Monument record 614/1/1 - Roman road - Wigan to Widerspool section - Alder Root Farm

<1> Greater Manchester Archaeological Unit, 1992, Alder Root Farm, Winwick: An Archaeological Evaluation (Client Report). SCH4098.

Archaeological evaluation, including resistivity survey and excavation, undertaken in February 1992 at Alder Root Farm, Winwick, in advance of the development of a golf course. The Roman road from Warrington to Wigan is known to run through the application area. Fieldwork undertaken in 1932 established that, at the south end of the area, the road course diverged eastwards from the line plotted by the Ordnance Survey. In this phase of work five resistivity profiles were run along the presumed line of the road and resulted in high levels of resistivity. Subsequent trial trenching located the ploughed out remains of the road and its two flanking ditches, circa 8m apart and presumbly dug to delineate the road and aid drainage. Ploughing had removed the metalled surface of the road but a single layer of yellow sandstone slabs remained. Trench II, located at the north end of the application area, 50m to the south of Newton Brook, revealed a palaeochannel with a layer of peat up to 1m deep.

<2> Historic Society of Lancashire and Cheshire, 1849 onwards, Transactions of the Historic Society of Lancashire and Cheshire, vol. 85, p.101 (Journal/Periodical). SCH3800.

<3> Longley D, 1977-1978, Longley Archive, /no.299 (Paper Archive). SCH2005.