Monument record 177/0/13 - Roman Road Surface at Welsh Row, Nantwich

<1> Earthworks Archaeological Services, 2007, Renewal of Gas Mains at High St, Welsh Row & Wych House Bank, Nantwich, Cheshire (Client Report). SCH5034.

A watching brief during the renewal of gas main works in 2007 revealed significant Roman archaeological remains on the north side of the road close to the junction with First Wood Street and opposite the turning into Wych House Bank. A single layer of well-preserved branches encountered at a depth of c.2.3m to 2.4m below current ground level (at approximately 32.6m AOD); the branches had been carefully placed and aligned lengthways northeast-southwest The branches measured c.0.08m in diameter and some were in excess of 1.3m in length; they appear to have formed part of a trackway or similar timber surface. The branches had been placed upon a thin (no more than 0.03m) but compacted surface consisting of small, rounded pebbles . A small quantity of Roman pottery was retrieved from this surface.
The excavation of a small sondage (test pit) through the pebble surface revealed a light grey sandy silt beneath - probably an alluvial deposit whose full depth could not be ascertained within the confines of the contractor's trench; however, the rim from a Roman pottery jar was recovered from this context.

The timber and pebbled track was foundat a depth of nearly 2.5m ground level; the associated ceramics firmly place the feature in the Roman period, probably the half of the second-century AD. The projected line of a Roman road recently exposed in the Kingsley
Fields area, north of Welsh Row, crosses the location of this track which may indeed be a continuation of the road. Silts encountered beneath the track suggest that this area was prone to flooding.