Monument record 1440/0/1 - Castle Rock Field, enclosure and flint assemblage

In Castle Hill Field, on the margin of the ploughed field and along the footpath, implements were found by Roeder & Graves for a length of 35 yds (SJ 8558 7795) and on the east part of the field they occur for a space of 33 yds (SJ 8572 7777). The complete boundaries of the site and its extent cannot be ascertained. The original surface rests on the underlying keuper. At the margin of the footpath, close to Castle Rock, it is found at 30 inches below. At the bottom and for 3 inches upwards the rock bed has been denuded and the sand has hardened. Implements were embedded in this layer. Finds of cores, flakes, blades, (highest frequency) borers and scrapers, amongst them a tiny flint saw with 7 square teeth on the edge of one side. Range of length of flakes and blades 0.5 to 2.625 inches and from 0.25 to 0.375 inches wide. Some flint flakes were calcined and racked. Also pieces of charcoal and a core-shaped lump of haematite were found (1). Drawing of ten flints in the Grosvenor Museum (2). In 1978 a JCP scheme from M/C University made further discoveries of flint artefacts (2). A few flint implements from the chipping floor are in Manchester Museum. They have affinities with the Mesolithic implements from Creswell Crags (3).

According to (11), the remains of an irregular stone bank or wall with an outer ditch were located during the ploughing of Castle Field in 1805. Stone was removed from the area again before 1811 when the bank, ditch and its inturned entrance were drawn in Bakewell's Report in the month of February 7th, 1811. Geophysical survey of the area in 1997 proved inconclusive but did indicate possible sections of ditch and bank. It appears that the original monument has been greatly disturbed and in part removed by stone quarrying. A pavement had been removed from Castle Rock in 1740 for the purpose of building a road at Monksheath. Legend has it that Castle Rock was the site choosen by Ranulph de Blundeville 6th Earl of Chester for the construction of a castle in approximately 1225 but the plans later changed and the castle was built at Beeston instead. It is also claimed that Castle Rock was used as a civil war encampment, with Thomas Ridgeway finding several parcels of gun flints whilst digging a ditch near Castle stone in 1769. It can only be said that the earthworks in this area could be of one or more of several periods ranging from the Iron Age to the 17th century AD.

According to (11), Mesolithic Flint assemblages were found on Castle Rock by Roeder & Graves in 1905. They referred to the site as an Neolithic Encampment, and collected worked flint artefacts such as knives, scrapers and burins as well as much waste flint. The finds are now housed at the Manchester Museum. Between 1997 and 98, 8 waste flakes, microliths, blades, a core and calcined flint and chert have been recovered from three localities on the edge of the main public footpath to Castle Rock. Along the field/ footpath margin, 10 metres before the cobble steps, minor flint has been recovered from a black plough soil mixed up with 19th century pottery and coal. Above the steps on the east side, a 30 - 40 cm section has been exposed revealing 6-7 cms of brown compact stony soil overlying 3 - 4 cms of dark earth (buried soil), 10 cms of sandy soil, a 10 - 15 cm layer of weathered sandstone and ex-conglomerate quartz pebbles and at the base (above the path level) 10 cm of a light brown sandy sub soil containing in situ traces of mesolithic flint. The extent of the scatter of mesolithic flint and occupation activity at the site is unknown as is the degree of disturbance. According to Merseyside Museums Archaeoligy Unit, the location of the site in terms of North West Mesolithic fits into a lowland margin type, and such aretfacts as have been found may indicate the presence of seasonal or permanent rather than temporary hunting camps on the Edge.

<1> Lancashire & Cheshire Antiquarian Society, 1883 -, Transactions of the Lancashire & Cheshire Antiquarian Society, 23/17-29 Roeder C & Graves F S 1905 (Journal/Periodical). SCH3293.

<2> Longley D, 1977-1978, Longley Archive, /no.223 & 691 (Paper Archive). SCH2005.

<4> Shone W, 1911, Prehistoric Man in Cheshire, /38 & Fig 11 (Book). SCH2710.

<5> Lancashire & Cheshire Antiquarian Society, 1883 -, Transactions of the Lancashire & Cheshire Antiquarian Society, 50/71 1934 (Journal/Periodical). SCH3293.

<6> Ireland, 1967, Prehistoric Properties of the National Trust, /11-12 (Book). SCH2716.

<7> Harris, B.E. (ed), 1987, Victoria County History - A History of the County of Chester: Volume I, 1/39 Longley D 1987 (Book). SCH3556.

<8> Varley, W. J. & Jackson, J. W., 1940, Prehistoric Cheshire, /Fig 1 (Book). SCH2692.

<9> Wymer J J, 1977, Gazetteer of Mesolithic Sites - CBA Research Report, /33 (Book). SCH1260.

<10> Longley D, 1979, Prehistoric Sites in Cheshire, /11/no.223&691 (Report). SCH2719.

<11> 1998, Alderley Edge Landscape Project Archive (Unpublished Report). SCH4334.