deposits pre-dating the late eighteenth century were identified and most of the excavated material dates to the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. In Trench I, a cess pit and well/water butt were recorded, along with some postholes, which may represent a lightly built structure constructed against the western edge of the property. The deposits excavated in Trenches II, III, IV and V are consistent with the area having been use as gardens throughout the nineteenth and early twentieth century. A north-south drain in Trench II may have been associated with the silk mill known to have been located to the south, or alternatively, it was intended to drain the plot under investigation. In general, the lack of medieval and early post medieval material suggests that this plot was empty and/or unused during those periods.Trenches VI and VII contained significantly more seventeenth and eighteenth century material, although this was from disturbed contexts. The difference in height between the cobbled way and the southern half of the site was created by terracing into what was probably a north-facing slope. There remains potential for the preservation early post medieval material, particulary at the eastern end of the site. (1)