Monument record 1394/2 - Medieval Iron Working at Chorley Old Hall

<1> Matrix Archaeology, 2017, Chorley Old Hall, Alderley Edge, Cheshire: Archaeological Mitigation Works (Volume 1 - Internal Works), p.30 (Client Report). SCH8315.

The house was erected upon an earlier metal working site, which appears to have pre-dated the construction of both the house and the moated platform. It is possible that an earlier timber-framed predecessor occupied the later site of Chorley Old Hall, and that some of the post holes excavated within the hall may be attributed to this. The precise chronology of the earlier metal working and the construction of the late-medieval hall house is unknown, but it is possible that the Chorley Old Hall site was granted as a sub-manor at this location precisely because it had been recently cleared of vegetation as a result of metal-working activity, thus saving the new incumbents the expense and effort of assarting within existing woodland.

<2> Matrix Archaeology, 2017, Chorley Old Hall, Alderley Edge, Cheshire: Archaeological Mitigation Works (Volume 1 - Internal Works), p.40-1 (Client Report). SCH8315.

In the area to the south-west of the house was a substantial north-south sandstone wall footing. The existing late medieval house appears to have been truncated at its western end, it was suggested that this north-south wall may have represented the western external footing of a long-demolished late medieval solar block. However, it is also possible that both wall footings were related to late medieval ironworking. The hard standings or surfaces encountered here may suggest iron smithing, if not smelting. As slag was found both beneath the floor levels of the medieval house, and around the exterior, it seems that this material was probably deposited here before the house existed. The hollow which existed to the south-west of the house, encountered by Trenches F-J, may represent a stream channel which was diverted and backfilled when the moat was excavated, to create the level platform which now exists. It remains a possibility that the north-south wall may both predate the medieval hall. If so, they may be connected to the putative iron working.