Monument record 15457 - Bell Pits at Engine Wood

<1> Historic England & Archaeological Research Services, 2017, Cheshire National Mapping Programme and Lidar Mapping Project: Sampling the Peak Fringe, Cheshire Plain and Mersey Valley, 1599245 (Digital Archive). SCH8172.

A post medieval coal mining site is visible as a group of loosely clustered shafts and associated mounds centred at approximately SJ 948 788 on lidar imagery and the latest 2010 / 2011 vertical photography. The southern-most shaft mound appears to be linked to an associated trackway, embanked in places (see 2 & 4). [Note: see CHER 14012 for described features].

<2> Environment Agency, 2003-2020, Environment Agency LiDAR Surveys, SJ9478 First Return, 19-22/04/2006 (Digital Archive). SCH7819.

<3> Next Perspectives, 2010, Aerial Photography for Great Britain, Next Perspectives APGB Imagery (2010), SJ9478, 17/10/2010 (Aerial Photograph). SCH8173.

<4> Royal Air Force, 1945-1979, RAF Aerial Photographs, RAF/540/1559 F22 0033, 17/03/1955 (Aerial Photograph). SCH8316.

<5> Various, Various, Oral communication to the HER, Edwards R, 06/01/2022 (Oral Communication). SCH2330.

The NMP project (see 1) recorded an earthwork comprising a mound with a central depression at this location interpreted as the surface remains of a bell pit which is possibly an outlier to the group of bell pits located to the east and north east (see CHER 14012).

To the north of this earthwork is Engine Wood. The Ordnance Survey map of 1909 (see 6) depicts a circular depression of an equivalent size to some of the former bell pits and shafts in this area. The 1848 tithe map (see 7) for Pott Shrigley records the name of this plot as Coal Pit Bank. It is tempting to suggest that the woods name derives from machinery associated with the coal pits or later mining activity, but there is no evidence to support this.

<6> Ordnance Survey, 1909-1912, Ordnance Survey Second Revision County Series (Epoch 3) 25 inch to 1 mile - Cheshire, SJ9478, 1909 (Maps and Plans). SCH4361.

<7> See map for surveyor, c.1837-51, Cheshire Tithe Maps and Awards, EDT 328/2, 1848 (Maps and Plans). SCH3266.