Monument record 1015/1 - Road at Wimboldsley Wood

<1> Various, Various, Oral communication to the HER, Turner RC, 09/04/1986 (Oral Communication). SCH2330.

Site visited by R.C.Turner on 09/04/1986: Possible Roman road along the edge of Wimboldsley Wood. Access from Clive House Farm. The road is flat and cut into the slope of a stream valley. It is between 5-8m wide and curves to follow the stream having risen up from the flash in the Weaver Valley below. It seems to relate to a complex of well preserved ridge and furrow in the field to the north (centred SJ 673 646), which suggests that it is medieval in origin rather than Roman. The road does not continue outside the wood. The site lies very close to the parish boundary and so peripheral to any settlement. It may well have led to a ford across the Weaver.

<2> See map for surveyor, c.1837-51, Cheshire Tithe Maps and Awards, EDT 117/2, c.1841 (Maps and Plans). SCH3266.

The road is clearly depicted on this map. The road largely follows the northern boundary of Wimboldsley Wood from its northerly point adjacent to plot 156 Long Field to a bridge across the River Weaver at SJ67216437. Unfortunately there is no corresponding tithe map for the adajcent township.

<3> Various, Various, Oral communication to the HER, Edwards R, 12/07/2017 (Oral Communication). SCH2330.

The later Ordnance Survey map (see 4) depicts the road, but not the bridge. However the bridge's western end would have been lost to Winsford Top Flash which developed after 1845 and is clearly depicted on this map. It is probable that this is the road from Swanlow Lane to Clive Green depicted on Burdett's map (see 5).

<4> Ordnance Survey, 1871-1882, Ordnance Survey County Series (Epoch 1) 25 inch to 1 mile - Cheshire, SJ6764, 1876 (Maps and Plans). SCH2462.

<5> Burdett, P. P., 1777, A Survey of the County Palatine of Chester (Maps and Plans). SCH113.