Source/Archive record SCH6813 - Chonar Farm, Wilmslow to Alderley Edge Pipeline, Cheshire East: Palaeoenvironmental Assessmenrt

In June 2010, OA North undertook a programme of palaeoenvironmental coring across a small peat basin located close to Chonar Farm, Wilmslow, Cheshire East (centred on NGR: SJ 85595 79622). The work was commissioned by United Utilities Ltd as part of a wider scheme of archaeological investigation connected with the construction of a water pipeline running between Wilmslow and Alderley Edge. Two cores were subjected to pollen and plant macrofossil assessment, and also to radiometric dating. These studies indicated that the peat within the basin mire was formed prior to the Bronze Age, and that the mire contains an assemblage of pollen and plant macrofossils allowing for a partial reconstruction of the local environment. More specifically, these palaeoenvironmental remains are indicative of the transition from open plant communities, probably present in the early Mesolithic period, to mixed woodland, and a local development of alder carr, dating to the early Bronze Age.