Site Event/Activity record ECH6942 - Middlewich Phase II (unit 25), Pochin Way/A54 Holmes Chapel Rd, Middlewich, Cheshire, CW10 0JD: Supervised Metal Detector Survey

An archaeologically supervised metal detector survey was undertaken in 2021 on land off Pochin Way/A54 Holmes Chapel Rd, Middlewich, Cheshire CW10 0JD. A total of 108 metal items were recovered. The earliest identifiable period represented in the material archive is the Roman period which includes a single, unidentifiable, Roman silver Denarius coin. This is almost certainly a chance loss rather than deliberate deposition or evidence of Roman activity. The medieval period was also poorly represented with only two artefacts (2%), a lead spindle whorl (SF 84) and a silver King Edward III pre-Treaty London mint Groat coin (SF 105). This could suggest that the land was not extensively worked within the medieval period and perhaps lay east of the main area of agricultural activity immediately surrounding Middlewich. The majority of the finds (77%) date to the post medieval period with a majority of those finds dating between 1800-1900AD. The finds can be described as being largely representative of a non-domestic landscape and are likely associated with temporal/seasonal agricultural practices and the subsequent economic and social events that would accompany the planting and harvest of crops. The abundance of Cu alloy buttons adds weight to support this interpretation with old clothes having been used as organic manure on the fields throughout the post-medieval period. There is no suggestion from any of the artefacts recovered or from the distribution field that the site was ever occupied or utilised for anything other than agricultural land. (1)