Monument record 15472 - Buttymoss Wood

<1> Leah, MD; Wells, CE; Appleby, C; Huckerby, E, 1997, The Wetlands of Cheshire (North West Wetlands Survey 4), p.88 (Monograph). SCH3260.

Buttymoss Wood is listed by the North West Wetlands project, an archaeological and paleoecological study of the varied wetlands of Cheshire, undertaken between 1993-95. The site lies amongst 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.

The name 'Buttymoss' is derived from 'butts', a field divided but not fenced. This term although commonly used to describe areas of former open field cultivation, could equally well describe an area of moss-rooms where several people held turbary rights (see source 2).

<2> Dodgson J McN, 1970-2, 1981, The Place-Names of Cheshire, Vol I, p.68 (Book). SCH3228.

<3> See map for surveyor, c.1837-51, Cheshire Tithe Maps and Awards, Gawsworth Township, 1849 (Maps and Plans). SCH3266.

'Butty Moss Plantation' is recorded on the Tithe Award for Gawsworth Township (1849) as Plot 94, owned and occupied by the Earl of Harrington, and land use described as woodland.