Site Event/Activity record ECH5996 - Arclid Quarry Western South-eastern Extension: Watching Brief

Watching brief maintained during the removal of topsoil associated with the south-eastern extension to South arclid Silica Sand Quarry, in Cheshire. The archaeological monitoring revealed evidence for the site of a burnt mound, likely to represent an area where cooking took place during the prehistroic period. This consisted of a spread od heat-shattered stones extending over an area of around 12m by 5m. The stones were asociated with an irregular pit within twhich the sequence of sedimentation suggested episodic cooking activity, indicated by deposits of charcoal, interspersed with lenses of sand. THr charcola was presumabley derived from an adjacent fire which would have been used to heat stones wh ich in turn were used to heat water within the pit. Although similar features elsewhere have provided evidence for lining within the pit, this was not the case with the example at Arclid. After the abandonment of the site the heat shattered stones were redeposited, partly within the pit, either as an act of deliberate clearance, or perhaps through ploughingm althogh this seems less likely. Also a small undated pit and gully, and the ditch associated woth a former filed boundary known to have been extant during the 18th and 19th centuries.