Monument record 15391 - Cranberry Moss (Eaton Hall Moss)

<1> Leah, MD; Wells, CE; Appleby, C; Huckerby, E, 1997, The Wetlands of Cheshire (North West Wetlands Survey 4), p.188 (Monograph). SCH3260.

Cranberry Moss (referenced as 'Eaton Hall Moss' in the North West Wetlands study) is one of a series of wetlands in the area extending from Wilmslow in the north to Macclesfield in the east and Sandbach and Congleton in the south. Within this region a variety of wetland types are present from small basin mires west of Macclesfield to large mosses such as Danes Moss and Lindow Moss. The wetlands also display a wide variation in their degree of preservation. The group comprises two contrasting landscapes with the majority of wetlands in a region termed the ‘marginal belt’, with a smaller group centred around Bag Mere, on the fringes of the Cheshire Plain. The majority of the wetlands have developed in depressions and hollows in the surface of the varied glacial deposits.

Cranberry Moss/Eaton Hall Moss is a small basin mire lying to the south of Eaton Hall, it was investigated by the North West Wetlands project, an archaeological and paleoecological study of the varied wetlands of Cheshire, undertaken between 1993-95. It occupies a depression covered by woodland and appears to have been cut for peat at some stage. Despite probable truncation, 1.7m of peat deposits remain in many places with a sequence of Eriophorum/Calluna and Sphagnum peats overlying basal wood and fen-carr peats. Although no proxy pollen stratigraphy was possible at this site, on stratigraphical grounds it appears likely to contain a well preserved pollen archive spanning the later prehistoric period.

<2> Dodgson J McN, 1970-2, 1981, The Place-Names of Cheshire, Vol I, p.61 (Book). SCH3228.