Site Event/Activity record ECH6785 - Archaeological Evaluation Report: Burton Manor, Burton, Wirral

An archaeological evaluation was carried out in 2019 in the grounds of Burton Manor, Burton, Wirral prior to the development of the site. This included the excavation of seven test trenches to identify any surviving below ground remains.The site lies within the Burton Conservation Area and Area of Archaeological Importance. The Manor itself is a Grade II listed Park and Garden of Special Historic Interest and contains Listed buildings including a nineteenth Ice House (CHER2296) which is also a Scheduled Monument. Burton is thought to date to at least the Medieval period gaining market charter in 1299, with a small agricultural settlement which attained importance between the fourteenth and seventeenth century. The site was owned by the Congreve Family from 1755, whom built Burton Hall as a county house in 1805; it was later modified and extended in 1904 for Henry Gladstone who owned the site until the late twentieth century. The evaluation identified archaeological features of Post Medieval date in the form of field boundaries, including a potential ha ha (trenches 1 and 2), also make-up deposits which can be related to the development of Burton Hall and Manor during the nineteenth and early twentieth century. The broad development of these boundaries and the subsequent garden terracing can be traced through the historic mapping with no demonstrable evidence for activity on the site prior to the late eighteenth century. (1)