Monument record 844/1/30 - Gravel spread, potential remains of Roman Road - Chester to Manchester (Route 7a)

<1> Wardell Armstrong LLP, 2022, Land at Crown Farm Quarry, Oakmere, Cheshire: Archaeological Excavation Report, R4668 (Client Report). SCH9361.

An archaeological excavation of an area measuring 30m by 120m was undertaken in 2022 at land off Crown Farm Quarry, Northwich, as a result of expansion of the quarry. During the excavation a large, irregular patch of gravels was encountered (layer 1029). The patch of gravels measured roughly 6.5m long, 15m wide, with a depth of 0.3m and comprised sub-rounded and sub-angular small to medium gravels in a sandy matrix. It is thought possible that this may represent a gravel deposit associated with the Chester to Manchester Roman road (see CHER 144/1/0). The deposit is on a similar alignment to the mineral railway and sealed by a dark grey/brown silty sand deposit (1030), a deposit associated with creation of the embankment of the railway which is thought to seal the Roman road in this area as observed during an excavation approximately 250m to the east by Jones and Manley in 1973 (see CHER 844/1/7).

Deposit (1029) has been heavily truncated and survives poorly in an ephemeral and fragmentary nature and is limited to the western end of the area of excavation, likely due to the previous groundworks and heavy agricultural practices across the site. However, irregular patches of gravels occur elsewhere across the site which could suggest that (1029) may also just be an irregular span of naturally occurring gravels common to the natural geological substrate. No dateable evidence was recovered from this fill, and it appeared sterile.