Monument record 15374 - Excavated Enclosure and Field system, East of Hulme Barns Farm, Bucklow Hill

<1> Wessex Archaeology, 2017, A556 Knutsford to Bowdon Improvement, Cheshire: Archaeological Strip Map and Excavation & Post Excavation Assessment, R3920 (Client Report). SCH8111.

A sub-rectangular ditched enclosure with related ditched field system were excavated in 2014-15 on Bucklow Hill. The features are currently undated. This group of features was located on the slope that descended to the south from the brink of the ridge where the Bronze Age funerary remains were located (see CHER 15367 and CHER 15369), also probable early medieval inhumation graves (CHER 15372).

Enclosure 644 measured 15.9 m east-west by 15.3 m north-south, and enclosed an area of 225 m2. It was defined by three ditches, with a posthole centrally located in the 5.5 m-wide gap within the enclosure’s southern side, and so seemingly also forming part of the boundary. The enclosure’s constituent ditches varied in width from 0.5 m to 1.08 m and in depth from 0.04 m to 0.19 m. No remains were present within the enclosure. Its function is not proven, but a role in stockhandling is commonly ascribed to such features. To the south and east of enclosure 644, field boundaries were recorded that probably formed part of a contemporary field system.

<2> Patrick Daniel, 2021, “What are the dead for?” Bronze Age burials in a multi-period landscape at Bucklow Hill, Cheshire, Archaeological Journal, 2021, p.1-82 (Article in Journal). SCH9099.

Article discussing the excavated remains at Bucklow Hill and the programme of radiocarbon dating which has resulted in the first high-resolution radiocarbon chronology for a prehistoric funerary site in the county. Given the paucity of excavation at such sites in Cheshire in recent decades, the opportunity to examine and date this site is regionally important. The time-depth of the exposed landscape is also significant, with indications of a human presence prior to the Bronze Age and more plentiful evidence for subsequent periods. Probable early medieval inhumations were focused upon the earlier burial sites, and these together with the remains of agriculture and iron smithing represent regionally rare glimpses of the early medieval period. They show the continued importance of this part of the landscape to local people and highlight the ‘connective’ role of funerary monuments in allowing such inter-relationships between different communities across time.

No remains were present within enclosure 644; the ditches defining it contained an artefactually sterile mid-brownish grey silty sand. A black silty sand was present in posthole 612, from which a fragment of charred hazel nutshell provided an Early Mesolithic radiocarbon date (UBA-38915; 8808 ± 69 BP; 8210–7660 cal BC). A Middle to Late Neolithic result (UBA-39786; 4124 ± 41; 2870–2580 cal BC) was obtained from a fragment of roundwood from the enclosure ditch itself. As discussed above, both dates are assumed to be from residual material. Morphologically, the enclosure is similar to examples of Late Iron Age or Romano-British chronology, although there is no artefactual evidence to support this and it may be later. The site lies close to the B5569 Chester Road, the local successor to the Roman road linking Deva (Chester) and Mamucium (Manchester). Although no Roman artefacts were found during the fieldwork, the proximity of that road might have attracted contemporary activity.