Site Event/Activity record ECH6257 - A556 Knutsford to Bowdon Improvement, Cheshire: Archaeological Strip Map and Excavation & Post Excavation Assessment

The strip, map and excavation exercise focussed on an area of 9ha of land to the north of the A50. This followed on from trial trenching done in 2012 (ECH5612) which discovered a cremation pit and associated gully terminals, located to the east of Hulmes Barn Farm, Bucklow Hill. These remains correspond with a series of ring ditches identified as cropmarks from air photographs. The strip, map and sample area measured some 850 m from north to south and was bounded to the north by Bucklow Hill Lane and to the south by the A50. The work revealed remains of human activity dating from potentially as early as the Neolithic period with the earliest dated feature is an isolated pit containing heat-affected stone and two pottery sherds tentatively identified as Middle/Late Neolithic Peterborough ware. The most significant set of remains focussed on a 22m diameter penannular ditch. One urned burial with a broken flint blade, several unurned burials and numerous deposits of scattered cremated human bone and pyre debris were found within the area enclosed by the ring ditch and in its immediate vicinity. A group of 12 probable inhumation graves (any bone they may once have contained had completely disappeared) was focussed on the ring ditch. The dating of these is uncertain. A second set of cremation-related deposits was located 90 m to the east, focussed on a 30 m-diameter area, but lacking any surviving earthwork or monumental marker. A minimum of 15, more probably 21, individuals are represented within the cremated remains from the Site, including infants, youngsters and adults, both male and female. Current radiocarbon dating evidence suggests the ring ditch was constructed and infilled at the end of the Early Bronze Age, with both of the cremation clusters being a little later, straddling the divide between the Early and Middle Bronze Age. No Romano-British remains were recorded, either as buried remains or unstratified artefacts, despite the nearby presence of two Roman roads. A set of field boundary ditches may belong to this period, although they are currently undated. An early medieval date for several features is suggested by the types of cereal found within their fills. In two instances, this has been confirmed by radiocarbon assay, which reveals pits were dug on the Site in the 6th and 7th centuries cal. AD. One of the confirmed and several of the potential early medieval features focus on the ring ditch, including a pit containing evidence of iron-smithing. Away from the ring ditch, remains of a rudimentary circular structure with a central fire pit may also belong to the early medieval period. The environmental remains from this period are relatively rich, and are indicative of contemporary settlement in the area, set within a landscape of grassland and arable fields. (1) Published synthesis of the results of the above evaluation:- Excavations in 2014–15 in the vicinity of Bucklow Hill revealed two clusters of cremated human remains, one focused on a ring-ditch, the other on a similar but destroyed monument. Ephemeral traces of earlier activity were found. A programme of radiocarbon dating revealed the earliest human remains in both clusters to be Early Bronze Age, with burial continuing episodically until the Middle Bronze Age. Environmental remains indicate the exploitation of wild plants and cultivation of hardy hulled wheats and barley in the Bronze Age. A group of probable early medieval inhumation graves were dug into the ring-ditch. As well as these graves, scattered medieval pits were also found; oats, barley and rye were grown during this period. These later remains are of significance as there is a dearth of comparable evidence from rural sites in the region and this contributes to the emerging understanding of the reuse of prehistoric funerary monuments in the English north midlands. (2)