Find Spot record 2590 - Gatewarth Farm

During course of excns by NWW for a new sewerage plant at Gatewarth Farm, Sankey Bridges in Oct/Nov 1995, 2 sequences of floodplain sediments were exposed to reveal deposits of peats, timbers, scour pool detritus, animal bones & deer antlers. Site now destroyed. Site investigated by Dr D Shimwell, PERU. Sequence of C14 dates from Mesolithic to Roman period. C14 date from basal timbers is 7270 yrs BP, & from upper timbers 1660 yrs BP. Examination of scour pool deposits revealed small frags of wood, twigs, peat, coal, clay aggregates, hazel nuts, acorns, alder cones & red deer rib, deposited in a swirling scour pool on the inside of a former meander. Timbers examined were Scots pine, elm & oak & the basal peats were composed of Phragmites remains, typical of a floodplain fen situation. Distribn of timbers suggest floodplain deposition of all materials in periods of river spate, but in situ Phragmites peat suggests former land surface in time of stability. Stratigraphy contains a considerable thickness of peat deposits with timbers, which also suggests a phase of in situ development of floodplain forest. 4 of antlers came from 2 mature red deer. Large size suggests they fed on a rich diet from a primary forest environment. None of antlers showed signs of working or butchery. Horse represented by lower mandible & a metatarsus. Size & wear suggest mule or donkey (1) & (2).

<1> Various, Written Communication to the HER, Shimwell D W 1996 (animal bones & deer antlers retrieved from Gatewarth) (Written Communication). SCH3756.

<2> Shimwell D W, 1996, Characterisation of type sequence of sediments & peats.... (Book). SCH555.