Source/Archive record SCH8169 - Kingsley Fields, Reaseheath, Nantwich. Evaluation Report

In May 2016, Oxford Archaeology North were commissioned by CgMs Consulting on behalf of a developer consortium to undertake an archaeological evaluation upon an area of land at Kingsley Fields, Reaseheath, Nantwich, Cheshire (NGR SJ 648 531). Outline planning permission (Planning Ref 13/2471N) has been granted for a residential- led mixed use development with an archaeological condition recommended by Cheshire Archaeology Planning Advisory Service (CAPAS) for a trial trench evaluation. A deskbased assessment completed by RPS in 2012, identified the area as having a high potential for the survival of Roman period features. A geophysical survey was subsequent completed by GSB Prospection in 2013, and highlighted several responses requiring further archaeological investigation on the east side of the site. The evaluation, comprised 12 evaluation trenches over three areas, Fields 17, 18 and 20 targeting geophysical responses. However, during the initiation stages of the fieldwork, trenches in the northernmost area (Field 17) had to be rearranged due to overhead power lines. This resulted in the creation of an additional trench, bringing the total to 13. Between the 23rd and 27th May 2016, all 13 trenches were excavated, five of which revealed archaeological features. All five were located in Area 17 and included three ditches from which sherds of first to third century pottery were retrieved. It is possible that two of the ditches defined the sides of a putative east/west track, one of which contained waterlogged timbers that showed clear evidence of having been modified with a cutting tool, such as an axe, perhaps to form a fence. The results of the evaluation suggest that all three fields were probably enclosed before the eighteenth century and have been in agricultural use since at least this time. The possible trackway and handful of associated Roman pottery is consistent with an area of land close to a Roman settlement like Nantwich, while the absence of features from within Fields 18 and 20 may help to define the limits of the Roman settlement in this area.