Site Event/Activity record ECH6613 - Lime Avenue Ponds, Lyme Park, Cheshire: Archaeological Watching Brief

An archaeological watching brief was undertaken in August 2017 in the area known as 'Calves Croft', in Lyme Park, Cheshire, during de-silting and repair work to the Lime Avenue Ponds. During the 1980s, a team employed by the Manpower Services Commission had undertaken some limited restoration works. Additionally, a survey of the ponds, including some trenching, had been undertaken in 2009 by Chris Burnett Associates (ECH4604), in anticipation of future restoration works. The watching brief was undertaken in parallel with the groundworks to restore the ponds. Additional archaeological excavation or clearance was undertaken by machine, with further hand cleaning of features of interest. The recovered artefacts did not warrant a finds record. The Lime Avenue ponds are located in Lyme Park, about 260m to the south of Lyme Hall. The southern part of the park is drained by a number of minor streams which flow either westwards or northwards, and one of these has been dammed to create a pair of ponds immediately on the west side of the north-south Lime Avenue, which extends southwards from Lyme Hall. At a height of about 250m AOD, the ponds are known as the ‘Upper Pond’ (south) and the ‘Lower Pond’ (north). They are each about 40m in length and 30m in width. The earliest documentary reference to the ponds occurs in 1810 when the Revd. Marriot refers to them as a 'succession of ancient pits…now dry, and grown over with brush-wood', so already disused by the early nineteenth century. The Upper Pond was retained by a dam comprising a low wall on the upstream face, and a timber sleeper edge on the downstream side, both put in place by the MSC team. The original outlet at the north-west corner was blocked when this work was done, and a central cascade replaced this, which has now partially collapsed. Trench 1, excavated in 2009, revealed an inner clay core dam, which had been raised and thickened by the 1980s work. At the south-east corner of the pond, a semi-circular masonry sluice allowed water to enter the pond, via a culvert which passed beneath the Lime Avenue. The 2017 restoration work included the removal of the central concrete and stone cascade built in the 1980s. It confirmed that clay was formed the impervious material at the core of the structure. The Lower Pond was retained by a dam with a masonry slab wall on the downstream side. There appears to have been a byewash which issued from the north-eastern corner, with a timber footbridge crossing this. The 2009 Trench 2 revealed a metalled trackway of compacted, sandstone across the dam, presumably allowing access from the Lime Avenue onto the land to the west. An outlet from the Lower Pond exists just downstream from the dam. The 2009 survey identified a ‘promontory’ on the west side of the pond; it is possible that this was originally intended to act as a ‘midfeather’, to flush silt through the pond, rather than allow it to accumulate. The only significant work intended for the Lower Pond in 2017 was desilting of the pond bed; the work undertaken demonstrated that the Lower Poing was signigicantly deeper than the Upper Pond, with the accumulated silt and plant matter deposit extending to a depth of up to 2.5m. As with the Upper Pond, it appeared to be lined with redeposited natural clay. Additionally, the 2017 restoration found good evidence for the existence of a third pond, lying to the north-west of the Lower Pond. A flat area of marshy ground measured about 18m by 30m, and probably comprised accumulated silt; and a heavily eroded bank downstream, appeared to be the remains of an earth dam (Feature 19). The putative dam was approximately 20m long and 6m wide, with a maximum height of 3m. A possible clay core to the structure was also noted. Given that the ponds at Lyme appear to have been long disused as early as 1810, future investigation at Lyme might confirm that these ponds originated as fishponds or 'stewponds', in the early or late post medieval period. (1)