Monument record 15294 - Bar Mere

<1> Schoenwetter J, 1982, Environmental Archaeology of the Peckforton Hills (Article in Journal). SCH1125.

An earlier study of sediment samples collected from Bar Mere suggested that Neolithic land use practices could be detected by pollen analysis and magnetic measurements, and, that if related techniques were applied to deposits of Bronze Age and Iron Age date, evidence of forest clearance and cultivation would document the existence of agricultural settlements in the area at that period.

Re-analysis of the sediment samples based on later work at Peckforton Mere, indicates that between 3000 bc and approximately 2000 bc the number of oak trees in the oak forest of the area diminished, but the amount of forested land was not reduced and cultivation seems not to have been a widespread practice. From about 2000 bc to roughly 1500 bc episodes of forest clearance and cultivation and episodes of forest recovery are indicated. Between about 1500 bc and 1200 bc the pollen record suggests major oak forest clearance took place. From 1200 bc until shortly before the Roman occupation of Britain, additional forest reduction seems not to have occurred, but cultivation took place and soil erosion proceeded at a high rate.

The re-analysis thus provides evidence that the area was occupied during the Bronze and Iron Ages by people whose land use practices cleared a significant amount of oak forest from the landscape and replaced it with crop land and pastures. This supports the conclusion that agricultural settlements existed in the area when the Maiden Castle and Beeston Castle hillforts were constructed.

The Peckforton Mere pollen sequence suggests that additional forest clearance and plant cultivation has continued since Roman times. In addition, magnetic measurements of the Peckforton deposits indicate that a moderate increase in erosion took place during the Roman period and a very large increase in erosional intensity occurred in the sixteenth to nineteenth centuries.

<2> Schoenwetter, J, 1982, Environmental Archaeology of the Peckforton Hills (Unpublished Report). SCH9051.

<3> Leah, MD; Wells, CE; Appleby, C; Huckerby, E, 1997, The Wetlands of Cheshire (North West Wetlands Survey 4), p.152 (Monograph). SCH3260.

The development of the hillforts of the sandstone ridge may represent one manifestation of a general intensification of land use during the Iron Age, which is seen in the palaeo-environmental record at Lindow Moss and Bar Mere.

<4> Environment Agency, 2003-2020, Environment Agency LiDAR Surveys, Composite 1m DSM (19/07/2021) (Digital Archive). SCH7819.