Site Event/Activity record ECH4057 - Alvanley Church

The suggestion of a tunnel at the church is unlikely. Although not able to lift the boards under the north aisle, a context for this story is provided by the massive heating duct tunnel that runs the length of the nave and is capped by the slabs forming the floor of the nave. At the west end this turns and splits in two with subsidiary ducts running to the north and south where they appear to link up with further ducts running the length of the north and south aisles. Again these appear to be capped by the slabs forming the floor of the 2 aisles. Away from the centre passages, however, the floors under the pews are of timber. Having accessed the heating duct at the point where it passes under the chancel - having entered from the boiler room under the vestry - the construction is quite massive and c. 1.2m deep. This will have destrpyed much if not all of the stratigraphy associated with the pre-19th century church. The underground boiler room may however be a re-used vault associated with the earlier church. The roof is brick barrel vault and the modern entrance is clearly associated with the present church. The walls of the chamber however are of sandstone and are clearly of phases with ashalr blocks, dressed sandstone blocks and rubble all used. The present heating flue also uses a formerly much wider entrance to access the chancel and there are suggestions of a blockage in the west wall. This is supposition but it is not unlikely to have vaults in and around the earlier church. In addition the westernmost window in the south wall of the aisle specifically mentions family burials in a vault dating to the early 19th century. Other features of interest include a number of tombstones with several early 18th century examples. One early 19th century tombstone is apparently listed.