Monument record 1083/0/11 - Medieval ditch or millstream, Harbutt's Field South

<1> Thompson Watkin W. T., 1886, Roman Cheshire: A Description of Roman Remains in the County of Chester, /244-245 (Book). SCH2878.

A ditch on the south side of Harbutt's Field was recorded in the nineteenth century by Whitaker and Wood as 10 yards deep and 8 yards wide. It used to receive the overflow of the artificial mill stream. By 1850 this ditch had been partially levelled and in 1886 it was no longer visible. Suggested as the southern ditch of a Roman fort, but this suggestion is rejected by Watkin, as he records the ground to the south is higher than that inside the fort.

<2> Gifford and Partners, 1993, Report on an Archaeological Evaluation Carried Out on Land Between the River Croco and King Street, Middlewich, Cheshire., R 2103 (Client Report). SCH4183.

An archaeological evaluation was undertaken in 1993 on Harbutt's Field and the field to the south (OS field 2981). Geophysical survey and trial-trenching identified the precise position of the fort in Harbutt's field. The 1993 report concludes that it is difficult to reconcile the ditch recorded by Whitaker and Wood, which is located at the southern end of Field 2981, as being that of the Roman fort, instead it proposes that it could be a millstream or feature of similar nature to the Croco Brook. Recorded dimensions indicate unlikely to be a Roman construction.