Source/Archive record SCH8455 - A Rock Shelter at Carden Park, Cheshire: Fieldwork 1996-8

Between 1996 to 1998 atrchaeological excavations were undertaken to investigate a cave and an area of rock shelters in a cliff face overlooking the River Dee at Carden Park. The project was run jointly between the University of Liverpool's School of Archaeology, Classics and Oriental Studies, and Chester Archaeology and forms part of a larger research project, the Three Rivers Project, aimed at examining the earlier prehistory of the Dee, Clwyd and upper Severn valleys. The project comprised desk-based research, geophysical survey, excavation and measured survey. The existence of prehistoric occupation in Carden Park has been known since 1985, when pieces of chert were found in a rabbit burrow close to the rock shelters. Collection of further material took place sporadically during the early 1990s and, by 1996, almost a hundred pieces had been recovered from burrows in front of one of these shelters. They proved to belong to the later Mesolithic (about 6800-4300 BC) and it was decided to investigate further. In the summer of 1996, a group of students from the University of Liverpool undertook the first excavations on the site. Three areas were investigated. A trench was excavated in front of the main cave. A second trench was situated a little to the south where there were traces of another collapsed or buried cave/shelter. A third trench was located at the base of what appeared to be the talus (debris mound) in front of the collapsed cave/shelter. Further test pits were excavated in 1997 targetted at clarifying results from the geophysical survey and also to determine the depth of deposits across the site. They revealed a similar picture over most of the site: the bedrock had weathered into a crumbly orange sand, often with large, irregular lumps of sandstone débris. Over this was a pinkish layer containing Mesolithic material and less of the sandstone rubble. This was then sealed by a topsoil containing mixed prehistoric and post-medieval finds Artefactual evidence recovered from the investigations over the three summers (1996-8) indicates that the area was in use potentially from the later Upper Palaeolithic (circa 11,000-9,000 BC), with the significant find of a prismatic blade or cresswellian point of fine quality flint lying beneath the mesolithic layers. Of later Mesolithic date (circa 6800-4300 BC), thousands of pieces of flint and chert were recovered, as well as burnt stones and pebbles potenitially used as hearths, burnt hazelnut shells, one of the staple foods of late mesolithic people, hammer stones used to make flint tools, and rubbing stones for the smoothing of skins. Dating to the Neolithic (circa 4300-2000 BC), a broken tip from a polished stone axe was found, potentially used to clear woodland during this period. Finds from the early Bronze Age (circa 2300-1800) included pottery sherds, some of Beaker type, and scraps of human bone, suggesting that the cave was used for burial. The cave was also lived in by a hermit, John Harris, between 1744 and 1765. Pieces of broken crockery and clay pipes were recovered, along with evidence of rubble platform extending from the front of the cave and supporting a timber-framed structure which would have provided extra protection/accommodation. The rubble for the platform was generated as a result of carving out the inside of the cave to enlarge it and make it more comfortable. To the west of the platform, the remains of a small rectangular structure were recorded, it was possibly used as a store or privy. Around the time the hermit left the cave, the then owner of the estate, John Leche, built a pleasure garden. The landscape architect transformed the cliff, carving niches and steps into it and building a large earth platform overlooking the hall.