Monument record 435/0/8 - Roman domestic and industrial buildings, Morrison's Supermarket, Wilderspool

<1> Gifford and Partners, Roman Wilderspool Publication (Unpublished Document). SCH3834.

Excavation on the line of the new access road to the new Morrison's Supermarket in 1993. Supermarket constructed on the same level as an existing concrete hard surface, which necessitated a landfilling operation on this part of the site, so that the Supermarket was constructed over the Scheduled area of the Wilderspool site (see 435/1). Excavation along access road revealed the remains of 4 fenced building plots divided by a narrow lane containing deposits related to a sucession of timber-framed buildings and associated hearths and furnaces dating mainly to the late 2nd and early 3rd C AD, but with plentiful evidence of occupation in the vicinity dating to the 1st C AD and some indications of activity in the 4th C AD. In the SW plot there were at least 4 phases of demolition, rearrangement and reconstruction over two and a half centuries. In the early-mid 2nd C most of the buildings appear to have been dwellings, of wattle and daub, with clay floors and ovens, hearths or kilns. Some iron smithing had occurred. There was an open fronted workshop, but the main industrial phase was in the later 2nd C and 3rd C phases, when the buildings were timber-framed with wattle and daub walls and well constructed clay ovens, large fireplaces, hearths and masses of smithing slag. These buildings were demolished in the late 2nd/early 3rd C AD. In the mid-late 3rd C the alley was cobbled and there was evidence of 2 large fireplaces, interpreted as blacksmith's hearths, within open sided shelters of wattle and daub. May be that in the early years of settlement the excavation are was a part of the domestic settlement, while in later years industrial acivity was forced away from King Street by the construction of large high status buildings.

<2> Giffords Consulting Engineers (Chester), 1993, Report on an Archaeological Watching Brief Over the Construction of the New William Morrison Supermarket at Widerspoon, Warrington., R2114 (Client Report). SCH4096.

Watching brief during construction of supermarket in 1994, 3 sherds of Roman pottery were found during uprooting trees and grading of banks, 2 post holes and a probable beam slot during construction of petrol tanks, and a probable beam slot during excavation for a drainage trench in the car park. It is likely that the area between the new access road and the Ship canal was a 'back yard' area in the Roman period.

<3> Strickland, T.J., 1995, The Romans at Wilderspool: The story of the first industrial development on the Mersey (Monograph). SCH3836.