Monument record 15507 - Marbury Meres - Big Mere and Little Mere

<1> Leah, MD; Wells, CE; Appleby, C; Huckerby, E, 1997, The Wetlands of Cheshire (North West Wetlands Survey 4), p.135, 139, 140-1 (Monograph). SCH3260.

Marbury Meres (Little Mere and Big Mere) were investigated by the North West Wetlands project, an archaeological and paleoecological study of the varied wetlands of Cheshire, undertaken between 1993-95. They form part of a group of wetlands in the south-west of Cheshire, between Cholmondeley and the Shropshire border. The wetland type most common in this region is the mere, many of which are ringed by extensive areas of peat or other waterlogged deposits, however, small basin mires also occur. Pasture is the most common land-use in this region. These wetlands lie within, or on the fringes of, the belt of glacial deposits known as the Whitchurch moraine, which extends roughly along the county border and marks the southern boundary of the Cheshire plain. This landscape is characterised by the presence of numerous sandy ridges, hummocks and outwash plains and is thought to mark the boundary of the ice sheet during a temporary period of stagnation at the close of the last glaciation.

In 1973, the excavation of a sewerage trench in peaty ground around Marbury Meres, revealed a log trackway, laid over brushwood and sealed by cobbles (CHER 2067/1/1-2). The trackway was seen in two separate sections but was not dated. These discoveries illustrate the potential of these wetlands to preserve archaeological sites and objects.

Field walking to the east of Little Mere, undertaken as part of the North West Wetlands survey, recovered a single fragment of unglazed cooking pot, significantly, of possible Saxon date.