Site Event/Activity record ECH4776 - Duck Decoy at Orford Park, Alder Lane, Warrington: Archaeological Watching Brief

An archaeological investigation was carried out during works to the former duck decoy at Orford Park, which form part of a wider regeneration and redevelopment of the park. The decoy has been much modified, particularly since the park came into municipal ownership in the 1930s, but the investigations did reveal evidence of an infilled channel running west from the main pond. This was, presumably, one of the channels along which wildfowl were driven into the nets. Following the abandonment of the decoy, much material had been dumped in the former channels, something the excavators interpret as associated with the demolition of Orford hall in the 1930s and the alteration of the decoy into a small pond.