Source/Archive record SCH4052 - An Archaeological Watching Brief at St Benedicts Convent, Bruche Avenue, Warrington.

An archaeological watching brief was undertaken in 1996 during excavation of groundworks for a housing development at the site of Bruche Hall, a medieval manor house and moat known to have been in existance as early as the thirteenth century. Although little evidence for the early occupation of the moated site was observed, a deeply cut pit of indeterminatedate was founnd in a trench on east of the site. Also the general line of north arm of the moat was confirmed and a trench in the north-west corner of the site probably established the line of the west arm of the moat, with layers of organic material and sandy silt above natural clay subsoil. Finds from the lower fills of the moat indicate that a programme of cleaning out took place, probably in the nineteenth century. Finds included pottery of eighteenth to twentieth century date.