Site Event/Activity record ECH5850 - Cheshire Archaeological Bulletin Site Survey ~ Ince Manor, Ellesmere Port

A site investigation/survey undertaken in 1974-5 observed that the hall and domestic range (monastic cottages) were substantially complete and clearly contained elements from a number of periods dating from the late thirteenth/early fourteenth centuries. Evidence for a third building on the western side of the complex was identified, comprising lengths of foundation walls incorporated into later garden boundaries. Also a possible connection to the third range from the monastic cottages was visible at the top of the stairs of the cottages. A former cobbled walkway in front of the cottages connecting to the western range could have represented one side of a cloistered garth. Other evidence for the wider grange includes Park Cottages (CHER 14/9/6) to the south which incorporate medieval stonework and may have been a former barn; also the lower courses of two stone walls, one to the south, and the other to the south-east, of the manor, likely representing the remains of the estate wall (CHER 14/9/3). The remains of a possible filled in ditch visible to the south-west of the monastic cottages, also a potential rock cut ditch, to the north-east, could represent the remains of a moat (CHER 14/9/4). Remains of potential fishponds (CHER 14/9/5) are visible in the field to the north of the manor, along with a substantial lynchet (CHER 14/9/10) which could form the western boundary of the grange, linked to Marsh Lane by an overgrown track which could have formed the northern boundary. (1) Photographs, appearing in the Cheshire Archaeological Bulletin article (source 1), and presumaby taken during the site investigation, dating to 11/06/1974, record the damage to the stonework of the hall and cottages. Notes on mason's marks also included.