Find Spot record 1493/0/3 - Bronze Age urn found at Wilmslow

A Bronze Age urn found at Wilmslow in 1857 while digging for gravel. Found on the east side of the railway & c.0.25 miles from the station. It was inverted & the mouth covered with a coarse cloth that fell to powder when touched. It was nearly full of small burnt bones. Urn damaged, but when complete would have been 16-17ins high & c.11ins wide at the mouth & 4ins wide at the base. Parts of the rim were missing. Top half was decorated with zig-zag lines. The urn was of whitish grey, sun-dried clay & very friable. In 1877 the urn was reported to be in Peel Park Museum, Salford (1). Site now a housing estate. Urn in Manchester Museum (2). This find may be the same as RN:1493/0/2 (3). The probable site of the barrow was in the southern half of field 319, now part of the new housing development (7). Tripartite form; rim decorated with zig-zag lines, rest of surface plain (4). The urn may have been an enlarged food vessel? (6).

<1> Earwaker, J P, 1877-1880, East Cheshire Past & Present, 1/1877/145-6 (Y) (Book). SCH1080.

<2> Harris, B.E. (ed), 1987, Victoria County History - A History of the County of Chester: Volume I, 1/86 (b) 1987 (Book). SCH3556.

<3> Ordnance Survey, 1870-1982, Ordnance Survey Archaeological Record Card, SJ88SE2/1964 (Index). SCH2487.

<4> Lancashire & Cheshire Antiquarian Society, 1883 -, Transactions of the Lancashire & Cheshire Antiquarian Society, 31/150 1913 (Journal/Periodical). SCH3293.

<5> Longley D, 1977-1978, Longley Archive, /no.221 1978 (Paper Archive). SCH2005.

<6> Shone W, 1911, Prehistoric Man in Cheshire (Book). SCH2710.

<7> Ordnance Survey 1st Edition 1:2500 (1872) (Maps and Plans). SCH4328.

<8> Pearson A, 1901, Wilmslow Past and Present (Book). SCH3714.