Site Event/Activity record ECH7110 - Land adjacent former St. Josephs College, Tilston Road, Malpas, Cheshire. SY14 7DD: An Archaeological Field Evaluation 2022

A programme of archaeological field evaluation was undertaken in 2022 on land adjacent to the former St. Joseph's College, Tilston Road, Malpas, Cheshire, SY14 7DD, prior to development of the site for residential purposes. The evaluation comprised the excavation of evaluation trenches and metal detecting of the generated soil. Eight trenches (Trenches 1 – 8) were excavated, amounting to approximately 100m of 1.60m wide trenching. The trenches were located across the footprint of the proposed development. No features or deposits of archaeological significance were recorded and no stratified finds were recovered. The only feature (503) recorded was modern in date and comprised a ceramic field-drain. A small assemblage of finds was recovered from the metal-detecting. The earliest finds comprise a cast copper alloy brooch/buckle fragment of Roman/Medieval date and a lead spindle whorl of Anglo-Saxon/Medieval date. Two cast metal printing blocks of late 19th Century or later date were also recovered. These printing blocks may be associated with one of two printing presses operating in Malpas during the late 19th Century – mid 20th Century. One of these presses (The Old Printing House) was owned by Bill Bailey and operated until just after WWII (Hayn 2022). (1)