Site Event/Activity record ECH3950 - St. Hilary's School, Alderley Edge, Cheshire: Report on an Archaeological Watching Brief

An archaeological watching brief was undertaken in 2002 at St Hilary's School, Alderley Edge. A section through the township boundary, surviving as a bank and ditch, was recorded during a watching brief carried out by Gifford and Partners in March 2002 (R2456). The bank survived to a height of c 0.8m and sealed by 0.4m of topsoil. It was circa 5m wide and sealed a dark layer originally interpreted as a buried soil. Subsequent analysis revealed, however, that the deposit contained iron slag and hammer scale. There was no dating evidence but work by the Alderley Edge Landscape Project suggests that the bank was there in the 14th century and may be significantly earlier. Much of the bank was preserved within the new development in areas of open ground. (1)