Site Event/Activity record ECH6031 - Archaeological Mitigation at Land at Horizon Centre, Loushers Lane, Warrington

A programme of Archaeological investigation was undertaken on land at the Horizon Centre, Loushers Lane, Warrington, during groundworks associated with a housing development. The fieldwork was carried out between the 28th February and 2nd April 2014. The work served to both compliment and clarify the results of earlier archaeological work on the site. An east-west aligned ditch located at the northern end of the site appears to represent some form of boundary. A roughly parallel linear feature was identified 5m to the south of the ditch; but had a more structural appearance. These two parallel features could represent the continuation of a Roman trackway found to the east in 1976; perhaps indicating a slight northern deviation to the projected line. Pottery recovered from the fills of the linear features dated to the later 4th century and they may indeed represent a fairly late phase of activity on the site. The late Roman deposits were relatively rich in fragments of building materials (stone, ceramic and glass) which almost certainly originated from the well appointed Roman building identified on the eastern side of the site in the 1930's. This would strongly suggest that the building was in a ruinous state by the mid/late 4th century. The general character of the later 4th century occupation seems far more in keeping with agricultural/rural domestic occupation. The pottery assemblage included cooking jars, bowls and mortaria. Textile manufacture was indicated by a stone spindle whorl and black smithing is suggested by the presence of hammer-scale in samples from the ditch fills. Furthermore, crop processing might be suggested by charred cereal grains recovered from the ditch fills and a small oven identified during the watching brief.