Monument record 1080/2 - Roman Middlewich - 57 King Street (Bestwick site C)

Site C - "Kinderton Castle" - Evidence of Roman timber blgs from late 1st to early-mid 4th C, with plastered walls of wattle & daub, tile roofs and internal partitions of wattle & daub. Much pottery from all phases, esp. from drainage ditches that ran behind and alongside the Flavian and Hadrianic blgs. Debris indicated inhabitants produced iron, bronze and lead objects, glass, leather and cloth (1). A mid 2nd C salt works was excavated. Brine pit 3.6m diam x 2.7m deep dated from late 1st/early 2nd C. Contained coins, brooches & a mortarium stamped ALBINVS (ad 80-110). Pit later became a rubbish dump & many frags of leather sandals and 3 worn sandal soles were discarded by a cobbler. By mid 2nd C pit had been filled & 2 timber strip blgs covered the site. Yard between 2 blgs contained a brine pit 2.75m diam x 1.55m deep; 2 brine kilns or hearths (1 of similar type to that found on Site A RN:1080/3), 2.44m long x 0.76m wide, wth a clay & stone bottom. Abandoned mid 2nd C.low kiln was a circ hearth 1m in diam made of large stones set in clay.2nd hearth was oblong of fired clay.Also in yard were 2 dolia or spherical amphorae (1 with graffito AMVRCA - prob 'waste from brine')& holes for 3 other vessels prob used as containers for brine storage. All 5 vessels had been buried in yard floor & packed in posn with clay & stones.In 2nd C an open-sided shelter joined 2 blgs partially covering large kiln & 2nd pit. In the 4th C the building plan changed - the width doubled and corridors were added on the north side. By the mid-late 4th C these structures were in decay. A gold ring was found in the late 3rd C structure (1) & (2). Other finds from the site, now in Middlewich Library, include a drinking cup with the stamp OFRON, prob means OFFICINA (workshop of) RONISCVS & dates to early 2nd C, a late 1st C AD melon bead, briquetage, firebars, clay plates and supports for salt boiling pans and tiles(3).

<1> Bestwick J D, 1972, Excavations of the Roman Town of Middlewich 1964-1971, /2 (Book). SCH1207.

<2> Bestwick J D, 1974, Romano-British Inland Salting at Middlewich (Salinae) Cheshire, /66-70 (Article in Journal). SCH2914.

<3> Various, Various, Oral communication to the HER, Stubbs D A 1986 (Oral Communication). SCH2330.

<4> Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies, 1970-Present, Britannia, 1/282 Wilson D R 1970 (Journal/Periodical). SCH445.