Site Event/Activity record ECH6821 - Land at Viking Park, Mathieson Road, Widnes, WA8 0NX: Historic Environment Desk-Based Assessment

A desk-based assessment was produced in 2020 for land at Viking Park, Mathieson Road, Widnes. Historic mapping and documentary evidence has demonstrated that, from at least the eighteenth century, the site comprised saltmarsh north of the River Mersey, used for grazing. In the early nineteenth century the marsh was enclosed into several large parcels of land. The site was situated on the periphery of the chemical industry of Widnes which began in the mid-nineteenth century, and rail sidings were located within the site, terminating at the river bank. These removed, and in the late nineteenth century and twentieth century smaller industrial works were set up adjacent to the development site and later West Bank Dock Estate was established. In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries the site was used as a refuse tip for chemical waste. Archaeological watching briefs undertaken in 2013 and 2014 demonstrated that the waste deposit was present on site. The levels of made ground were also recorded on a borehole log from 1972 which demonstrated that the ground level had been artificially raised over the past 200 years, so that if archaeological deposits do survive on site, they are likely to be at considerable depth (beyond 10m below ground level). (1)