Source/Archive record SCH4312 - Davenham Bypass: Archaeological Evaluation

In 1995, the University of Manchester Archaeological Unit was commissioned to evaluate and record a number of sites of archaeological potential along the line of the Davenham Bypass. The evaluation comprised trial trenching (7 trenches) and survey at Church Moss Field (Area 3), Childs Grave Field (Areas 2 and 5) and Brick Kiln Lane (Area 10). Additional test pitting (six test pits) and evaluation was undertaken to assess the environmental archaeological potential of Church Moss, also to search for early prehistoric human activity. Significantly, the results of the evaluation at Church Moss point to the potential presence of Mesolithic settlement on the margins of the mere. Study of collected timbers by the Palaeoecological Unit of the University of Manchester identified samples bearing evidence of notching/working by hand tools, also evidence of burning at the proximal and distal ends, both indicative of human activity. Scot's Pine dominated the timber samples taken, but also a prolific amount of birch bark was recorded, as well as wood of willow and hazel and the remains of circa 120 hazel nuts (whole and broken). One of the timbers from trench 2 produced a radio carbon date of 7810 BP (6535 BC) placing the forest into the Boreal period of the Holocene or the middle Mesolithic. The nature of the timber samples, together with an apparent lack of tree stumps/boles, suggest that the site was not simply one of woodland clearance. The sum of the environmental evidence points to Boreal forest vegetation and human occupation.