Site Event/Activity record ECH6069 - Safeguard, Wood Lane, Bradwall, Sandbach: Archaeology and Cultural Heritage Assessment

Report setting out the archaeological and historical background of a 13.61ha site on the south side of Wood Lane, Bradwall, Sandbach, centred at SJ 7393 6304. Proposals for the site entail the construction of a 5MW solar farm. Baseline data was gathered from Cheshire HER, English Heritage datasets, Cheshire Archives and Local Studies and a site inspection. It has been established that no designated assets will be impacted by the development. It also concludes that across the bulk of the area there is little potential for the presence of significant archaeological deposits but the presence of a medieval moated site (CHER 1097) is noted c 150m to the east of the eastern boundary of the application area. This is almost certainly the original site of Bradwall Hall and is named as Hall Bank on the Tithe Map of 1840. An artificial pool is also shown on the map and formerly extended north-west into the application area. This feature has now been filled in and although much of it is excluded from the proposed distribution of Solar panels, there is some intrusion at its north-western terminus. However, the nature of the development means that there will be only limited ground disturbance and it is accepted that this is unlikely to seriously disturb the buried remains of the pool. It should also be noted that the tithe map names the field to the south of the former pool (still within the application area) as Hall Field and the report suggests that this could be the site of an early hall, rather than the moat noted above. This seems unlikely and the moat (outside the application area) seems the most probable location for the early hall, prior to the move the site of the present Bradwall Hall , c 1km to the north east, in the post medieval period.