Site Event/Activity record ECH4011 - Lawton Hall, Cheshire. Archaeological Desk-Based Assessment, Building Investigation and Watching Brief

An archaeological desk-based assessment was produced in October 2001 for parkland around Lawton Hall, Church Lawton, prior to proposed redevelopment for residential purposes. The assessment focussed on the parkland rather than the Hall; it preceded a watching brief of the groundwork in the park, also a building investigation of the Hall and stables. The desk-based assessment identified sites of interest, many related to the hall and the park, although some formed elements of the Macclesfield Canal branch of the Trent and Mersey Canal, also there are a few prehistoric burial mounds in the vicinity. The building investigation of the Hall and stables, undertaken in November 2001 and January 2002, identified different phases of activity, the earliest of which may relate to an early building of potential medieval date. A second phase of probable seventeenth century date was also identified, as well as the more extensive expansions of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The watching brief, undertaken in 2003, also identified different phases of activity the earliest of which was represented by a buried soil horizon suggestive of a period of abandonment. Later phases related to the redevelopment of the site as park and gardens, including drains and a well. (1)