Monument record 15488 - Abbots Moss Mire System (including South Moss and Shemmy or Shimmy Moss)

<1> Leah, MD; Wells, CE; Appleby, C; Huckerby, E, 1997, The Wetlands of Cheshire (North West Wetlands Survey 4), p.111, 192-3 (Monograph). SCH3260.

The North West Wetlands project, undertaken between 1993-95, was an archaeological and paleoecological study of the varied wetlands of Cheshire. It includes the Abbots Moss mire system which forms part of a series of wetlands around Delamere on the Mid-Cheshire Ridge, the sandstone escarpment which divides the eastern and western portions of the Cheshire Plain. During the last glaciation, the Mouldsworth drainage channel opened out here onto the east Cheshire Plain. The channel marks the point where a late-Glacial lake formed in front of the ice, which had temporarily stabilised along the western margins of the Ridge. Outwash sands were deposited in this lake and the final disappearance of glacial conditions resulted in an irregular surface, containing numerous hollows left by melting ice blocks. It was in these depressions that many of Delamere's wetlands subsequently developed.

The Abbots Moss mire system comprises a number of peaty hollows and two separate mosses (South Moss and Shemmy or Shimmy Moss, SJ 35950,36893). It lies within the Delamere Forest area. The immediate area around this wetland is almost entirely surrounded by conifer plantations. It is probable that the place name 'Abbots Moss' relates to the fact that much of the estate of Vale Royal Abbey, founded in 1277, lay within Delamere Forest and is an indicator of the abbey's influence in the area.

Within the Abbots Moss system palaeoecological assessment was restricted to the site of Massey's Lodge (SJ 5840,6960), an area which contains a small (<5 hectares) basin mire entirely surrounded by forestry but supporting an undisturbed active mire vegetation (Sphagnum/Eriophorum/Calluna) with small birch and pine trees. Four metres of organic sediments were proved to exist at this site including an organic band intercalated between two basal silty clays which was highly suggestive of a late-Glacial depositional sequence of gyttjas, Phragmites peats, S imbricatun peat, Eriophorum/Calluna peat, wood peats and final upper Sphagnum peats. Macroscopic charcoal was also observed to be present between 2.5 and 2.65m. Four samples were analysed for pollen between 2.5 and 3.9m and indicated that the deposits between these levels are likely to provide a record relating to the early to late Mesolithic periods. Charcoal was recorded from all samples and was observed to increase in abundance in the more recent samples. The pollen was well preserved and there is potential for further study.

Field walking of the area resulted in only a few recovered finds, including a unretouched flake and a microlith of late Mesolithic date.