Site Event/Activity record ECH3976 - No. 87 Witton Street, Northwich. An Archaeological Watching Brief

An archaeological watching brief was undertaken by the University of Manchester Archaeological Unit in 2002 at No.87 Witton Street, Northwich, during groundworks related to re-development of the plot. Features recorded in Area A include truncated walls, pits containing ceramics, and cobbled surfaces (cut by later walls) relating to the use of No.87 as a dwelling in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries; as these features were not affected by the groundworks, they were not fully excavated. In Area B, a brick built rectangular structure (feature 220) could an ash pit from a domestic open fire; finds of seventeenth and eighteenth century pottery were found in association. No medieval period features were encountered, but in Area C, a heavily truncated potential post hole (feature 206) containing Roman orange oxidised wares in the fill, was recorded. Feature 202, an elongated pit 0.8m to the east, may be a further element of this structure. Also, feature 208, possibly the terminal end of an east-west linear feature, also produced Roman pottery (oxidised ware and one fragment of samian, second century AD) and glass (shoulder and neck of clear vessel). (1)